BY Linda F. Jarrett
ROBERTS BROTHERS
LEED BY EXAMPLE
Michael and Steven Roberts are poised to make their mark on downtown St. Louis in a big way.
The Roberts Tower, a 25-story structure of energy-efficient light will soon illuminate the skyline when it opens in 2009.
Roberts Tower
At $70 million, the glass and steel structure will be the first high-rise residential development in downtown St. Louis in 40 years. Moreover, it is being designed to achieve a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, and will be the first certified green high-rise building in the Midwest.
GREEN PHILOSOPHY
Building green was something that Steven and Michael had been incorporating into their projects for some time.
Roberts Tower Sales Office
"We have about $34 million square feet of rental, residential, commercial and office property in our portfolio," Steven says. "We thought as we renovate buildings, hotels or schools, or build new homes, why can't we make those green? So, we basically changed our philosophy as developers."
Michael says that they both have had "serious concerns about how every human affects the carbon footprint of the world. It starts with the individual."
Their commitment to the environment began in college, Michael says, when "we wore earth shoes! It's always been a passion for us, and we are now at the point financially where we can do it and it's not costing us more money."
When renovating their headquarters, the Victor Roberts Building on North
Kingshighway Boulevard, the Roberts went the extra step to make a portion of the building green.
(Left to right): Brothers Michael and Steven Roberts
"Remember," Steven says, "This was built as an old Sears Store in 1928, so you know they didn't care about efficiency too much." When finished, the renovation qualified for LEED Certification.
The brothers continued to build green including their Roberts Place Homes at Union and Delmar avenues, their renovation of the Roberts Mayfair Hotel, and their Tower Sales Office at 9th and Locust.
"The exhibit display cost half a million," Michael says. "It also qualified for LEED
certification, and it shows the units and how they will function."
GREEN FEATURES
To achieve Gold LEED Certification, Roberts Towers condominiums will feature environmentally-friendly bamboo floors and high-efficiency insulated windows. They will also use geothermal energy for heating
and cooling.
Steven says that utility bills for residents could be as low as $100 a month—this for two and three bedroom condos ranging from 1,300 to 2,200 square feet.
"We will be using geothermal heating and cooling as we did at Roberts Place
Homes," Michael says. "We'll be insulating walls, using insulated foam concrete, and we'll use recycled products for drywall,
carpet even the countertops in the
bathrooms and kitchens. They look like
granite, but they're a ground recycled
product."
No urea formaldehyde glue will be used
in construction, he adds. "That's what you smell when you get in a new car. Off gases from construction can last in your home for 20 to 30 years, and you don't know you're inhaling it."
The end result, he says, is to reduce energy use by 75 percent by using sustainable materials and design the structure to reduce CO2 emissions.
THE LUXURY COMPONENT
Attached to the Roberts Mayfair Hotel, which, incidentally, was the Roberts brothers' first foray into the hotel business, the 55-unit tower will offer top of the line amenities to its residents.
"When we were looking to do the downtown development about four years ago, we wanted the newest high-rise residential development in more than 50 years to be very unique," says Steven Roberts.
And unique it will be. Steven says that by being attached to the Roberts Mayfair, residents will have access to concierge and hospitality services, laundry services and a raft of other amenities from room service and maid service to pet walking.
The first floor will contain a restaurant and bar overlooking the new Post Office Plaza. The second and third floor will be tied into the hotel with a meeting space for conventions or conferences. Luxury condominiums will occupy the fourth to 25 floors with penthouses on the 24th and 25th floors. A fitness center, spa, and salon will occupy the 23rd floor. Full glass exteriors will encircle the building.
"Where ever you are, you will look out at
spectacular views of the urban canyon that is Downtown St. Louis," Steven says.
Whatever project the Roberts Brothers undertake, they will make sure that it will not have a negative impact on the environment.
"It's an issue of people making the right
decision," Michael says. "We feel we should lead by example and that's what we're doing."
ENTER VERTEGY
The Roberts knew that designing and building a project this size for Gold LEED Certification would take a business experienced in green building. Enter Vertegy, the award-winning sustainability consulting firm.
Vertegy General Manager Thomas Taylor says the USGBC has four levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The higher the level, the more points required.
"Since we're taking a parking lot and
turning it into a high rise, you have quite a bit of the sustainable site section of the
rating system available," he says, "because it's being constructed in a deep urban area."
In other words, the location gives residents and employees access to mass transit, a connection to the community and proximity to basic services such as a grocery store, pharmacy or restaurant.
"The building shell design is around 20 percent more efficient than a standard building, so utility bills will be less,"
says Taylor.
The design incorporates geothermal glass with a greater amount of insulation on the building, along with higher efficiency
systems inside the buildings and the units.
Vertegy also looked at new technology to use a lower amount of power for lighting the building without diminishing the quality and using water-saving fixtures in the kitchen and bathroom.
"From the materials standpoint," Taylor says. "We put the highest amount of
recycled content into the building materials like using reinforcing steel, and using fly
ash as an admixture to the cement in some cases."
They will also use a synthetic drywall, which is recycled gypsum mixed with fly ash, then use a recycled paper for the backing.
"This product has the same quality attributes as regular gypsum wall board, costs the same, and is readily available in the St. Louis market," Taylor says. "We're also using as much regionally manufactured material as possible in the building."
He gave concrete as an example of a material not only locally manufactured,
but extracted. "We quarry the stone for aggregate, and dredge rivers for the sand that's used. These materials are extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of the
project site."
Taylor says they were looking at ways to increase the indoor environmental quality by not using materials that give off volatile organic compounds (VOCs). "Those have been linked to complications with upper respiratory disease as well as affecting
people with multiple chemical sensitivity disorders, so we're doing everything we can in the specifications and construction
techniques to keep those out of the
adhesives, sealants, paints, carpet systems and other materials, and not allowing them to be brought in the building during the construction process.
"It's quite an achievement to see an owner dedicated to going as high as the gold level rating," Taylor says. "It's been a long project in process of development, and it's good for St. Louis."
Post Office PLAZA
By Linda F. Jarrett
In July, downtown residents, visitors and employees will have a new place to hang out when Post Office Plaza has its grand opening.
Rendering of Post Office Plaza at night
As part of the Downtown Now! Plan developed in 1999, the $8.16 million plaza will sit on a vacant lot at Eighth and Ninth streets. Toronto-based firm Baird Sampson Neuert designed the plaza after winning an international design competition sponsored by the Gateway Foundation.
President and CEO of Downtown Partner-ship, Jim Cloar, says the theme of the 30,000Ðsquare-foot Plaza follows the Greek Myth of Didalaus and Icarus escaping from the Island of Patmos.
The focal point will be a sculpture, "Torso di Ikro," (The Torso of Icarus) by artist Igor Mitoraj.
Other features include an area with benches and trees called "The Labyrinth," suggestive of the kind of labyrinth where Didalaus and Icarus wandered through in their first exile," Cloar says.
"The middle portion will be an open area where some events could be held, and the southwestern portion has an area called 'The Island of Thorns,' again following mythology," he says.
The plaza will be a linchpin of the Old Post Office Square Development that includes the renovated Old Post Office building at 815 Olive St. and the Roberts Brothers Properties' $70 million 24-story residential tower next to their Mayfair Hotel at Locust and Eighth Streets.
Developing the Plaza is important not only by giving people a new place to go, but for the National Trust for Historic preservation for its support in restoring the Old Post Office and its role in revitalizing adjoining neighborhoods.
Financing included $5.2 million from the Danforth Foundation, $2.38 from US Bancorp Community Development Corpor-ation and $585,000 from the Gateway Foundation.
Shane Williams, project manager with Kozeny Wagner, will oversee construction of the plaza.
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