The social sustainability aspects of this project are as exciting as its environmental features. It is fairly central to the community served by Bethel New Life, a community development corporation that has developed or is developing over 100 new homes within walking distance of the center. The direct link to the El allows (as an example) a parent to drop a child at the daycare center, then head directly to work. The retail spaces, including a newly-opened Community Savings Center, inject much-needed economic life into the community.

As a potential LEED® Gold project, there are a lot of green features here. The envelope is highly insulated (R-35 walls, R-50 roof). Many commercial green projects in Chicago attempt to maximize insulation within a fairly conventional wall system; this project breaks through that barrier by using more unusual technologies such as the Solarcrete wall system. The project claims potential energy savings of 50% less than a minimally code-compliant building. This is partially achieved with the usual high-tech gizmos such as daylight-responsive light dimming and efficient mechanical systems (including heat recovery). However, energy savings this high can’t be achieved with gizmos alone. Here, the efficient envelope and thoughtful design for daylighting (with light shelves and skylights) push the project into the highest class of energy savings.

The building includes prominent green features such as a green roof and an array of solar electric (PV) panels marching along the top edge (reminiscent of the Chicago Center for Green Technology). The site was a brownfield requiring expensive environmental remediation. All of the basic green features, such as low-VOC paint and recycled-content materials, expected from a LEED® Gold project are also here.

The project had a variety of funding sources, including the usual green alphabet soup of IL DCEO, ICECF, and in this case, Chicago DOE, that pick up some of the green costs for non-profit projects. Other project team members included co-developer Matanky Realty Group, MEP engineering IBC Engineering, structural engineer TGRWA, and general contractor Phoenix Builders.