By Fredericka Brandt, Education & Outreach Coordinator of the US Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter
As the USGBC — Missouri Gateway Chapter celebrates our 20th anniversary, we are presenting four local green building projects for the 16th Annual Green Building Showcase on May 11. This year’s projects will include net zero energy in a commercial building, the Brentwood Bound project on storm water management, LEED certification after a year of data collection and planning at Saint Louis University, and the pursuit of WELL certification at City Foundry STL, phase two.
To start, Eric Gruenenfelder, Brentwood’s Director of Parks & Recreation will introduce Brentwood Bound, a plan to renew the Manchester Road corridor between Brentwood Boulevard and Hanley Road by incorporating quality green space, storm water management, flood mitigation, and community connections via greenways. This location is a natural floodplain, and the nearly 37-square mile watershed area upstream is fully developed with buildings and impervious pavement, increasing the rate at which stormwater runoff reaches Deer Creek, leaving businesses and communities at risk. Improvements will include Deer Creek flood mitigation through streambank stabilization with native plantings and natural floodplain restoration. The Deer Creek Greenway Connector will connect the City of Brentwood’s Rogers Parkway and the Deer Creek Greenway (partnering with Great Rivers Greenway) potentially connecting more than 28 miles of greenways. Green building can take on many forms.
One form of green building is net zero energy. The Navigate Office Center of Navigate Building Solutions, a commercial construction consulting firm, plans to build a net-zero energy corporate headquarters in Brentwood, along the Brentwood Bound corridor. Jen Kissinger and Todd Sweeney of Navigate Building Solutions will provide detail on the development of the state’s first expected net-zero commercial building certified by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), demonstrating the economic feasibility of net-zero construction.
A more familiar green building certification for many is LEED. The third project includes the newly opened 90,000 square-foot, three-story renovation and new construction of the Saint Louis University Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Building. This building serves as a hub for the sciences, with numerous collaborative teaching environments and flexible lab spaces for faculty and students to experiment together. Peter Steuerman of Hastings + Chivetta Architects will present the project.
The fourth project featured this year is City Foundry STL Phase 2, located in Midtown across from Ikea along I-64/40. It was listed for demolition after 24-hour workdays stopped in 2007 at the Century Electric company site. Tim Rowbottom with the Lawrence Group will present the project — a 15-acre urban industrial site that will add a 14-story apartment building, 20,000 square feet of retail space and a 60,000 square-foot office building. We will hear how the office building will be the first St. Louis-area project constructed with mass timber, a sustainable new material that will help the space achieve a WELL certification from the International WELL Building Institute.
From greenways to STEM labs and net zero energy to mass timber, the 16th Annual Green Building Showcase is happening virtually, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. To hear more about these four exemplary green building projects, please join the USGBC-Missouri Gateway Chapter and register at www.usgbc-mogateway.org.