GreenClips.192 05.22.02 CAN LARGE-SCALE ECORESORTS CHANGE PEOPLE'S CONSCIOUSNESS? The Australians are perfecting a type of tourism soon to make an appearance in natural areas around the world: large-scale ecoresorts with hundreds of rooms, air conditioning, sumptuous bathrooms, and TVs. But can giants like Couran Cove Island Resort and Kingfisher Bay Resort, both in Queensland, really be green? "We all vaguely believe that if people go into areas of high conservation value and are told that the environment is important, when they go back to their city jobs they will pay some attention. But with what effect no one really knows," says Ralf Buckley, professor of ecotourism at Queensland's Griffith University. Still, designers say that revealing an ecoresort's green technologies has value. "Use signage, a bit of a note, a tile set into a wall," says Patricia Michael, a Texas-based environmental designer. Michael favors using language like "becoming accustomed to the site" and "permissions of the site" -- rather than "rules and regulations" -- to convey what systems and uses are appropriate for a place. But do mainstream tourists at ecoresorts get it about the limits of nature? The effects of green design or environmental education on mass consciousness are unmeasured, and possibly slight. "Which would have a bigger impact on the ecofriendliness of buildings?" Buckley asks. "To do all this educational stuff, or simply to change building regulations a bit? Changing the regulations would be far more effective." Metropolis, June 2002, p 119, by Jonathan Lerner. [Resorts' websites: http://www.couran-cove.com.au ; http://www.kingfisherbay.com ] ZION NATIONAL PARK BUILDINGS SET HIGH-PERFORMANCE BENCHMARK Completed in May 2000, the Visitor Center at Utah's Zion National Park has established a benchmark for high-performance National Park facilities. Built by the Park Service in conjunction the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the 8,480-square-foot Visitor Center and 2,756-square-foot restroom facility achieve a 70 percent energy savings compared with a comparably sized conventional facility. Both buildings were built at costs typical of similar federal facilities. As part of the design team's integrated whole-building design approach, NREL used the DOE2.1e software to run hourly building-energy simulations to examine the benefits of energy-saving features such as passive solar design, daylighting, advanced glazings and natural cooling. The design's passive cooling strategies include appropriate building geometry and orientation, roof overhangs, vegetative shading, daylighting, thermal mass, roof ventilation, and operable clerestory window controlled by an energy management system. When natural ventilation is not enough to keep the Visitor Center cool, two passive down-draft cooltowers use evaporative cooling to condition the building. Without any fans, the density gradient in the cooltowers can generate airflow in each tower as great as 8,000 cubic feet per minute. A 7.2-kW photovoltaic system generates about 9 percent of the building's electricity needs and provides an uninterruptible power supply during power outages. A 1,040-square-foot Trombe wall provides much of the building's heat in the winter. Solar Today, May-June 2002, p 32, by Alex Wilson. AIA SELECTS TOP TEN GREEN PROJECTS On Earth Day, the American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment announced this year's Top Ten Green Projects. They are (in alphabetical order): Bank of Astoria (Manzanita, OR; architect: Tom Bender); Building 850, Energy & Sustainability Showcase Project (Port Hueneme, CA; architect: CTG Energetics); Camp Arroyo (Livermore, CA; architect: Siegel & Strain Architects); Edificio Malecon (Buenos Aires, Argentina; architect: Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc.); Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (Ankeny, IA; architect: RDG Bussard Dikis); National Wildlife Federation Headquarters (Reston, VA; architect: Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc.); Oberlin College's Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (Oberlin, OH; architect: William McDonough + Partners); Pier 1 (San Francisco, CA; architect: SMWM); Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center (Bainbridge Island, WA; architect: Mithun); Tofte Cabin (Tofte, MN; architect: Sarah Nettleton). Environmental Building News, May 2002, p 7. [More: http://www.aia.org/MEDIA/releases/042202.asp ] DATABASE OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE BUILDINGS NOW ONLINE The US Department of Energy recently unveiled a public database of high-performance buildings featuring innovative work in fields such as energy efficiency, materials use and water conservation. Anyone can register and enter a project into the database. Projects of all sizes can be included, from campuses and neighborhoods to homes and even commercial interiors. The database was developed by a team led by BuildingGreen (publishers of Environmental Building News) under a contract with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. More: http://www.eren.doe.gov/buildings/highperformance/case_studies Environmental Building News, May 2002, p 3. COMPETITION ANNOUNCED FOR GAINESVILLE URBAN TRAIL DESIGN The Center for Construction and Environment at the University of Florida at Gainesville invites submissions from design professionals to the Gainesville Eco-History Trail landscape design competition, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts' New Public Works Program and the City of Gainesville. The Gainesville Eco-History Trail will be a 2-mile long urban rail-trail through the historic urban core of Gainesville, which was founded as a rail transportation hub in the latter 19th century. The winning design will receive $7,500. Entry deadline is July 19. More: http://www.cce.ufl.edu Architecture, May 2002, p 43, and CCE website. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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