Page 242 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

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quality of life better—and they have the knowledge and experience and passion to
help make it happen. You just need to ask.

Serving the Community that Surrounds Our Business
On the construction barricade surrounding our Birmingham project, we posed a series
of reflective questions that are addressed to the community, but which are also ones
we ask ourselves. Among the questions we ask: 9

■ What does this building stand for?
■ Can one building really make a difference in our community?
■ Can the influence of a building extend beyond its footprint?
■ Can a building serve as a catalyst for change?

These questions begin the journey of social responsibility in our development, by
using the project as a gathering point for dialogue and collective thinking. If we can
begin a different type of dialogue, one that departs from the tired model of developers
squaring off against stakeholders in a community and replaces that model with some-
thing built around a congruence of values, then positive change becomes a greater
possibility. All too often, it seems a development project is plunked down as an un-
identified (and unwelcome) fait accompli, lacking any sense of ownership by the com-
munity. We feel that a community should take spiritual ownership of its locale. If a
project is to be in Birmingham, we believe that to the greatest extent possible, it should
be an indigenous, home-grown product, for everyday use. Likewise, we believe that
an infusion of new ideas and possibilities can enliven a community. The challenge, of
course, is finding the appropriate balance between the concepts we try to introduce as
developers and the vision community residents have.
With Birmingham Federal Reserve & Tower, we are looking to restore a historic
treasure while creating a technologically advanced building of broad significance. In
this way, we pay respect to the community’s rich history while pointing to its poten-
tial in the future. We are working with local architectural firms to create the interior
design and character of our structure, and have hired BNIM of Kansas City—well
known for its sustainable orientation—to design, model, and engineer the core and
shell. While showcasing indigenous expertise, we also bring world-class talent to
Birmingham.
But building a beautiful, iconic structure, even one with a reduced environmental
impact, isn’t enough. The community that immediately surrounds our property has a
profound impact on the ultimate success of our property. That community deserves
special attention. We are fortunate to have organizations such as Harvest Birmingham
help us plan carefully to see that food prepared on site doesn’t go to waste and that
fewer in our community go hungry. We look to work with local shelters such as Path-
ways (for abused women) and the Firehouse Shelter (Birmingham’s only shelter that
provides housing for indigent men with children), to see that the various resources uti-
lized in Birmingham Federal Reserve & Tower’s ongoing operations (sheets, towels,
and blankets, for example) have cradle-to-cradle utility.