A few months back I had the opportunity to tour three LEED certified projects on three consecutive days. All three projects achieved LEED gold and were located in the greater Denver area. The following op-ed is a bit of a reflection on these visits and what it means to build green. They are listed in reverse chronological order to demonstrate the lessons I learned.
The school I visited sits on a 35-acre parcel of land located off the road leading to the airport. Prior to the school, there were no buildings on the site. I believe it was a meadow. This type of development, often referred to as greenfield – because it builds on previously undeveloped land – is often associated with sprawl. Brownfield development – land that was previously developed – often fills in pockets of underutilized land, helping to increase density.
My second visit was to the EPA’s Region 8 headquarters in Denver. This building sits on the grounds of the formal postal annex which was constructed in 1959 and before that a warehouse similar to one that still stands across the street and houses the Alliance Center for Sustainable Colorado. While the new EPA building is a beautiful, gleaming structure with lots of natural light, it does not change the fact that there have been three buildings over the same time frame that another one, currently LEED-certified former warehouse, has stood across the street.
The warehouse was the first building I visited chronologically
