Most Saturdays, it’s hard to find a parking space at 2 Northshore. Often, even the bike racks are full. People sit on the outdoor patio, walk from store to store, and stop to carry on conversation. This buzz of activity was planned for in the early stages of the complex’s design.
The campus is one of the few LEED for Core and Shell buildings in the state. To date, there are only 20 LEED Core and Shell registered projects in Tennessee, and 2 Northshore is on the only LEED project of its kind in Chattanooga.
LEED standards’ popularity is increasing. Several major cities now require that new buildings be built to LEED standard or better. LEED standards are facilitating an important transition in the way buildings are built and maintained.
But the bigger picture is holistic. 2 Northshore is not only an example of a group of green buildings, but also a functioning model of sustainable urban development. What makes it sustainable? People want to spend time there—which is good for growing local small business and a sense of community.
“As soon as they broke ground here we knew this was going to be a great fit,” said Sara Mingus, co-owner of the Northshore Yoga studio. Mingus also indicated excitement at being so close to other environmentally friendly businesses like Greenlife. “What better location to promote health and wellness through yoga and meditation—just being here makes you feel healthier,” Sara concluded.
That feeling of health and the connection to other nearby stores is what LEED AP architect Thomas Palmer had been hoping for. At the time, Palmer worked for River Street Architecture, a sustainability-focused design firm that just celebrated its own building’s LEED EB certification.
“Sustainability is more than energy efficiency and using certain materials,” he told me over lunch on Greenlife’s patio. “It’s about creating public spaces that people want to be in. It’s about promoting local business and local living through thoughtful design of natural and built environments.”
When Greenlife owner Chuck Pruett was looking to expand his business, he teamed up with CS & Associates’ Stephen Arnsdorff to create an environmentally friendly shopping center. The site had been home to an old manufacturing plant. Only certain parts of the brownfield were fit for construction, so the rest of the site remains open. On some weekends, you can find a makeshift farmer’s market in this area with homegrown fruits, vegetables and original art.
“We wanted the center to look and feel like a city block,” Palmer explained. “2 Northshore is a part of a larger vision of what urban development can be.”
Most modern shopping centers in suburban areas run like a playlist on replay. In a typical shopping center, stores are placed one next to the other in a sprawling square, with little or no natural space. Occasionally, a desolate tree rises from the pavement, an oasis of life in a hot, steaming swath of black asphalt. This disconnect between people and the natural world feeds environmental degradation.
One of the most visible green attributes of the complex is Greenlife Grocery’s green roof and living walls. Leafy green vines climb up the store’s brick walls, and spring blooms hang lazily from the roof. Some people might think that these buildings cost a fortune to construct, but building green is not necessarily more expensive. Often, especially when considering energy usage, it is a “pay now or pay later” situation.
The owners and architect insisted on what is called a “state of the shelf” approach— meaning that all the materials used to construct these buildings can be found on the shelves of most building suppliers. The greenery, while beautiful, also serves a utilitarian purpose. Green roofs and living walls serve as natural UV protection. A green roof can reduce cooling costs 25-to-50 percent for the floors directly beneath it.
The buildings’ efficiency varies, but Greenlife Grocery’s building is 30 percent more efficient than other typical buildings of its size. The owners worked with a tight budget, and still have the gorgeous, modern green complex they wanted. Amazingly, 81 percent of the construction process was diverted from landfill, making creation of the complex as green as its buildings.
2 Northshore is an example of one path the country can take. We can build our new shopping centers and neighborhoods sustainably, embracing a future of promise—or we can continue to push forward as we always have, promising to fix things later. As the nation tries to rebuild and improve, I can only hope that we choose success built for the long term.
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Elizabeth Crenshaw is LEED accredited and works for EPB in Strategic Planning. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to Chattanooga after graduating from Warren Wilson College in 2007.