‘Preserving a building the ultimate act of recycling’

While the cartoon above doesn’t deal with green construction, it raises the question of what constitutes a truly green choice.

A big part of the Discovery Center Authority’s marketing campaign for its 18,230-square-foot science museum (nearly three times the size of Eaton Canyon Nature Center and 15 times bigger than the current Whittier Narrows Nature Center) is that the building will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum-certified.

There’s no debating that LEED construction is sexy. But is it always the greenest choice? Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times recently and said not necessarily.

Writing about the very real environmental concerns that are causing people to consider tearing down older homes and rebuilding using newer energy-efficient technology to reduce carbon emissions, Moe says that “with significant improvements and retrofits, these structures [built in 1939 or before] could perform on a par with newer homes.”

He offers many suggestions for bringing an older home up to par, saying it all begins with an energy audit conducted by a local utility. This should help a homeowner identify where energy is being wasted and help him or her "make informed decisions about how to reduce energy use in the most cost-effective way."

His concluding comments have much to say to the question of whether the current Whittier Narrows Nature Center should be saved or replaced:

“Before demolishing an old building to make way for a new one, consider the amount of energy required to manufacture, transport and assemble the pieces of that [older] building. With the destruction of the building, all that energy is utterly wasted. Then think about the additional energy required for the demolition itself, not to mention for new construction.”

What doesn’t get much mention in the discovery center debate is that the current nature center is a direct link to the past of Whittier Narrows. I’m told the main building was constructed by joining a home and another structure that were spared when all the other homes in the narrows were demolished to turn the area into a flood control basin.

Moe writes, “Preserving a building is the ultimate act of recycling.” I’m certain he would agree that it can be an important act of memory as well.

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Cartoon used by the Friends with kind permission of the artist.