Green Products: Trends & Innovations

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Advertorial course provided by Thyssenkrupp Elevator, US Green Building Council, Tarkett, Lutron, VistaWall, Umicore, PPG FlatGlass, C/S Group, AltusGroup, MechoShade, HunterDouglas, AISC, Sloan Valve

Owners build green to differentiate projects

The redevelopment of the former Atlantic Steel Mill at the intersection of Interstates 75 and 85 in midtown Atlanta, once a federal hazardous waste site, is viewed as one of the most significant developments in the city's history.

Development is billed as a "live-work-and-play" destination, a place that, unless you want to go to a ballgame, you never have to leave.


Zinc/tin roof, painted with solar reflective coatings.
Courtesy Follansbee.

In October, at the National Brownfields Conference in St. Louis, Mo., Atlantic Station, ultimately projected to include 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel space and 11 acres of public parks, was named the best brownfield redevelopment project in the country.

Atlanta-based Jacoby Development, Inc., Atlantic Station's developer, is now seeking LEED certification.

Elevators Can Be Green

Early in project development, officials of Thyssenkrupp Elevator Corporation, the firm that built Europe's fastest elevator in the DaimlerChrysler building in Berlin and Europe's longest escalator in Prague's metro system, wrote to James Jacoby with the promise of a system that could save nearly half the energy cost of a conventional hydraulic system.

Cars would be double-tracked and run on newly developed kevlar cables, over plastic, or composite, sheaves, making them lighter and more efficient than steel systems. Cabs would be high-tech as well as high-style. Walls and ceilings would be constructed from high-strength, commercial aircraft-grade honeycombing to reduce weight.

A smaller machine would mean the system could be installed in either the pit or hoistway, eliminating the need for a machine room.

The system would include a "regenerative," variable-speed drive with the ability to turn the mechanical energy required to brake a DC brushed motor back into electrical energy, energy that otherwise would be wasted; and an energy optimization system that would constantly monitor elevator loads and run up to 30 percent faster using surplus horsepower−moving more people for less money.

Its 10K drive system, Thyssenkrupp calculated, could mean cost savings over a 25-year period of more than $257,000. The pitch won Thyssenkrupp the job, says Tim Isbell, Thyssenkrupp's U.S. national sales manager. "We are seeing more and more projects seeking LEED certification," he says, "and we look to contribute."

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record.
Originally published in February 2005

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