The Grand Rapids Press

Environmentally-conscious developer or cost-conscious developer?

Guy Bazzani doesn't think the two have to be mutually exclusive.

"If you can't think past the first costs, you're in trouble efficiency-wise," said Bazzani, whose Bazzani Associates Inc. building design and restoration work can be seen around Grand Rapids.

At the soon-to-be-completed Helmus building, 959 Wealthy St. SE., Bazzani has taken restoring historic buildings up a notch, to equipping old buildings for a long and energy-efficient future.

"One of my lines is, 'There's a lot of destruction in construction,' " he said. "We've got to look at natural capital."

Maximizing the natural capital of the Helmus building -- vacant sice 1977 -- meant reusing many of the building's existing features such as damaged lumber as landscaping woodchips, using a former exterior wall -- still with an old painted advertising slogan -- as an interior wall and installing skylights from the roof to redirect sunlight to the building's darkest areas.

The 10,000 square-foot Helmus building was constructed in the 1920s to store paper and books. Bazzani has renovated it to U.S. Green Building Council standards for a variety of uses, including his own offices and those of non-profit group Clean Water Action & Clean Water Fund.

Meeting green standards calls for a commitment to the "triple bottom line," Bazzani said: economic viability, social responsibility and environmental sensitivity.

And while he concedes it is "slightly more" expensive to build this way, "Within two to five years it's paid off, and it's the gift that keeps on giving."

In addition to typical green practices such as energy-efficient furnaces, insulation and water flow measures, the earth-toned walls were painted with non-toxic paint. The carpeting and ceiling pads are recycled. And the awnings at the front of the building are positioned to let sunlight in in the winter and keep it out in the summer.

"It's really simple stuff," Bazzani said. "But it's what sets us apart from the rest of the gang."

Bazzani's offices opened on Oct. 7. When the upstairs is finished at the end of the year, that area will serve as residential and studio space for Bazzani and his wife, artist Carole Walters. The upstairs was designed so that should the couple ever move, it can be easily converted into three apartments.

But the crowning glory of the project isn't inside the building; it's on top. In Bazzani's apartment, a spiral staircase leads to a "vegetated green roof."

The flat roof has been separated into a concrete patio; a garden of maintenance-free, drought-resistant grasses and flowers planted in five inches of soil that sits atop layers of insulation, a mat to collect moisture and tiny "cups" that collect rainwater and disperse it over time; and a gravel-filled area that channels rainwater to the planted area.

"There is virtually no stormwater run-off with this," Bazzani said. "It can hold up to an inch of rainfall a day."

The 12,000 square-foot building to the west, also being rehabbed by Bazzani and now renamed The Frederick, is expected to be signing on a mix of retail and office tenants by the end of the year.

The buildings, located in the Wealthy Theater district, are in an area designated by the city as a traditional business district and a renaissance zone.

Bazzani has lived in the neighborhood for decades, and said he wouldn't want his office or his home to be anywhere else.

"I love the city, I love a pedestrian world," he said. "The warmth and feel of a neighborhood, of walking to a coffee shop, being part of a community. To me, that's a good day."

Bazzani comes from a family of builders and has worked on solar buildings in Oregon and done earthquake restoration in California.

He headed up the 1983 restoration of what is now Gibson's restaurant on Lake Drive SE, designed and constructed the One Trick Pony restaurant downtown and refurbished a row of buildings in the East Fulton business district.

His next project, designing a row of new turn-of-the-century-style retail shops at the corner of Lake Drive and Diamond Avenue SE, is expected to break ground in the spring.