An environmental group is building its headquarters to be energy-efficient and eco-friendly.

Sunday, October 22, 1998

Tom Stuckey
Associated Press

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- When the Chesapeake Bay Foundation moves into its new headquarters in December, employees will use flushless toilets and wash their hands in unheated rainwater.

A system of computerized red and green lights will tell them when, in the interest of energy efficiency, they should open and close windows. Photo sensors will turn off the lights when enough natural light is shining through the glass walls looking out over Chesapeake Bay.

Rain that runs off the parking lot will be routed through two filtering systems and wetlands before entering the bay, at which time it is supposed to be pure enough to drink.

Those are just a few of the features incorporated in what foundation officials think will be one of the ``greenest'' office buildings ever built.

Chuck Foster, director of fleets and facilities for the foundation, said environmental criteria guided every decision, from building materials to office funiture, landscaping and the height of outdoor lighting, which is low to reduce the impact on birds at night.

``Every building material was looked at'' with environmental questions in mind, Foster said.

What was the recyclable content? How long was the life cycle? How far would materials be transported from the manufacturing site? How much packing material would be used?

And, looking into the future, the final question: ``When it dies, can it be made into something useful again?'' Foster said.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental group that works to restore the health of the bay, has offices scattered in several locations throughout Annapolis. It spent several years looking for a site for a new headquarters.

It settled on a 33-acre tract on Chesapeake Bay in the community of Bay Ridge at the mouth of the Severn River, a few miles from downtown Annapolis. A gift of $7.5 million from Philp Merrill, publisher of Washingtonian magazine, The (Annapolis) Capital and four other newspapers, provided the major funding for the headquarters.

The property had been a public beach and banquet facility, but the owner closed it and planned to sell lots for high-end housing. Bay Ridge residents then approached the foundation about buying the property for its headquarters.

The decision drew mild criticism from people who thought the foundation was not being true to its environmental principles by moving out of town into a residential community.

``I would have liked to see them stay in town. There is bus service. We have a variety of of places for lunch,'' Annapolis Mayor Dean Johnson said. ``Where they are moving they'll have to get into an automobile simply to go to lunch.''

Geoff Oxnam, spokesman for the bay foundation, said the decision was environmentally sound.

The property is located in a priority funding area under Gov. Parris Glendinening's ``smart growth'' program, and it already was developed with a large swimming pool and several buildings.

``We built on the footprint of the existing facility,'' Oxnam said.

The foundation will be restoring wetlands and marshes and improving wildlife habitat, he said.

Tom Eichbaum, partner in Smith Group Architects, which designed the building, said residential development of the property would have has a more engative impact on the environment than its use by the bay foundation.

Eichbaum said it was fun to design what he called ``this wonderful puzzle that is slowly emerging.''

One example of an environmentally friendly design element: using cork flooring throughout most of the building instead of carpeting, even though carpeting would have cost less. Cork is quiet, is a warm color and does not give off harmful gases as does some carpet. Plus it is a renewable resource, Eichbaum said.

``You harvest cork, and the tree remains alive. You're not destroying a forest,'' he said.

The designers used wood from old pickle barrels salvaged by Foster to build sun screens that will reduce heat in the summer but allow sun to help heat the building in the winter.