A GREEN LIGHT FOR SUSTAINABILITY
DEVELOPERS AREN'T WAITING FOR GOVERNMENT-ENFORCED SUSTAINABLE BUILDING CODES. THEY'RE GOING GREEN NOW By Curt Hazlett
R
ON LOCH IS PROUD OF SOME OF THE FEATURES
that set apart Salt Lake City's new City Creek Center, perhaps justifi- ably so. A glass roof fully retracts and lets in natural heating and cool- ing. The site's layout carves the downtown's unwieldy city blocks into easily walked quadrants, and these are further enlivened by an interior re-creation of the creek for which the project is named. But Loch, who is Taubman Centers' vice president of planning and design, has especially fond feelings for two elements that are far from obvious: reused concrete waste and steel from the site's former structures. The concrete was pulverized and used as part of the center's new base, and the steel was recycled into rebar that gives the concrete additional strength. Environmentally friendly design features and the willingness to keep demolition debris out of landfills help make City Creek Center a model of the "green" design movement in retail real estate in North America and the world. The shopping center, which is the retail portion of a $1.5 billion mixed-use project called City Creek, opened in March. The overall project
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY TAUBMAN CENTERS