Green Building Guild lists award finalists
Winners to be named at Boulder Earth Conference June 12

Via Mobility Services' new building in Boulder is a finalist in the Green Commercial New Construction category. It contains administration and maintenance facilities for the nonprofit agency that provides transportation services to seniors and people with disabilities who reside in Boulder County. It incorporates green-building features such as a solar panel array, low VOC interior finishes and natural day-lighting. The building also includes water-reducing plumbing fixtures, extensive use of recycled materials, a radiant floor slab in the garage/maintenance area and self-dimming and occupancy sensing lighting. Courtesy Via Mobility Services

Henry Mueller and Marah Bradley
BOULDER — The nonprofit Colorado Green Building Guild has announced the finalists for its second annual Boulder Valley Green Building Awards.

Winners will be announced at the Boulder County Business Report's Boulder Earth Conference (formerly the Green Summit) to be held Wednesday, June 12, at the Boulder Theater and Rembrandt Yard in Boulder.

Here are the categories and finalists.


Green Cutting Edge

Best new building or retrofit incorporating cutting-edge technologies that advance green sustainable building practices:

Golden Hoof: The project is about taking a worn-out horse and party property and turning it into a sustainable, local food-producing, community building farm. This project involves the building of a main house, agricultural dwelling unit, studio, greenhouse and leach field along with the deconstruction of several buildings and fencing on a farm.

Westby-Moss Residential Greenhouse: Although considered cutting edge today, this entry incorporates the 1970s concept of the Earth-Ship. The design intention was a zero-energy, off-the-grid, architecturally integrated solar greenhouse, creating a self-sustaining multifamily or single-family residence.

WW Reynolds Portfolio Upgrade: Although not necessarily Green Cutting Edge, this entry is being considered for a separate Special Recognition Award. This company, one of the largest commercial property owners in Boulder, has leveraged EnergySmart and Xcel Energy Inc. rebates and services to retrofit nearly 1 million square feet of its commercial properties. This property owner is leading the way, upgrading its commercial buildings as well as helping tenants save money and hedge against rising utility rates.


Green Adaptive Reuse of an Existing Building

Best adaptation of an existing building to another use:

Candy Shop Creative Offices: A former candy store, egg roll restaurant, and in more recent years a porn outlet, the building has been renovated into office space offering open plan work stations for multiple businesses. This project features reclaimed gymnasium flooring, energy efficient lighting upgrades, dual-flush toilets and a low-flow showerhead, high-efficiency windows, and the use of recycled materials.

Alfalfa's Market: This grocery store has taken a sustainable approach in terms of food as well as the way it does business. Alfalfa's features a green refrigeration system to reduce energy use, energy-efficient lighting with controls and sensors, water-conserving fixtures, a green cleaning program, an electric vehicle delivery program and offers customers the ability to recycle packaging waste and charge their electric cars.


Green Commercial New Construction

Best green newly constructed commercial building incorporating sustainable or energy-efficient techniques and technologies:

Via Mobility Services: This building contains administration and maintenance facilities for the nonprofit agency that provides transportation services to seniors and people with disabilities residing in Boulder County. It incorporates such green-building features as a solar panel array, low-VOC interior finishes and natural day-lighting. The building also includes water-reducing plumbing fixtures, extensive use of recycled materials, a radiant floor slab in the garage/maintenance area and self-dimming and occupancy sensing lighting.

Quick Left: This software development company needed a design solution to accommodate its new location and growing business, the main stipulation being employee health and productivity. The design incorporated natural day-lighting, energy-efficient lighting, minimal off-gassing finishes and an oxygen-infusing interior garden, as well as reclaimed, surplus and recycled materials in an aesthetically pleasing environment.


Green Improvement on a Commercial Building

Best retrofit or major remodel of an existing commercial building incorporating sustainable or energy-efficient techniques and technologies:

West End Plaza: This mixed-use project comprised of commercial office space, restaurants, residential units and underground parking hopes to act as a showcase for the energy-saving potential of buildings located on the Pearl Street Mall. To date, the project has received a full energy-efficient lighting retrofit including the exterior, basement parking, and four levels of commercial interiors and residential space. Other features include bamboo and reclaimed hardwood flooring and the use of beetle-kill pine and low-VOC paints. Recycling and composting are available to all tenants.

Boulder Creek Quality Inn & Suites: An Energy Star-rated building, Boulder Creek offers guests an introduction to Boulder's eco-friendly disposition. With 23.5 kilowatts worth of solar panels, LED lighting, a guest bicycle program, EnergySaver electronic equipment, water-conserving fixtures, green key cards, composting and recycling, and a towel and linen reuse program, this management is committed to being a model of sustainable business practices.


Green Institutional Building

Best use of sustainable building practices and green strategies within an institutional building:

NIST/Department of Commerce: The new Precision Measurement Laboratory is one of the most advanced facilities in the world for research at the frontiers of measurement science. PML was awarded LEED Gold certification for new construction by the United States Green Building Council. The building consolidates many high energy use campus laboratories into a single energy-efficient building. This is one of the few laboratory buildings in the nation to receive a LEED Platinum certification, as well as, the Xcel Energy Design Assistance Achievement Award for energy conservation. This is an example of green design in a building type that is usually considered an "energy hog."


Green Multi-Residential Building

Best apartment building, dorm, or communal-living venue incorporating green building initiatives:

Boulder County Housing Authority: Josephine Commons, an affordable senior-housing complex located in Lafayette, features 100 kilowatts of solar panels, a ground-source thermal exchange system, energy-efficient lighting with sensors, sustainable wood flooring, low-VOC paints and a "free table" program offering residents the ability to donate and reuse household items.

Boulder Housing Partners: Red Oak Park, an affordable-housing complex developed in place of an existing mobile home park, aims to promote a healthy living environment for its residents. This project features 59 separate Energy Star-certified units with electricity provided by a total of 140 kilowatts of solar panels. Units include Energy Star appliances, water-conserving fixtures and energy-efficient lighting. Nearly 400 tons of waste was salvaged and recycled during the deconstruction process in order to comply with Boulder's GreenPoints requirements.


Green Residential New Construction

Outstanding new green homes:

O'Conor Residence: This home is a Fourmile Fire rebuild focusing on simple form and a smaller quality home, compared with the one lost to the fire, using planet-friendly materials and sustainable energy-saving strategies. These include a passive solar design complemented by an active solar array, and the use of green materials in a calm and grounded living environment.

Sunshine Straw Bale House: Also a Fourmile Fire rebuild, the home is targeted to be one of the first passive houses in Colorado and potentially the first straw bale passive house in the United States. This house uses a prefabricated straw bale system, triple-pane European windows, radiant heating, an ERV post-heater, a 5-kilowatt photovoltaic system and a heat-pump hot water heater. all of which adds up to a near zero-energy home. It also uses recycled roofing insulation, has lime plastered walls with innovative plumbing and is landscaped with a native mountain grass mix to conserve water.


Green Residential Remodel

Best sustainable remodels or energy efficient retrofits of existing homes:

Cowles Residence: The primary virtue of the house, and what makes it unusual, is the rehabilitation of this home built in 1873 transforming it into a high-performing LEED Platinum building that contributes to the character of the neighborhood. It is likely one of the smallest LEED Platinum houses in the nation, and one of the very few LEED Platinum houses without onsite solar.

Boulder ZED Spec Home: This house is a complete "super green" remodel and addition project that anticipates the future redevelopment of much of Boulder's aging mid-century housing stock, and provides an example of what is possible on a nationwide scale. This house meets the local real estate market with a Boulder 'affordable' price tag and dispels the myth that a super green, healthy, comfortable home has to have a price tag of the ubiquitous trophy home.