March 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 47

Jesse Owens Park Fieldhouse
Chicago, Illinois
Opened September 2009
18,500 square feet
$9.7 million
LEED Gold
New construction with green roof

Is LEED Necessary
to Lead?
Few green renovation projects are bigger than the
one that Brendan Daley, director of green initiatives
for Chicago Park District, is currently shepherding through the LEED process. The park district is
seeking for Soldier Field to become the first LEED
certified NFL stadium. Like Houston and New York,
Chicago also mandates that public sector buildings
meet LEED standards, and Daley can point to several
LEED Gold park district buildings ranging from harbor buildings to beach comfort stations to field houses. For example, the Jesse Owens Park Field House
includes a green roof, energy-efficient lighting, and a
reflective roof and paving to reduce heat absorption.
" Once the public sector embraced LEED and figured it out, it was a no brainer, " Daley says.
Daley points that some of the advantages of using
LEED certification are that the system is well-established, with checklists and other helpful resources,
and that there are now many experienced building
professionals familiar with the requirements. The
drawbacks mostly revolve around costs, especially
the requirement to have a LEED-accredited professional on the project team, though Daley says architects will now often provide this service for an
additional charge.
But what about projects on a slightly smaller scale
than Soldier Field? In Atlanta, Project Manager Karyl
Clayton says that the parks department initially considered LEED for its 2,626-square-foot reconstructed
tennis center in Chastain Park.
" It was about the size of a nice home these days, "
Clayton says. " That was the reason we went to EarthCraft-we couldn't justify LEED certification for such
a small building. "
EarthCraft is a green building certification prog ra m developed by the
Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Southface. Originally designed
for green homes specifically adapted to the Southeast's
cli mate, Ea r thCra f t now
has a pilot program for light
commercial buildings, with

Chastain Park Tennis Center being the first commercial building to be certified.
" It was a much more economical way to go about
making it a sustainable building, " Clayton says. " You
don't have the commissioning, modeling, or all of the
paperwork and documentation....We could put that
money back into the building. "
As with LEED, EarthCraft assigns points in various categories such as site planning, waste management, energy efficiency, water conservation,
indoor air quality, and operations and management.
Some areas where the tennis center received points
were for reusing materials from the old tennis center, diverting more than 75 percent of the construction waste from the landfill, installing low-flow toilets,
and performing well on air leakage tests. The center is also built
Chastain Park Tennis Center
into a berm, keeping it insulated
Atlanta, Georgia
on one side.
Opened August 2010
Portland, Oregon, also has opt2,800 square feet
ed to forgo LEED certification for
$1.5 million
some park buildings. Rodney
EarthCraft certified
Wojtanik, senior regional planPilot project for EarthCraft
ner for Metro, explains that MetLight Commercial certification program
ro did not seek LEED certification
Photos: Carson Matthews
for some green building projects

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March 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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