CASE STUDY: Bethel Center
A trend setting example of a transit oriented, neighborhood revitalization, LEED Gold building
Introduction
The Bethel Center is part of Bethel’s overall Lake Pulaski Transit Village Plan, which wraps community resources around the Green Line transit. The Transit Village includes affordable energy-efficient homes, traffic calming strategies, bicycle racks, greening and parks, Brownfield redevelopment, commercial development, and close proximity to childcare, schools, shopping and jobs. So far, 70 energy-efficient homes have already been built throughout the community.
Bethel Center’s Employment Services site provides job counseling, job placement and a community computer lab. It houses Bethel?s second Child Development Center for 106 children, offering affordable childcare to parents who work or attend school. Its six retail spaces provide the community with job opportunities and economic growth. Bethel Center also helps meet other community needs such as food services, dry cleaning, and starting in January 2006 — an alternative to currency exchanges and payday lenders through our upcoming Financial Services Center. The Bethel Center also provides visitors with direct access to Green Line “L” stop via a connecting bridge. The site makes adaptive reuse of a Brownfield, replacing an environmental hazard and eyesore with this smart, green building that is being hailed as a national model.
Bethel Center is a 23,000 sq. ft., two-story building with smart, green construction and a transit-orientated design. The ground floor houses six commercial retail shops including a Subway Restaurant, local dry cleaners, and our forthcoming Financial Services Center. The upper level houses our Childcare Development Center, Employment Services Center, and community computer lab. The total construction cost was $4.9 million, funded through grants and tax credits.
Sustainable Site
- The Bethel Center reduces its water use by approximately 30% compared with similar buildings due to low flow fixtures and toilets. This attribute not only lowers the
Bethel Center water wastewater systems
- Landscaping in the parking lot not only uses bioswales to reduce storm water run-off, but also includes native and water efficient plants to limit the amount of watering
necessary to keep plants healthy. This type of landscaping is called Xeriscape (dry landscape).
- The green roof absorbs significant rainwater reducing the amount of storm water emitted into the sewer system.
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Water Efficiency
- The Bethel Center was constructed on a Brownfield. After spending thousands of dollars on environmental clean up the site now needs no further remediation. This site used to house an old, vacant restaurant that had been closed for years. Due to the deteriorated state of the property rehabilitation was not possible. The ground contamination of the site came from two LUSTs (Leaking Underground Storage Tanks) that had stored oil for the heating of the building.
- The site is located next to the Green Line “L” stop and a major bus line. A bridge connects the “L” stop with the Bethel Center allowing pedestrians to directly enter the building. Bike racks are also located on site.
- Bethel chose to build a mid-density community/retail building rather than spreading out these spaces over a block radius. This type of planning prevents urban sprawl, increases the amount of land left for natural absorption of storm water run off and improves ease of access to these services.
Energy & Atmosphere
- Photovoltaic cells, a specialized HRU system, high efficiency HVAC unit and automatic light dimmers reduce the energy demand of the building. The building is 50% more efficient than standard buildings.
- The building has a green roof, resulting in reduced storm water runoff and a decrease in heat absorption in the summer and heat loss in the winter.
- The super-insulated walls, light color of the building and the trees on site reduce heat absorption through the building’s walls.
- Bethel ensured that all spaces receive a maximum of natural light. Bethel accomplished this goal by installing light wells that bring natural light to the back of first floor retail spaces, sky lights that allow light to flow to the rear of the second floor spaces and large windows on the east face of the building on both floors.
- Bethel purchased some of its electrical need from Green Power providers. Green Power is electricity generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, small and low-impact hydropower, and biomass. This has proved to be environmentally preferable to electricity generated from conventional energy sources such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
- Each tenant space is sub-metered; therefore tenants are aware of the energy that they are using; which is in contrast to conventional office spaces where tenants pay a flat lease rate and never know the amount of energy they use. This motivates occupants to take control of how much energy they use.
Materials & Resources
- At least 10% percent of building materials contained recycled content and 20% of the materials were shipped from within 500 miles of Chicago. Here is a breakdown of
some of these products:
Recycled Content
- Rebar, Solarcrete, 98% post industrial content
- Steel Studs, MBA Building Material, 56% post consumer content, 12% post industrial content
- Drywall, USG, 5%; post consumer content, 94% post industrial content
- Ceiling Tiles 1911, Armstrong, 9% post consumer content, 52% post industrial content
- Doors — Frames Hollow Metal, SW Fleming, 60% post industrial content
- Ceramic Tile, Terra Green Ceramics, 55% post industrial content
- Vinyl Baseboard, Johnsonite, 55% post industrial content
- Sunshade Systems, Construction Specialists, 5% post consumer content, 60% post industrial content.
- 50% of the wood used on the project originated from forests grown and harvested using environmentally conscience methods.
- All of the staff participate in the office recycling program and a space is provided to recycle paper, cardboard, metals, glass and plastic.
Indoor Environmental Quality
- All the paint, carpet, adhesives and wood products are low – VOC (Volatile organic compounds). VOC's impact indoor air quality and contribute to sick building
syndrome, and building-related illnesses. They also affect outdoor air quality – creating smog and air pollution.
- Rooms have windows that can open to allow fresh air to enter. Occupants therefore have the ability to control their indoor environment and allow natural ventilation.
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Innovation in Design
- The Bethel Center uses environmentally friendly products to clean the space. The purpose of this is to minimize health risks due to cleaning while keeping our air and
space free of toxins. While janitors must consistently work with harmful chemicals, this practice ensures their health is not affected while cleaning our space. The
employees have the benefit to be in a work environment that is not constantly being covered with toxins.
- Since our Employment Center sees over 200 people every month and the waiting room is equipped with a television, this space is ideal for educating clients about the
Bethel Center’s green features and the advantages of building green. In addition, students, developers and other community development professionals regularly
contact us about the Bethel Center. We now will be able to direct these people to our website where they will have access to our educational video. Our web address is:
www.bethelnewlife.org.
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