Old Buildings

Thriving Neighborhoods

New Climate Solutions

Liz Dunn

ULI Fall 2011 Annual Conference

Leveraging our most sustainable assets

Old buildings, new approaches, new partners

Many older buildings perform (or could

perform) better than we think

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Before

1920

1920 - 19451946 - 1959 1960- 1969 1970 -1979 1980 - 19891990 - 19992000 - 2003

kB

TU

per

sf

Year of Construction

Energy Use in Commercial Buildings

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey

Information will help level the playing field

Source: Cliff Majersik, Institute for Market Transformation

NTHP LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT STUDY

End of life

Extraction Transformation

Manufacture

Use Distribution

0.00E+00

2.00E+01

4.00E+01

6.00E+01

8.00E+01

1.00E+02

1.20E+02

1.40E+02

1.60E+02

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110

Cli

ma

te c

han

ge

(kg C

O2

-eq

/ft2

flo

or

space

/yea

r)

Building lifetime (years)

Rehabilitation & retrofit: Base case

New construction: Advanced

Commercial Building, Chicago Commercial Building, Chicago

Commercial Building, Chicago

Reuse of average performing buildings offers immediate climate change

reductions over efficient, new construction.

The environmental value of reuse

The ‘new economy’ is happening in old neighborhoods

Older fine-grained neighborhoods

=

locally owned business

The economic multiplier effect of locally-

owned business is almost 4x that of chains

www.civiceconimics.com

The future of office is changing

A Different Kind of Density

We need to measure density differently

New solutions are needed for smaller,

older buildings

73% of our existing

commercial buildings are less

than 10,000 square feet

95% of them are less than

50,000 square feet –

representing half of all

commercial floor space

Buildings in Denver’s Historic District.

Photo by Wally Gobetz

US Energy Information Administration, 2003

OUTCOME BASED ENERGY CODES

Objective: To create an alternate, more flexible,

building energy efficiency code framework for

existing and historic buildings

Supply Laundry Building, Seattle

DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS

Measuring Urban Grain in Older

Neighborhoods Metrics and Measures

URBAN GRAIN AND PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITY

Cover?

Measuring Urban Grain in Older Neighborhoods Metrics and Measures

Urban grain and pedestrian activity

ECO-DISTRICTS

AND

COMMUNITY

ENERGY

PLANNING

CAPITOL HILL BUILDINGS AND ENERGY

INVENTORY

Broadway Light Rail Station TOD Site

New land use policy to encourage district-focused ‘locavore’ investment

in new development models