HOME ON THE RANGE WINS ARCHITECTURAL AWARD

 

BILLINGS, Mont. – Home on the Range, the headquarters for the Northern Plains Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, has won yet another prestigious architectural award – this time for reusing an old building instead of tearing it down.

This week the American Institute of Architects Seattle Committee on the Environment awarded the building, designed by High Plains Architects and built by Hardy Construction, both of Billings, its “What Makes it Green Award,” which recognizes the top 10 projects in the Northwest and Pacific regions.

The 10 winners and three honorable mentions were announced April 7 at the ReGeneration Conference in Seattle. There were 56 entries for the competition, which was open to projects in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii, as well as British Columbia, Guam/Micronesia, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Public tours of Home on the Range, located at 220 S. 27^th St. in Billings, will be available from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Earth Day, April 22. From 6-8 p.m. Northern Plains also will honor rancher Anne Charter, who turned 95 last month and was one of the founders of Northern Plains Resource Council. She is especially proud of Home on the Range and the progress Northern Plains has made in its 36-year history.

 

In 2007, the U.S. Green Building Council awarded Home on the Range its certification as a LEED Platinum building, the only such building in Montana. LEED^® stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” and the “Platinum” designation is the highest honor awarded by organization. It was only the 41^st building in America, and the 45^th in the world, to receive the Platinum designation.

However, at the AIA/Seattle competition, judges said that, instead of focusing on LEED certification, project teams were looking at how “regenerative” their projects are, that is, how they would benefit the environment, the site and the people who use the space.

Judges said they were also looking for projects that solved unique site problems, and Home on the Range exemplified that goal.

“Home on the Range demonstrates that existing buildings can be reinvented into high performance green buildings,” said Ed Gulick, project manager from High Plains Architects.  “The building uses only 21 percent as much energy as a conventional new building of the same size.”

 

“And that has vast implications for our country, which is full of existing buildings and has significant energy challenges in the near future,” added Randy Hafer, president of High Plains Architects. “We’re certainly pleased that this approach has been recognized.”

The original building was a 1940s concrete-block grocery store with almost no windows. In turning it into the headquarters of the Northern Plains Resource Council and WORC, High Plains Architects employed extensive daylighting features, used recycled materials, and diverted 92 percent of the construction and demolition waste from the landfill.

“We felt very privileged to have worked with such a committed owner and contractor. A project doesn’t achieve this kind of performance unless there’s a great collaboration,” said Hafer. “And the best part is that we didn’t need to import any of the expertise — this project has a lot of local flavor.”

The Daily Journal of Commerce in Seattle talked to some of the judges as to why Home on the Range was chosen for the award:

Aaron Adelstein, executive director of the Built Green program of King and Snohomish counties in Washington, said such a high diversion rate is especially admirable in Billings, where recycling programs are limited.

Katrina Morgan of Blackbird Consulting in Seattle said such projects teach others how to pursue greener features. She said other projects were more elegant but this one exemplified the goal of adapting to a site's challenges.

“I felt like this one was meeting a lot of the challenges that it had in its own environment,” Morgan told the Journal.

By renovating an existing structure, the project cost 25 percent less than a conventional new building. Peter Steinbrueck, former Seattle City Council member and president of Steinbrueck Urban Strategies, said the building held lessons for the Pacific Northwest, because this region is good at recycling waste but not buildings.

“We don't talk about recycling old buildings. We talk about preservation and that's important, but we should be looking at the embodied energy of those buildings,” Steinbrueck said.

The Steal Sustainability Master Plan for Montana State University in Bozeman was one of three projects receiving an honorable mention from the Committee.