PreserveNJ

Don Heirman, a Bell Labs “Pioneer” who participated in the April 11 - 13 charrette, has shared these photos of one of the other buildings on the Bell Labs site that help to tell the remarkable story of innovation at Bell Labs.

“One of the other buildings is made entirely out of plastic. Photo #1 is the interior and the other is a tunnel that lead to the basement of the main [Saarinen] building, as no metal could be above the elevation of the ground plane above.) This dates back to the early 1980’s when the Federal Communications Commission passed regulations requiring special radio frequency levels to be met. The measurement of those levels had to be in a non-reflective building and hence no metal or conductive resins could be used. The all-plastic building that still stands there is where many if not most of the telecom products coming out of Holmdel were measured to assure they met the new regulations which still stand today.”

In March, using LEED as a framework, the United States Green Building Council and the American Society of Interior Designers released remodeling guidelines known as Regreen, which do not include LEED certification. The Rutgers Center for Green Building is using Regreen to develop green renovation standards specifically designed for New Jersey that eventually could be adopted by the state.

“What we want to do is anticipate what are the typical renovations a homeowner might make and insert green,” said Jennifer Senick, executive director of the Rutgers center, adding that specifications would address the different weather conditions around the state. She said the center constantly gets calls from people who don’t know where to turn for professional help or how to decide on products.

“Advertising and marketing is what’s confusing to the consumer,” said Robert Wisniewski, senior technical consultant at MaGrann Associates, a green-building consulting firm in Moorestown, N.J. “In reality, green is not really about what you can see; it’s about good building science. If you want something to show off, you can show off your energy bills.

“It’s not just the gadgets. It’s not just throwing in the geothermal system. It’s more looking at the house as a whole thing.”

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Charrette organizers are compiling sketches, presentation boards, etc. from the charrette wrap up on April 13. The concepts were visionary, illustrating a range of solutions that predominately focused on improved performance of the building and incorporating a sustainable restoration scheme that would bring the building into the 21st century with new systems and building elements while preserving its historic and character-defining features. For example, some proposed that the distinctive mirrored exterior walls could be retrofitted with interior glazing.

Additional natural light could be introduced into the original windowless laboratories by means of new light wells; the flat roof and parking lot areas could easily accommodate photovoltaic cells to produce “green” electricity on site, and air could be better circulated. The groups also invented new programs for the building, from high-tech laboratories, healthcare, educational and cultural, to residential with a consensus being to maintain the 472 acres as publicly accessible land.

Watch here for further postings.

Bell Labs charrette facilitator Clinton Andrews has summarized “what the charrette participants learned” this past weekend

• Proposals demonstrate flexibility of building
• A range of cultural uses are economically feasible
• Program suggested schemes are combinable
• Opportunities for better integration into community
• Poetry possible from unexpected quarters
• Expense of energy was Bell function-dependant and this expense is not a necessity for future use
• Retain existing structural cultural landscape because of its strength: it can be adapted
  
• Price of land is low, various financial incentives for reuse

• Scale becomes an advantage
• Improvement by subtraction
• Model for sustainability which on this scale has important value, e.g. green roof space
  
• Puncturing is enlivening
• Vertical and lateral punctuation enlivens building

• Smarten curtain wall, retrofit it, entire envelope can be improved
• Atrium is more than open space, with possible functionality

• Landscape is integral part of work experience

Preservation NJ, along with coalition partners AIA-NJ, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, DOCOMOMO, the Cultural Landscape Foundation, the Recent Past Preservation Network and the NJ Conservation Foundation, sponsored a charrette, which wrapped up today, that explored the adaptive use and green preservation potential of the iconic Bell Labs site in Holmdel, NJ.

Designed by architect Eero Saarinen (see TWA Terminal, JFK Airport; Dulles Airport, Gateway Arch, St. Louis; John Deere HQ, Moline, IL, etc.), the nearly 2 million sf landmark, set in a stunning Sasaki-designed landscape, has been empty for 6 months and is for sale. The site was listed in Preservation NJ’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites in NJ catalogue in 2007.

More than 35 architects, landscape architects, preservation professionals, engineers, building systems professional, planners and the like, from all over the Northeast, volunteered their time and talent to collaborate during the weekend.

The charrette opened on Friday afternoon with a tour of the shuttered building. It’s a magnificent modernistic masterpiece - huge by every measure. It’s in relatively good condition for having been empty and on minimal “life support” for six months. Friday evening saw the participants, and many members of the public from Holmdel and beyond, gather at the town’s Community Center to hear more about the history of Saarinen and the project.

A group of Bell Lab “Pioneers,” folks who worked in the building, joined in a roundtable discussion which helped to describe the building’s functionality and “spirit.” Quickly debunked was the often-stated claim that the building’s “inflexible” design and plan - it was laid out for laboratory work rather than for traditional office use - will make it unusable for 21st century commercial purposes.

On Saturday the designers and planners took to the paper and pencils almost immediately, brilliantly led by charrette facilitator Clinton Andrews, from Rutgers’ Bloustein School. Breakout teams explored possible reuse scenarios from various perspectives: architectural, marketing, systems, etc. The interchange among diverse disciplines, and the intergenerational synergy created among the senior designers working alongside young professionals and students, was exciting and stimulating.

Findings from the charrette will be presented today at the Holmdel Community Senior Center, and the Bell Labs Coalition plans to publish the results more formally for broad circulation. Bell Labs can be reused, and the charrette results we believe will demonstrate both its preservability and its marketability.

Thanks to AIA-NJ, the National Trust and the many individuals - local and national - who helped to underwrite the costs of the charrette.

More soon.

New Jersey Future, in a recent Future Facts column, points out that:

• On a per capita basis, in 2005 New Jersey residents emitted an estimated 16.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide from three principal sources: transportation (34 percent); residential, commercial and industrial fuel use (32 percent); and electricity consumption (24 percent).

• A key component in reducing greenhouse gas emissions involves driving less. According to the U.S. EPA, each gallon of gas typically results in 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

• Residents of compact, mixed-use communities—where it is safe and convenient to walk, bike, carpool and accomplish errands with shortdriving trips—typically drive 20 to 40 percent less, according the Urban Land Institute’s “Growing Cooler” report.

And where are the compact, mixed-use communities? In existing towns and cities - historic neighborhoods and Main Streets! While planning grants to NJ communities to help them explore how to locate and design compact growth is great, the opportunity is now to offer incentives for revitalization of existing, historic and already compact communities!

How about dedicating some of the funds generated by the carbon cap-and-trade law recently passed by the NJ Legislature, which directs $40 - $70 million in annual proceeds from the sale of carbon credits in the “Global Warming Response Fund,” to the Historic Rehabilitation tax credit program proposed in the Historic Properties Revitalization Act (HPRA)?

How about that for energy efficiency?

Hydroelectric proposal for historic Solitude Dam
Thursday, February 14, 2008
High Bridge, NJ

by Sue Sharpe

A group that wants the borough to repair, rather than breach, Solitude Dam is thinking ‘green,’ hoping to help re-establish a once-active hydroelectric power plant that could bring revenue into the borough. Tonight, Borough Council will vote on a resolution to explore the idea when it meets at 7:30 at the firehouse.

The dam, part of the 140-acre Lake Solitude property, once powered the Taylor-Wharton steel mill and even some High Bridge homes, according to Bill Honachefsky Jr. of the Union Forge Heritage Association. With alternative energy initiatives gaining momentum across the county and state, he believes that the time is right to use the dam for its original purpose. ‘Reinstituting hydroelectric power is a logical choice,’ he said.

In 2005 the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered the borough to bring the 42-foot-high structure up to current standards or open the dam and let the river flow unimpeded. Council is revisiting a 2001 decision for remediation and must either begin repairs or request a breaching permit by August to avoid being fined.

To create hydroelectric power, falling water from a dam’s spillway is used to turn a propeller-like turbine that rotates a metal shaft in a generator, creating electricity. Power lines from the generator carry the electricity to its intended destination. The amount of power created depends on water flow and the height of the drop.

According to Ed Smith, chief of staff to state Assemblyman Mike Doherty, much of this infrastructure is already in place at Solitude Dam, making it attractive to a potential financial partner who could help repair the dam, build the necessary equipment and sell the electricity it creates. ‘It’s probably the only standing dam in the state with a hydroelectric port,’ said Mr. Smith, who grew up in Lebanon Township.

He met with Mr. Honachefsky and borough officials on Feb. 6 to discuss reusing the dam and is enthusiastic about the prospect. ‘It combines economics and ecology,’ he said, creating electricity without carbon dioxide emissions and saving a lake ecosystem that’s existed for more than 100 years. ‘You have a historical hamlet with a steel plant that used to make cannonballs for the Revolution, and a pristine setting with a dam that’s got problems,’ he said. ‘Here’s an opportunity where everyone wins.’

Mayor Mark Desire said that the resolution, if adopted, will show potential partners that High Bridge is serious about pursuing hydroelectric power. He also encourages residents to attend the Feb. 28 council meeting, where state and borough officials and experts will discuss the dam and answer questions from the public. A larger, town-wide meeting will also be held at a later date.

© 2008 The Hunterdon Democrat