BEYOND GREEN

Welcome to the next level of Beyond Green. As a Toronto-based architect, urban developer, and planner, I’ve been fascinated by the green trend in new developments across North America and the world. Governments and developers are learning the urban design principles of smart growth, urban intensification, mixed use, and public transportation. As a result, cities from Las Vegas to Toronto are transforming into centers of urban sustainability.

At Kirkor Urban Solutions, Inc., we share a belief in responding to the environment rather than controlling it. As you read this column in the coming months, you can expect the same commitment to sustainable Real Estate. What will change is the scope of the column; rather than focusing solely on Las Vegas Real Estate, we will bring you a worldwide perspective on sustainable developments.

As an example, my hometown of Toronto has seen a steady program of urban intensification in North York, one of several municipalities that merged with Toronto in 1998. The subway node at the corner of Yonge and Sheppard in North York has heightened accessibility to the neighborhood, which has provided the perfect conditions for a new mixed-use high-rise facility.

The existing site is a shopping center, built in the 1960s, with a food store and a strip retail plaza. Shoppers and employees park on a traditional surface lot.

The future site, called Hullmark Centre, is a vertically stacked mixed-use project. The ground floor is a shopping center, with an additional two stories of office space above. With the additional office space, the floor area allotted for employment opportunities increases from 80,000 square feet to 300,000 square feet.

At one corner of the site, a 35-story residential tower sits atop an 11-story office building that sits atop a shopping center and looks over the city. The towers reduce gasoline consumption by giving residents the means to live and work in the same neighborhood, and in some cases, the same building.

Population density is a key to sustainability because it allows services such as trash, water, and many others to be consolidated. Moreover, because neighbors see one another in the hallways, they are more likely to know one another and to feel like part of a community.

Thanks to vertically stacked floors, Hullmark Centre packs more than 10 times the floor space onto the same lot, as compared to the existing lot. The towers’ 800 residential units sit on a mere four acres. If the same number of residents lived in single-family homes in the suburbs, they would occupy 125 acres. By packing hundreds of residents into a few acres, Hullmark Centre personifies the sustainability motto, “Build density. Build intensity.”

Another element of sustainability is to build projects where services such as schools, roads, fire departments, and public transportation already exist. Building around pre-existing services greatly reduces the need to build new services from scratch.

Reducing the environmental impact of vehicle traffic is a major advantage mixed-use projects. Customers can live, work, dine, shop, and get their hair done in the same area. In addition to making all amenities available within walking distance, Hullmark Centre offers bicycle racks with a shower and storage area. A transportation node of two intersecting subway lines connects Hullmark Centre to the rest of Toronto, rendering vehicles nearly obsolete.

For those who use automobiles as their primary source of transportation, Hullmark Centre provides five levels of underground parking spaces. Below-grade parking reduces the heat island effect when compared to traditional surface lots. The underground lot has the additional advantage of controlling storm water. All water that falls into the drains is saved, stored, and reused.

Water conservation is one of the most essential tools of sustainability. Low-consumption showers and toilets save thousands of gallons of water per day. Moreover, Hullmark Centre restores water to the atmosphere while further mitigating the heat island effect by landscaping the roofs of buildings.

In order to conserve energy, all units are outfitted with ENERGY STAR appliances. In addition, long-lasting compact fluorescent light bulbs illuminate the public spaces in the complex. Non-landscaped areas of the roof are brightly colored in order to reflect sunlight and reduce the amount of energy needed to keep the building cool in the summer.

Hullmark Centre is designed by Kirkor Urban Solutions, Inc.. The client, Tridel, has built more than 65,000 sustainable homes. Tridel has won numerous awards, including two consecutive Green Builder of the Year awards for high-rises, given by the Building Industry & Land Development Association. Tridel has also earned the 2008 Green Builder of the Year given by the Greater Toronto Home Builders’ Association, and the 2008 Green Toronto Award given by the City of Toronto. Because sustainability is at the core of Tridel’s philosophy, Hullmark Centre is having no problem hitting LEED Silver Certification.

Tridel is on the front lines of the worldwide green revolution. Forward-thinking developers like Tridel use smart growth, urban intensification, public transportation, and design innovation to remodel our cities. Slowly but steadily, urban centers are shedding their reputations as pollution magnets. Instead, the world’s urban developers are creating areas of sustainable living that serve as models for surrounding communities.

Clifford Korman graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1976 where he received the Ontario Association of Architects’ silver medal for design excellence. In 1980, he established his first architectural firm which has evolved over the years to become Kirkor Urban Solutions, Inc. With involvement in more than 2,000 projects to date, he tirelessly strives to continue raising the level of quality and excellence that Kirkor has achieved, while providing the serviceable, creative strategies that his clients require for community, lifestyle, recreation and the environment, including developing sustainable architecture. Cliff can be reached by e-mailing him at: ck@kirkorarchitects.com