Seriously, we won't hug them......

Before we started this process, I wouldn't have thought of trees as "part of the building." Scott Kelly of Re:Vision taught me I was wrong about that on our first visit to the site. When Scott, Bill Vitale (of DesignWorks) and I first visited the site, I asked Scott if the site would be good for a green building. Scott pulled out a solar path finder (which is like a half-sphere reflecting globe) and began talking excitedly about how the sun would move across the site.

Almost immediately, he pointed to the length of Court Street on the site and said, "We'll plant trees along here"(remember, we hadn't even decided to buy the property yet). Scott explained to me that deciduous trees along the southern side of the building would provide shade during the summer months that would help reduce the cooling requirement of the building, the size of the air conditioner we would need, and our overall energy costs.

Then, in the winter months when the sun sits low in the sky, the leaves would be gone. That's when you want to grab as much of the sun's heat as you can to lower the amount of heat you need to generate to warm the building. And, you guessed it, smaller heat plant = lower energy costs.

So, as soon as the building is done, trees will be planted along the southern, eastern and western sides of the building.....all carefully positioned to help naturally manage sunlight. For an interesting set of facts about the environmental benefits of trees, click here.