Millennium Water JANUARY 10 www. bus- ex. com 91 The site's historical legacy was preserved in the design. For instance, the 16,000- square- foot Salt Building, built in 1930, is being restored to house small retail shops including a brewpub, bakery and coffee-grinding facility. The building's original function was to receive raw salt, which was then processed and shipped throughout the province of British Columbia. " It's a fabulous old building that opens onto a public plaza designed in a shipbuilding motif to reflect the historic background of this site," Bayley explains. Because the site had been an area of intense shipbuilding, rail activity and heavy industrialization since the 19th century, it required environmental remediation. In fact, the remediation and excavation project is the largest in Vancouver history. " There was more Liberty Ship tonnage built on this site than anywhere else in the world," Bayley says. Then in the mid- 1990s, Vancouver's prominent architectural planners introduced the concept of a sustainable community with a European flair. This meant a departure from Vancouver's focus over the last decade on high- rise towers, typically 20 stories to 40 stories high. Millennium Water incorporates a mix of non-

92 www. bus- ex. com JANUARY 10 market housing, rental housing and market housing. For instance, 750 units of market housing will offer condos ranging from 560 square feet to 3,900 square feet costing $ 850 to $ 2,000 per square foot. Twenty percent of the units will be non- market housing, accounting for 252 units, of which 64 units will be senior housing. Another 110 units will be allocated to rental housing under a 20- year mandate. Increasing density required additional resources, amenities and public spaces relative to improved lifestyle issues, says Bayley. The intent will be to minimize the need to leave the site by providing strong pedestrian precincts, outdoor recreational spaces, restaurants and childcare facilities that support a constructive lifestyle while being close to work, public transportation and shopping. " The focus is to bring everyone together around the central community common- typical for a small European city." " There is a lot of serendipity about this project," notes Bayley. " For instance, instead of tucking stairwells in the center of the building, we pulled them outside so residents have to walk along pleasant outdoor places with lots of opportunity to bump into their neighbors. So there is the emphasis on promoting the opportunity for interrelationships with others." Adhering to the city's aspiration to install a district energy system based on a sewer heat- recovery source, the system is now in place producing about 65 percent of the energy required for the village's heating and hot water needs. " This kind of technology has only been used a few times in the world," Bayley reports. " In celebration of the system, we built chimneys in the shape of a hand, and on top of the flues are fingernails that light up green when the project is using sewer heat and red when the project uses natural gas." Bayley initially raised a lot of eyebrows when he proposed installing radiant heating and cooling systems in the ceilings, but he obtained the support of the developer. " The Olympics scheduling demands really pushed us away from talking about it to getting it done," Bayley says. " This choice created other passive design elements we had to incorporate, such as improving wall performance, glazing and ventilation systems." Water was another sustainability focus. " We save 40 to 50 percent of the potable water requirements for a project this size," reports Bayley. All rainwater on the site is gathered and stored in cisterns under each of the parcels and is used for flushing toilets. Rainwater in the streets is gathered and routed to nearby Hinge Park, where it circulates through a pond there and drops sediment before heading into False Creek. This system significantly reduces the amount of water sent into the sewer system. The project involving the 64 senior units is now a net-zero initiative. By enhancing the physical characteristics of that building, the overall energy demand was reduced FVB Energy Inc. is a specialist district energy consulting firm with over 40 years of advising clients on district heating, cooling and combined heat and power around the world. FVB Energy's leading reputation in district energy is based on years of management, marketing and operating experience with successful district heating and cooling companies. FVB Energy provides a unique and specialized district energy service to meet client needs: . Business and technical issues are quickly identified and jointly considered from the outset. . Valuable " lessons learned" through broad local, national and international experience to our clients. . Knowledge of energy customers, markets and business economics help drive system design decisions FVB Energy Inc.