Sustainable By Nature

Commercial Journal RW/2 Studios Article Page 10

Commercial Journal ran a piece by Jonathan O’Neil Cole making a case that has only got stronger since: reusing a building that already exists is one of the highest forms of naturally sustainable design. Land is conserved, blight is removed from the urban core, and the economics work, which he called the other green.

The occasion was a collaboration in the Crossroads. rw/2 studios commissioned Pendulum and the designer and fabricator Dale Frommelt of Egg Designs to adapt a 12,000 square foot building at 16th and Locust, half brick and half prefabricated metal, into event space, offices and a photography shooting area, with three adjacent lots on Cherry Street planned as an outdoor green environment and beer garden.

The detail that makes the argument is structural. The bowstring trusses in that building carry their spans on very light steel. Designed from scratch under current codes and material costs, the same members would be roughly four times as large. Craftsmanship of that kind cannot be bought back once it is demolished, which is the practical reason to keep the shell and work inside it.

The finished project is on this site as RW/2 Studios.

Source: “In Focus: Sustainable By Nature”, words by Jonathan Cole, Pendulum Studio, Commercial Journal, October / November 2011, page 10.

The framework Pendulum uses to judge a venue as a long term civic and financial system is set out in S.C.O.R.E.