Wilshire Center to reduce its carbon footprint by 2050

The AIA Committee Of The Environment (COTE) had their first of three Eco Charrettes (Charrette is an architectural term for a flurry of work occurring with a tight deadline) for the Wilshire Center’s Cool District goal of an 80% reduction of green house gases by 2050. The Charrette was organized as a visioning exercise focused primarily on reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions associated with transportation and energy use in buildings. Forty participants attended the all-day event in the old Bullock’s Wilshire Building which is the now home of Southwestern Law School. The group was made up of COTE members, members from the office of the WCBIC, building owners, and invited guests; experts in the areas of building retrofitting, engineering, urban planning, renewable energy sources and waste management etc.

The event began with an introduction by Gary Russell of the Wilshire Center Business Improvement District. (WCBID) presenting the District’s mission statement for the future (2050): “Wilshire Center District becomes pedestrian focused; a district designed for people, not cars; a district of walkers, bicycles, shuttles and transit. The District becomes a place where we minimize (by 80%) the impact on our biosphere and natural resources; an eco-district. The District becomes a green sustainable urban village.” He then followed with an explanation of the Wilshire Center Cool District program, which was approved by the WCBID Board last summer and was created to reduce the District’s GHG emissions by 2% each year in the next 40 years with the goal of becoming an eco-district and a model for the some of the other one thousand business improvement districts in North America.

Since nearly half of the GHGs produced within Los Angeles arise from vehicular transportation, implementing the concept of a pedestrian-friendly eco-district was considered critical to overall progress toward the District’s goal. Another approximate 30 percent of GHG emissions within the city is associated with electrical power use, and efforts to harness solar energy within the district to generate clean power and strategies to reduce energy use in buildings were considered equally important.

A half hour brainstorming session followed, with an array of ideas from retrofitting existing buildings, sharing energy between buildings to increase the efficiency of systems, minimizing required parking for commercial buildings to encourage people to walk, clustering services near residential areas to mass scale solar installations for the District’s power. Dimitris Klapsis, a member of COTE, started with the observation that the group was meeting in what was the first suburban mall where the entry to building is from the parking in the rear, now a Law School in one of the most densely populated areas of the world and in that context the continued evolution of the District into a pedestrian friendly eco-district seemed entirely possible. Dr. Bill Roley, the director of the Permaculture Institute of Southern California, made suggestions ranging from the use of storm water for edible gardens to trees housed within buildings as bioreactors. Like comments included buildings that act as vertical farms and edible roofs insulating residences. Mel Bilow, a sustainable mechanical engineer, suggested that the District look at the Los Angeles plan for the 1984 summer Olympics; how public transportation was handled; and the willingness of the community to bike (not ride) to accommodate the influx of visitors. John of Langham Apartments brought a different perspective to the discussion. John noted that some recent street improvements had facilitated traffic movement and increased the efficiency of vehicular travel, thus reducing GHG emissions.

The group was then divided into four subgroups; Infrastructure (New resources, Creative financing, and Micro-grid), Open Space and Transportation, Commercial (Retail mixed use/big-box and office) and Multifamily Residential. Ideas were developed within each of the categories, presented, reworked and the day ended with summary presentations from each subgroup. Several of the subgroups developed ideas to reduce vehicular traffic, add photovoltaics for on-site power generation, and reduce building energy use…underscoring the practicality and importance of these strategies.

The results of the COTE Visioning Charrette will be summarized on April 22, 2008 at the opening of the Wilshire Center Earth Day/Car Free Day along Wilshire Blvd. between Western and Harvard. A brochure containing summary sketches and narrative descriptions of key strategies will be produced, and a brief presentation of the results will be given by Gary Russell (the Executive Director of the WCBID) and Christine Magar (COTE chair).