I usually don't post the articles I write for other publications (except in the 'Brian's other writing sidebar at right), but I thought this Q&A with Mark Edlen of Gerding Edlen Development from Metropolis magazine might be of interest. Gerding Edlen is hugely impressive to me, and while I don't always find the individual buildings to be bite-the-back-of-your-hand gorgeous, a develper and architect team that routinely scores with both LEED points and urban placemaking should always earn high marks.
I'll post a few of the questions and answers here, and you can also read the full interview on the Metropolis website.
How did your development company become focused on sustainability early on, in the days before LEED ratings?
We both grew up here, my partner Bob [Gerding] and I. We both have a big love of the outdoors. I’m a big fan of Yvonne Chounard, the founder of Patagonia. The first thing we give any of our employees to read is his book, "Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman". So we kind of morphed from doing a lot of energy-saving things in the early 1990s to, when the USGBC came around, going toward a broader, more full fledged sustainability with The Natural Step and all that.
How much progress do you think has been made with the average mainstream developer, realtor, or lender in terms of green building and the business case for it?
I think if you’re just building a responsible building or smart at all, basic development practice is such that you ought to at least be doing a [LEED] Silver building. I read about people getting LEED certification and I’m going [cringes], “Oh my God.”
But I also still get plenty of people saying to me, “How much more does it cost?” My sense is that, on a hundred-million-dollar building to go from Silver to Gold, you’re probably talking three quarters of a point to a [percentage] point. To go from Gold to Platinum, you’re probably talking about a couple of points. But then, what’s your payback? And what kind of incentives or tax credits are out there?
When we started doing this stuff ten years ago, it was maybe three percent more cost to get to the equivalent of LEED Gold. But today, because we’re smarter about how we’re doing this, and our architects and engineers and contractors have been doing this with us for ten years, that’s changed.
What advice can you give developers about building green without it costing more?
Whoever is driving the boat has to have their vision, and they need to communicate it to everybody upfront from day one. And they’ve got to put it in their pro-forma from day one. And then they’ve got to bring everybody on the design, engineering, and construction team together and attack those goals as a team.
The US Green Building Council was, for us, a tremendous framework for our projects to work through sustainability. However, ideally in every building we’d try at least one thing that’s new. For example, measures like light shelves and operable windows and dimmable light ballasts got us to about 30 or 35% energy savings. So then we started doing solar, heat recovery systems, and so on, it got us to a Platinum-level building with about 50 to 55% energy savings. But we’ve still got a long way to go to get to buildings that sustain themselves.
In Portland a new streetcar system was key to the success of your firm’s Brewery Blocks development. You’ve also advocated that Los Angeles build a similar system. How essential are they to urban development in the central core of cities?
I’ve come to the conclusion that these developments and these cities are really about creating a framework for social interaction and accidental collisions. It’s one person bumping into another and having the opportunity to talk about their work, their kids’ soccer game, the play they saw last night, or whatever the case may be. Here in the Pearl District, where you’re living and working, you’re always late for meetings because you’re always bumping into somebody. The streetcar’s the same thing. I can out-walk it, but you know what happens when you ride? You bump into folks.
The condo boom has increasingly come to include the designs of famous architects like Richard Meier. But you’ve gone a different route, working with the same Portland firm, GBD Architects, on almost every project and instead focusing on sustainability. Why?
No matter what we build, we want it to be of the highest quality product. But for me, that goes into detail things like making sure how floor systems are built to reduce sound, or how our mechanical systems provide comfort efficiently. There are some buildings you see a year or two after construction is completed and there’s a big sheet over the exterior because they’re fixing some kind of intrusion problem. You won’t ever see that on one of our buildings.
What about the fact that the overwhelming majority of condos built in America over the last several years are too expensive for most all middle class people to afford?
We’re trying to move toward workforce housing, to create product where younger folks can come in and buy. At The Civic here in Portland, about a third of our buyers were first-time buyers. But project-wise, it’s really tough. Your basic structure costs the same whether you’re going to charge a thousand bucks a foot or a hundred bucks a foot. And sometimes the kind of urban places that Baby Boomers want to spend time in can be very different from places where younger people want to spend time. It translates into location and into design. Trying to interpret those factors into a building is really the most important thing you can do.
Your firm has made its name and success building condos, but nationwide that market seems to be slowing. Here in Portland, you’re now building more offices than condos.
The natural inclination for a developer is, “How can I build the least costly product?” But we really learned from the Brewery Blocks experience. We were digging a hole for this five-building project right when 9/11 hit. The office market went way down. But occupancy rates in the office buildings we did were higher than the rest of the city. I think it’s because we were able to highly differentiate our product and create a great place for people to come. Even the most conservative firm now looks at a competitor’s green office space and says, ‘Those guys are out-hiring us. They don’t have the turnover rate we have. Their people seem to be happier and more creative.” Instead of seeing that it costs a buck a foot more, they’re recognizing that they’re going to get ten bucks a foot more out of their people.
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