Green Building in Pittsburgh Means Preserving Past

A Victorian glass conservatory overlooking a valley whose industrial might has faded—well, at first glance, Pittsburgh's century-old Phipps Conservatory sounds like a pretty dubious venue to host world leaders during the G-20 Summit this week. But tonight, as the Obamas welcome the international A-list to a sparkling atrium and tropical indoor forest, the Phipps and the city are ready for their close-up. The Phipps, the world's most energy-efficient conservatory, embodies how Pittsburgh became an international leader in the field of green building: by converting historic landmarks for sustainable 21st century use.  Metro Pittsburgh, only the 22nd largest city in the nation, ranks seventh for the number of LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy-Efficient Design) structures.

The Phipps isn't the only G20 venue with green street cred. Downtown's David L. Lawrence Convention Center, headquarters for the world economic conclave, is the world's largest LEED-certified convention center, with an elegant, swooping design by contemporary architect Rafael Viñoly. But the opening of the convention center in 2000 –the same year that green building standards debuted nationwide--came after a decade of success on other projects.

"People think that green building means new construction. But here, there's a lot of interest here in greening historic buildings," confirms Holly Childs, the new head of the city's Green Building Alliance. "We're an old city with lots of beautiful old architecture."

The economic reversals resulting from the collapse of the steel industry form the backdrop to Pittsburgh's redevelopment. Unemployment and population flight prevented the construction boom that launched new green buildings in sunny, more spacious cities. By the mid-1980s, architects and engineers, many of them linked to Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, focused on a less glitzy task: finding ways to remediate dirty old mill sites and underused buildings.

"We were working on the Model T of green building," said architect Bob Kobet in an interview this spring, recalling discussions among early proponents of solar energy, weatherization and nontoxic design.

The Green Building Alliance, founded in 1993, was a result of those conversations and became one of the country's first non-profits designed to encourage green building. Its first project, on the city's funky South Side, gave a face-lift to a hundred-year-old former soap factory. Its rooftop garden (complete with recycled tire planters) and solar panels proved those innovations could make a dent in energy use by owner Conservation Consultants Inc., a local non-profit.

Other non-profits in aging nineteenth-century buildings began to renovate their old structures to LEED specifications. A major impetus came from The Heinz Endowments, a leader in local philanthropy. Its 2000 decision to require green building for grantees' capital construction projects jumpstarted a series of innovative retrofits, among them the Pittsburgh Glass Center, the John Heinz History Center, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and two other major newsmakers.

The Pittsburgh Children's Museum, housed in the former Allegheny City Post Office on the city's North Shore, saw the link between historic preservation, green design, and children's health. Its expansion linked the 1897 post office to the next-door Buhl Planetarium, a massive 1939 institute, maintained all the exterior walls and half of the interior walls, saved grand marble panels, carved doors, and light fixtures, and connected the two with light-filled atrium. In addition to generating energy from its own photovoltaic sources and meeting conservation standards for heat and water, the museum also sports a reflective white roof.  Now the largest LEED-certified museum in the nation, it was recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2006.
 
The Phipps, which will host G20 leaders in an 1893 building on the edge of Schenley Park, was another early adapter.  

Faced with expanding a delicate glass greenhouse into a modern building, local architects IKM preserved its signature fritted-glass dome with a $5.2 million below-grade welcome center. A 12,000-square-foot tropical forest exhibit deploys a radical roof venting system and geothermal tubes for passive cooling in a $7.5 million indoor rainforest. A solid-oxide fuel cell produces electricity from natural gas. Visitors responded by flocking to the Phipps, breaking all previous attendance records.  Now the conservatory has broken ground on its most ambitious green project to date. Its Center for Sustainable Landscapes will exceed LEED platinum certification—the highest ranking currently awarded--and function at zero-net energy and water use.

A crucial win for the green cause came when PNC Bank built its downtown operations center to LEED standards in 1998. Now PNC claims more green buildings than any other company in the world, with 55 LEED certified and another 15 awaiting that designation.

Going forward, says Holly Childs, "What we need to focus on, in Pittsburgh and in Pennsylvania, is a public policy mandate or ways to incentivize green building. We're working a lot on legislative efforts." In July, City Council passed Pittsburgh's first green building mandate for city-owned buildings and private projects that receive TIF (tax increment financing) funds.

Federal historic tax credits have boosted green renovations at two other city sites. The Union Trust Building, a 1915 downtown structure with a Flemish Gothic exterior and rotunda capped by a stained-glass dome, expects to gain LEED certification for $10 million in energy-saving renovations. In the city's trendy East End, Bakery Square, the former home of a Nabisco plant, will reopen in 2010 with about 380,000 square feet of mixed-use retail and office space. An array of solar panels on the roof of the $113 million project absorbs sunlight—and reflects the news that the city's commercial real estate market is growing decidedly greener.

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Christine H. O'Toole is Keystone Edge's Innovation and Job News Editor for Western Pennsylvania. Send feedback here.

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Photos:

From Phipps Conservatory-