Ameresco, a Massachusetts-based cleantech integrator and renewable energy owner and operator, has been working with the City of Boulder, Colo., on the company’s first sustainable deconstruction project, a demolition of the municipality’s former Boulder Community Health Hospital, which had been closed since April 2019.
Boulder has set a target to divert 85 percent of the city’s waste away from landfills by 2025. The former hospital’s deconstructed building materials, and specifically its structural steel, will be used to construct a new fire station and other projects within the city. The firehouse, to be located at 30th and Valmont in Boulder, is scheduled to open in mid-2024. During an early deconstruction phase, the hospital’s pumps, motors, doors, and fixtures, as well as other materials, were auctioned rather than dumped into landfills.
The 250,000-sf hospital’s demolition occurred in two phases, says Rob Sevier, Ameresco’s Senior Account Executive in Denver: the interior demo began in 2019, was slowed because of COVID, and was completed last year. The exterior demo—which includes removing the hospital’s concrete floors, steel, and exteriors—required new permits before it was started last March. Sevier says the deconstruction should be completed sometime this fall.
“This deconstruction project is an important foundational example of innovative sustainability for the communities where we live and work,” said Louis Maltezos, Ameresco’s Executive Vice President, in a prepared statement. Based in Chicago, Maltezos oversees the company’s activities in the central U.S. and in Canada.
The cost of the demolition, and how much of that cost is expected to be recouped by reusing or reselling materials and equipment from the deconstruction, were not available at presstime, according to an Ameresco spokesperson.
Mandate calls for dramatic reuse
In July 2020, Boulder passed a deconstruction ordinance that covers both residential and commercial properties and requires that at least 75 percent by weight of building materials generated from deconstruction must be recycled, reused or go for organics management. Demolition permits now also require a refundable deconstruction deposit of $1 per sf of the structure, with a $1,500 minimum.
Concerning the hospital demo project, Mike White, who works for Ameresco in Boulder, told Aspen Public Radio that “this project is all about reusing, and that’s the key word, reuse versus recycle.”
He said the building’s mortar, brick and concrete are getting crushed into construction grade, compacted, and reused to fill the hole left by the hospital demo. (The site is being redeveloped for affordable housing.) Right now, steel removed from the hospital is being stored onsite, but Sevier says Ameresco and the city will need to find a warehouse once the housing construction gets underway. “It’s also my understanding that Boulder wants to use this steel for other projects,” he says.
The hospital deconstruction contributes to the city’s Circular Boulder program that keeps materials out of landfills and in use as much as possible. “This growing area of work moves beyond recycling and composting to focus on preventing waste and pollution in the first place. It explores innovative ways to curb Boulder’s collective consumption through reuse and repair.”
Along with its waste reduction goals, Boulder is also striving for carbon neutrality by 2035.
Sevier says that reusing the hospital’s steel required having a structural engineer sign off on the materials’ integrity. There was also an extensive permitting process, and safety plans that included asbestos remediation. But that effort was worth it, he says, because “when we can reuse something, we’re also avoiding the impact of generating something new.”
Ameresco isn’t actively looking for other sustainable deconstruction opportunities. The company has had a longstanding business relationship with the City of Boulder, which Sevier points out is more environmentally progressive than most other metros. But the company’s M.O., says its director of marketing and public relations Rhea Hickok, “is to do what makes sense for our customers.” In the future, that is likely to mean “how sustainability fits in,” she says.
Related Stories
Affordable Housing | Mar 8, 2023
7 affordable housing developments built near historic districts, community ties
While some new multifamily developments strive for modernity, others choose to retain historic aesthetics.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Mar 8, 2023
Hoffmann Architects + Engineers receives Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from New York Landmarks Conservancy
Hoffmann Architects + Engineers, a design firm specializing in the rehabilitation of building exteriors, announces that the historic facade rehabilitation and window replacement at the 69th Regiment Armory has been selected for the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s prestigious recognition for outstanding preservation efforts.
Adaptive Reuse | Mar 5, 2023
Pittsburgh offers funds for office-to-residential conversions
The City of Pittsburgh’s redevelopment agency is accepting applications for funding from developers on projects to convert office buildings into affordable housing. The city’s goals are to improve downtown vitality, make better use of underutilized and vacant commercial office space, and alleviate a housing shortage.
Affordable Housing | Mar 2, 2023
These 9 novel housing communities offer support beyond affordability
Here are nine specialized multifamily developments designed to assist their tenants’ needs.
AEC Innovators | Feb 28, 2023
Meet the 'urban miner' who is rethinking how we deconstruct and reuse buildings
New Horizon Urban Mining, a demolition firm in the Netherlands, has hitched its business model to construction materials recycling. It's plan: deconstruct buildings and infrastructure and sell the building products for reuse in new construction. New Horizon and its Founder Michel Baars have been named 2023 AEC Innovators by Building Design+Construction editors.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Feb 16, 2023
Insights from over 300 potential office-to-residential conversions
Research from Gensler finds that, surprisingly, the features that result in an unpleasant office often make for a superlative multifamily product.
Giants 400 | Feb 6, 2023
2022 Reconstruction Sector Giants: Top architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S. building reconstruction and renovation sector
Gensler, Stantec, IPS, Alfa Tech, STO Building Group, and Turner Construction top BD+C's rankings of the nation's largest reconstruction sector architecture, engineering, and construction firms, as reported in the 2022 Giants 400 Report.
Multifamily Housing | Jan 23, 2023
Long Beach, Calif., office tower converted to market rate multifamily housing
A project to convert an underperforming mid-century office tower in Long Beach, Calif., created badly needed market rate housing with a significantly lowered carbon footprint. The adaptive reuse project, composed of 203,177 sf including parking, created 106 apartment units out of a Class B office building that had been vacant for about 10 years.
Adaptive Reuse | Jan 12, 2023
Invest in existing buildings for your university
According to Nick Sillies of GBBN, students are increasingly asking: "How sustainable is your institution?" Reusing existing buildings may help answer that.
Adaptive Reuse | Dec 21, 2022
University of Pittsburgh reinvents century-old Model-T building as a life sciences research facility
After opening earlier this year, The Assembly recently achieved LEED Gold certification, aligning with the school’s and community’s larger sustainability efforts.