"Green" buildings may be coming to a town near you very soon, especially if officials like county Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D- Setauket) and members of the Brookhaven Town Board - as well as area architects like Peter Caradonna- have anything to say about it.
Construction of so-called buildings-designed to reduce energy consumption, blend well with the surrounding environment and improve the health and efficiency of their occupants- is growing rapidly across the country. According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), 171 commercial buildings have already been certified "green" and 1,800 have applied for the designation.
Viloria-Fisher has sponsored legislation that would have required most new county construction to adhere to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment) standards, developed by the USGBC. When fellow legislators did not support her proposal, Viloria-Fisher scaled back her efforts.
"I sponsored a pilot program in which DPW would choose a building to be built to LEED standards," Viloria-Fisher said, referring to the county Department of Public Works. "The new Fourth Precinct building was chosen; it's in the budget but there has been no movement."
Explaining why the concept of green building is so important, the fifty-district legislator said, "First, protecting the environment. In the 'macro' sense, more efficient use of limited fuel and resources. In the 'micro' sense, green buildings are healthier to work in."
The USGBC reports on its website that buildings account for 36 percent of total energy use in this country and 65 percent of electrical consumption. In addition, they cause 30 percent of greenhouse emissions and are responsible for 12 percent of portable water consumption.
John Turner, director of Brookhaven's Division of Environmental Protection, said the town is very interested in incorporating green standards into new and existing town buildings.
"There is talk regarding a plan to implement such standards at town hall," Turner said, but there is nothing formalized yet that I know of."
First District Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld (D-East Setauket) is a proponent of green standards throughout the building industry.
"The first foray into green building conceptually should be the large commercial buildings known as 'big boxes,'" Fiore-Rosenfeld said. The councilman is working towards incorporating green building standards into the big-box store legislation he proposed some time ago, but which is languishing in the Town Board.
"If we are going to have big boxes, " said Fiore-Rosenfeld, "they should do something for the community."
As to the additional cost of forcing the private sector to meet the standards, he said, "They can get the money back, " referring to the long term energy and therefore monetary savings.
Second District Councilman Kevin McCarrick (R_Shoreham) pointed out that the new town senior center that will be built in Mount Sinai is designed using many green elements.
"I want to do all town buildings that way from now on," McCarrick said, adding that he is working on a proposal to retrofit Town Hall with green elements.
"It's a big, flat roof with a southern exposure," said the councilman "It's a perfect candidate. We install photovoltaic cells: add a second wind turbine; and get rebates from LIPA and the federal government."
McCarrick said his measure is not yet ready to go before the rest of the Town Board, but expects that when it is finalized it will "cost over a million dollars and save much more."
Caradonna, 44, who lives in Stony Brook, mentioned another green project, the county environmental interpretative center, the former Scully estate in Islip. "I wrote a grant [application] for the project, he said. "The Kresge Foundation will provide $250,000 for the planning and design stage."
Closer to home, Caradonna has designed a new firehouse to green standards for the Setauket Fire District, which wold replace the existing facility on Route 25A in Setauket, and more recently a six-classroom addition to the Laurel Hill School on Old Town Road in Setauket. Neither project is yet built but the school building is likely to break ground first.
"Standardized testing shows students getting better grades die to better lighting an fresh air flow," said Caradonna, who founded and serves as the chairman of the Long Island Chapter of USGB. "Each classroom will have a planted roof that is far cooler than a flat blacktop roof."
According to Caradonna, a roof with living plants on it often eliminates the requirement for air conditioning, since it keeps the room under it much cooler.
Caradonna also addressed the issue of additional cost to construct green buildings.
"They might cost up to 15 percent more to build, dependent on location and use," he said, adding that green buildings can return up to 10 percent on the investment, outpacing the Standard & Poors and Dow Jones stock market averages and significantly reducing the long-term cost. Lower heating, air conditioning and lighting costs add to the savings over conventional construction, according to Caradonna.
Asked about local projects that interested residents might see for themselves, Caradonna said, "The Westhampton Beach Village Hall is under construction now, " although it was not designed by him. He indicated that "many more" are in the planning stage.
The LEED standards for building construction utilize a rating system in which points are added for several facets of the building project not readily apparent. For example, Viloria-Fisher said, plans for green buildings ear points for such factors as "being near public transportation, being built on blighted land or in redevelopment areas. It's part of smart growth planning."
Caradonna pointed out another way in which points are garnered toward achieving LEED certification. "Using local materials," he said, "which requires less transportation costs and affiliated expenditure of fuel to power the ship or train or truck to transport the material is a LEED criteria."
Again addressing the issue of building cost, Caradonna recalled his first meeting with the Setauket Fire District to discuss the new firehouse.
"They wanted a 100-year building in keeping with the neighborhood architecture, which would fit 12 trucks and provide flexibility [in its use]." He went on to explain that typically a building such as a firehouse would have a life of 30 to 40 years.
"Thirty to 40 years from now we may have exhausted fossil fuels," he said. "The firehouse is an energy-intensive use."
By designing an energy-efficient building the community might not have to approve another bond and build another firehouse for more than twice as long than if conventional techniques were used, according to Caradonna.
The architect and his wife reside with their two sons, 9 and 10. in a historic house in Stony Brook. His wife, also an architect, works at Stony Brook University. The two met in college.
Caradonna attended New York Institute of Technology where he earned a bachelor's degree in architecture. He worked ten years for a firm in Manhattan, which is where he first got involved with a green building project. He earned his license to practice architecture in 1989 and opened his own office in 1999, first working from home and then relocating to his current office on Route 25A in Setauket.
