Empire goes green(er)

Empire Properties, the force behind some of downtown Raleigh's most distinctive preservation-oriented development efforts, has taken on a new creative challenge:

Green building. That is, even greener than the company's usual architectural recycling.

Empire is seeking certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program for its renovation of the 1870 Heilig Levine Building at the corner of Wilmington and Hargett streets, WRAL TV reports:

More than 50 percent of the interior will be constructed with recycled wood, and 75 percent of construction waste will be recycled. Interior paneling will be made out of old tobacco-barn wood from eastern North Carolina, the cabinets will be built of wheat straw, and countertops will be made of recyclable aluminum.

Daylight sensors will require less lighting, but the building must provide daylight and outside views to 90 percent of occupants.

There must be showers and storage room for bike to encourage alternate transportation. The building must also reduce faucet-water use by 80 percent, and toilet-water use 20 percent.

Cherokee Investment Partners, a Raleigh-based firm that specializes in the sustainable redevelopment of environmentally contaminated properties, pushed for the certification, according to WRAL. The firm eventually plans to lease about half of the renovated building.

Offered by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED certification is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance, environmentally sustainable buildings.

The Heilig Levine renovation is one of six LEED-registered projects in Raleigh. Others include a former gas station at 701 N. Person St., now the offices of Brown & Jones Architects, and the Raleigh Convention Center.