NYT: A Boston Federal Building Is Going Green at Age 72

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December 8, 2004

A Boston Federal Building Is Going Green at Age 72

By TED SMALLEY BOWEN

OSTON, Dec. 7 - The W. McCormack Post Office and Courthouse, a

monumental granite-clad 22-story Art Deco structure in Boston's financial

district, is

about to undergo a $78 million renovation that has a number of distinctive

goals. Among the most ambitious renovations of a federal building, the project

is

committed to applying environmentally friendly " green " standards; at the same

time, modern systems must be installed without compromising the historical

integrity of the landmark Depression-era building.

The 1932 building was designed by Ralph Cram, an architect known mainly

for his university buildings and churches, notably the Cathedral Church of

St. the Divine in Manhattan. The project is to refurbish courtrooms and a

library, the entrance and elevator lobbies and coffered ceilings while saving

energy, minimizing the building's negative impact on the environment and

improving workplace conditions.

Achieving all this requires finesse and compromise, according to the Boston

architectural firm Goody Clancy, the prime contracting architectural firm, and

the building's manager, the General Services Administration. Other

participants include government agency occupants like the Environmental

Protection

Agency, the building's largest tenant.

While the challenges of renovating a structure in its eighth decade of

existence may seem evident, buildings of this vintage actually have some

inherently

green features. " The designs of earlier periods incorporated natural

ventilation and light and used very sustainable materials, " said Buckley,

the

assistant project manager for the General Services Administration.

At the same time, preservation requirements can complicate major updates of a

building's heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical and

communications systems.

Goody Clancy and the G.S.A. are hashing out construction papers; work is

expected to begin next year and wrap up late in 2006 or in 2007.

The G.S.A. is upgrading the original aluminum windows; adding vegetation to

create a green roof, which reduces storm water runoff and the " urban heat

island effect " created when dark roofs and paving absorb heat in the summer;

knocking out office partitions to improve natural light and ventilation;

installing

compact fluorescent lights and energy-efficient controls; and using recycled

and nontoxic materials, according to agency officials.

With support from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable

Energy Trust, a program financed by utility ratepayers, the G.S.A. is exploring

the use of renewable energy sources like photovoltaic cells, which power solar

electric systems. It is also examining fuel cells, wind turbines and other

clean fuels to reduce demand on the electrical grid. The agency is also working

with a local steam provider, TriGen-Boston, on the possibility of reusing steam

condensate in a heating system cooling tower and toilet tanks and is

considering a back-pressure steam turbine to generate electricity.

Besides the E.P.A., the building's other tenants include the Department of

Education and the Federal Bankruptcy Court. The post office moved across the

street this summer, partly for security reasons.

Although it might seem an unlikely advocate of sustainability and historic

preservation, the General Services Administration owns and leases hundreds of

millions of square feet of work space for federal employees and it counts

hundreds of historic buildings among its holdings. In addition, the agency

helped to

draft energy use and environmental guidelines as part of the " greening the

government " initiative begun in the 1990's.

The G.S.A. is a member of the United States Green Building Council, a

nonprofit organization that includes designers, developers, institutions,

builders,

environmentalists and manufacturers. The group developed Leadership in Energy

and Environmental Design, or LEED, specifications, which lay out measures that

are intended to benefit the environment and reduce energy use. They include

locating near public transportation and building on formerly contaminated

property to recycling construction waste and adding onsite power generation.

Qualifying projects are certified on a graduated scale. G.S.A. projects aim

for LEED silver status, the third-highest level, behind platinum and gold. The

agency also uses LEED criteria in pressing for better conditions in the spaces

it leases.

There are no federal or state green building tax incentives equivalent to the

20 percent federal tax break and various state tax breaks for historic

preservation of properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But

private developers can qualify for a variety of grants, offsets and preferences

at the state and local level. And federal agencies, state and local

governments and institutions are increasingly adopting the LEED system as a

requirement

for their own building and renovation projects.

Renovations make up a considerable portion of commercial building projects -

more than 15 percent of United States construction spending in recent years,

according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a research and publishing unit of the

McGraw-Hill Companies. That figure is conservative, since it excludes smaller

projects and those that did not involve architects, according to a McGraw-Hill

economist, Coskren.

How many of those are historic preservation projects or exercises in

sustainable design is difficult to determine, though interest in both categories

is

increasing.

The National Park Service, which maintains the National Register of Historic

Places, annually approves 1,200 to 1,300 preservation projects, with an

investment value of $3 billion, for the 20 percent federal tax break, according

to

the chief of technical preservation services, Sharon Park. In the last three

years, about 22 percent of that has been office space and 25 percent other

commercial space, Ms. Park said. Most projects are in the Northeast and South,

where the National Register properties are concentrated.

Especially in cases where historic tax credits are not available, developers

are likely to need incentives to pursue green preservation projects, according

to Carroon, Goody Clancy's principal for preservation.

" The tax credits for historic preservation were key to urban redevelopment,

and we need the same kind of thing for sustainable design, " she said. " We need

more documentation that shows that people really want to work in healthy

environments and are willing to pay more to work in a healthy environment

because

there is a payback to the business owner in fewer sick days and a better work

environment. That documentation is starting to happen but it is vague, so that

makes it very challenging. "

The G.S.A. and other institutional owner-managers, through their projects and

follow-up studies, are generating data that advocates say may help to make

the case that green preservation projects are worth the effort.

Historic preservation and sustainability are not incompatible, of course -

reuse is a central tenet of environmentally sensitive design. But the goals can

conflict, as in the treatment of windows, changes in floor plans or the use of

insulation. The relatively small group of designers and advocates who

specialize in green preservation are gearing up to bring both priorities into

alignment.

Some preservationists caution that LEED's emphasis on direct energy savings

may predispose developers to replace historic windows and other original

building elements, even though LEED does not proscribe operable windows and

natural

ventilation.

" Often we're ripping out windows that are 100 and some years old in order to

have a lower energy bill from the thermostat, but when we start looking at

more of the holistic picture about how windows are made, about the trucking to

move windows, we see the environmental cost, " said Ms. Carroon of Goody Clancy.

" And the embodied energy of glass is very high. " Embodied energy is a measure

of the energy required to manufacture, transport, use and recycle or dispose

of a given product or material.

In the case of the McCormack Building, the original windows seem to be beyond

repair, according to the G.S.A. project manager, Ivan . " You can see

through the metal in some places, and they're single-pane, sealed with caulking

containing asbestos. "

The decision on the windows is still pending and the design team is looking

at the feasibility of bolstering the existing windows and of commissioning

replicas. State and city historic preservation authorities will have to sign off

on the plan.

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