Project+Case+Studies

CASE STUDY No. 1: Mercy Housing – Margot & Harold Schiff SRO

1244 N. Clybourn (at Division), Chicago, IL: is comprised of a five story, 96 unit, low-income residential facility run by the local affiliate of Mercy Housing, Inc. a nationwide organization. The facility has several LEEDs environmental and energy-conversion technologies in addition to the Aerotecture Aeroturbines, including: •	An advanced 48-panel solar hot water heating system designed by Solargenics, Inc. of Chicago. The panels were donated through a Chicago Dept. of Environment grant. •	A unique waste water recycling system where ‘grey water’ is reused in non-potable applications in the building and on-site •	A rain water retention and onsite controlled distribution system that limits and controls typical roof ‘runoff’ to the sewer •	A non-toxic approach to the design of building components and interior design elements •	A focus on the use of recycled and ‘recyclable’ materials in the building’s general construction within a context of making the building as ‘durable’ as possible within current construction cost constraints

CASE STUDY No. 2: Chicago Center for Green Technology http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Chicago+Center+for+Green+Technology&entityNameEnumValue=161

Chicago Green Tech's building was originally constructed in 1952. Since then a number of different companies have owned the building. When it came to the attention of the Chicago Department of Environment (DOE) in 1995, the building and its 17 acres were owned by Sacramento Crushing, a company which had a permit to collect limited construction and demolition debris. The Department of Environment became involved because Sacramento Crushing had gone far beyond the scope of its permit and had filled all 17-acres with illegally dumped debris. The site was littered with 70-foot high piles of rubble, one of which was so dense it sank 15 feet into the ground.

The Department of Environment successfully fought Sacramento Crushing in court and not only closed down their operation but also became the owner of the site itself. It was then DOE's job to clean up this Brownfield. The clean up took 18 months to complete and cost about $9 million. In this process, the site was cleared of over 600,000 tons of concrete, which took 45,000 truck loads to remove. The city recouped some of the clean up cost by selling the concrete and other materials to recycling firms and to other city departments for use in their projects. For example, some of the crushed concrete was used by the Chicago Department of Transportation to lay the foundation of the parking garage at the new Millennium Park.

In 1999, DOE was the proud owner of a cleaned site and vacant building. Rather than simply renovating the building using traditional methods, DOE seized the opportunity to create an energy efficient building using the highest standards of green technology available. The Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment formed a design team for the project. This team of local architects, led by Farr Associates, designed the building using a set of guidelines established by the US Green Building Council called LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design). To match the vision of the building, DOE selected tenants that are environmentally focused. The three tenants are:

Greencorps Chicago, the city's community landscaping and job training program WRD Environmental, an urban landscape design/build firm The building opened to the public in May of 2002