Green Development & Infill

Historic Green Development and Infill Design Standards.

Part of our mission to build a vibrant, sustainable neighborhood includes making OTR an environmentally conscious and friendly community. Green and historic are a natural match. While people often think of “old” buildings as drafty and inefficient, the truth is that we are just recently starting to approach the same levels of energy efficiency that we built at prior to the 1920’s. Although we associate large windows and high ceilings with energy inefficiency, these attributes helped keep buildings cool in summer months and can decrease air conditioning needs; and energy efficient replacement windows or quality storm windows can eliminate most of the heat loss that results from old, single-pane windows. Large windows and other sources of natural light also decrease the need for electric and can help utilize the sun for heat. Plaster on brick walls do not contain a layer of fiberglass insulation, but they are typically thick enough (usually 4 to 6 bricks wide between buildings) to have the same energy effect.

Environmentalists are also starting to look more seriously at “embodied energy,” or the amount of fuels and materials that it would take to re-build an existing structure with the same level of energy efficiency. Life-cycle is another piece of environmentalism that is often overlooked. The ecological impact of a building is more than how much electric and gas it uses. It includes the impact of the materials used to create it (e.g. chemical-soaked lumber, tar shingles, petroleum based plastics, manufacturing processes with toxic byproducts, hardwood floors and wood studs that increase deforestation, etc.) as well as the impact of getting those materials to the job site (e.g. the amount of oil and diesel fuel burned and the amount of toxins released into the atmosphere to get the products from their base elements through the manufacturing process, then delivered to a retailer and the job site.) Demolition also has negative environmental impacts. Fuels and other energy are used to tear things down. Destroying old buildings often releases toxins like lead, asbestos, and silica into the surrounding air, soil, and water. Then the debris is hauled off (using diesel) to take up space in a landfill. For all of these reasons, the buildings with the most potential to be “green” are always going to be existing, historic properties.

Unfortunately, there is an information gap between environmentalists and historic preservationists, and yet another between both environmentalists and preservationists and the contractors that do the renovation or reconstruction. The Over-the-Rhine Foundation is part of cutting-edge efforts to fix these information shortfalls and find practical, affordable solutions to doing green-historic redevelopment. We are working closely with the Hamilton County Planning Department’s Green Building Committee, our neighbor Gray & Pape, and the University of Cincinnati’s Niehoff Urban Design Studio on a set of projects designed to make Over-the-Rhine a national prototype for successful, affordable, green redevelopment of an historic urban neighborhood.

We are also working to make sure that infill construction in OTR is also both environmentally responsible as well as appropriate to the neighborhood. While this is certainly possible, it takes coordination. Some architects understand working harmoniously with a historic neighborhood, but many do not. Especially when working with alternative energy sources on properties with zero lot lines, designs that would be appropriate in suburbia require substantial modification or completely different approaches in an urban historic district. The Foundation is currently working with the National Historic Trust, the Cincinnati Architectural Foundation, and the Cincinnati Preservation Association to conduct an infill design charette in January 2008. ADD LINK TO INFILL DESIGN CHARETTE EVENT ON EVENTS PAGE(S). This is just the first of ongoing efforts to more clearly establish and maintain appropriate infill design standards.