June 4, 2002
Sellen Construction's headquarters on Seattle's Westlake Avenue North is among the projects Paladino and Co. has worked on. |
Tom Paladino is founder and president of Paladino and Co., a Seattle consulting firm that helps the development community -- architects, engineers, contractors and building owners -- employ green design strategies in their projects.
A 20-year veteran of the design industry, Paladino helped the U.S. Green Building Council develop a rating system for buildings. The firm is the principal author of a Reference Package for the council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System.
Paladino |
Paladino has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts and a master's degree in architecture from the University of Washington. He helped found the city of Seattle Sustainable Building Task Force, a regional initiative that ultimately led to the adoption of LEED by the city. Paladino's brother, Paul, is vice president of the company.
Paladino spoke with DJC special correspondent Brad Broberg
What prompted you to focus on green -- or sustainable -- design?
I started off life as a mechanical engineer and worked on a number of projects where the integration between engineering and architecture was poor. So I went back to school and got an architecture degree. Sustainability was an emerging concept, so I did my research thesis on it, which put me on the path to a career in sustainable design.
Doesn't the term green carry some negative baggage?
There has been a sense in our culture that green is perhaps a loaded phrase and that it has a history of being trendy and not economically feasible. But that's being determined to just not be true.
How prevalent is green design in this region?
I think it has a lot of traction in the Northwest. A lot of us live here because of the spectacular natural environment. As a result, we're seeing a lot of pressure on transportation, the resource base, water. As people in my generation, the 40-to-50-age group, advance into positions of leadership, we're in a position where we can make a difference and we're doing it.
How do you define green?
One of the things I've learned in the years I've been doing this is the definition of green is in the eye of the beholder. Different clients often have very different definitions. I look at it as balancing the demands of the resource base and the impact on the environment against the needs of development, the building and its users. The trick is to determine how the owners and users of a buildings view that balance.
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What's different about a green building?
At the end of the day, a green building is much more in tune with the environment in which it sits. Here in the Northwest, we have consistently overcast skies, so a green building would be in tune with that environment. It probably would have windows high on the walls to allow deep pools of natural light. Also, we're in a temperate climate, so operable windows are a good idea because they let individuals determine their comfort. The interior is where rank-and-file workers usually end up, so you would create connections to the outside environment in those spaces.
How do you attract clients?
They find us. We have a reputation as being at the forefront of sustainable development. That's all we do. There's an image of us being out there in a leadership role.
What expectations do clients have?
People say, "We want to do a green building. Can you help us?" The first thing we try to do is determine their definition of green. We may try to expand their definition, but the whole spectrum of green design won't make it into the project.
Are there any consistent elements to green design?
There are a couple themes that seem to come up. Energy is always there because the benefits of saving energy are well understood. Everybody gets it. But there are a lot of other issues such as access to daylight and control of heating and ventilation by individuals in the building. Clients usually come in expecting to address one set of issues, but we often end up in some very surprising places.
Can you cite an example?
In the new Seminar II Building at the Evergreen State College, the pre-design study suggested that a single 130,000-square-foot building satisfied the program needs. During a strategy meeting held early in the design process, the main user group, the faculty, voiced a strong desire for high connection to the surrounding forests through operable windows.
They were willing to consider a slightly wider thermal comfort zone to save energy as well. The resulting design broke the large, single building into five small buildings in order to maximize the perimeter offices and seminar areas. To make the budget work, the mechanical system was greatly simplified, eliminating air conditioning in almost half the building. Those cost savings helped pay for the more expensive exterior windows and walls.
What will it take to make green design even more prevalent?
Locally, one of the driving forces has been the decision by the city of Seattle to adopt LEED standards for all buildings over 5,000 square feet. That represents a huge market for the design community.
What that does is to force architects, engineers and contractors to focus on what the city is asking for and learn how to deliver it. That's transformed the overall market in a pretty significant way. As we work with clients, we're seeing them climbing up the learning curve. What were novel ideas in the past are now part of their repertoire and they're looking for the next step.
Couldn't that process eventually put you out of business?
You're right. We could teach everyone what we do and they wouldn't need any consultants. That's a possible end result, but it's a long way off.
