First, let’s take a look at the appearance of the report. It’s in a PLASTIC binder and it is 29 pages. Now, you would think that a task force created to review the Green-ness of a project that has tripled in cost, MIGHT THINK ABOUT MAKING TWO SIDED COPIES! Or maybe tighten up those 1-1/4″ margins? Or maybe package it in a PAPER binder/folder?
Before we dig into the details, let’s go back and look at how and why this task force came about. In January 2006 the West Palm Beach City Commission listened to a LEED presentation. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a rating system
developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED guidelines provide performance standards for design and construction. Points are earned for various green components. Total points determine the level of LEED certification: Certified (the lowest) to Platinum.
Now, if the mayor and commission had been REALLY interested in LEED certification, don’t you think they would have thought about it before January 2006? I mean, in mid-2004 they selected architect Young Song - a close friend of Mayor Lois Frankel, as the architect. Song has said she began work on the design as early as October 2003.
So, my question is, how serious were the mayor and the commission about a green city center? By January 2006 much of the design and planning had already been done. A ground-breaking was held in December 2006. In May 2007, Mayor Frankel and the commission expressed renewed interest in LEED certification for City Center.
WHAT? Five months after vertical construction of City Center began the Mayor and the commission renewed their interest in LEED certification? Give me a break. If you are really serious about building a LEED Certified building, you discuss BEFORE THE ARCHITECT STARTS DRAWING PLANS AND THE BUILDER STARTS ORDERING MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT!
Then, in May 2007 the LEED Report was issued by Song + Associates to the city. By that time, the project’s 312-space parking garage was at full height. On August 24, the LEED and Solar Panel Task Force was created to “evaluate LEED design status and feasibility as well as the feasibility of incorporating photovoltaic (PV) technology.”
The whole photovoltaic issue has been raised back in July, when Steve Berg with GoSun Solutions offered the city a fire-sale price on PV for City Center.
Now, in October, the task force finally issues its report. The Task Force offers 10 very complex, costly and time-consuming LEED features that “can still be incorporated into the building design but decisions need to be made within a very short time frame since construction is progressing rapidly.”
Duh.
If the mayor and commission had wanted to build a green City Center with LEED certified features they should have made that clear before they put out the specifications in the requests for proposals. They knew this. I’m sure staff in the city’s building and planning departments made them aware.
Instead, we get this one-sided, 29-page report in a plastic binder 10 months AFTER the ground-breaking and a $154 million goliath of the building that, I would bet, won’t be LEED certified.
Stayed tuned. In our next installment we will look at the Task Force members and the project team and consultants.
