Convention Centers’ Green Building Boom

Author: Steve Bjerklie
March 2007

Features

With meeting-friendly renovations and a new “green” approach, convention centers offer a better array of choices for meeting professionals, from small boardroom gatherings to major consumer shows.

First, the bad news: If your meeting this year will occupy one of the major western convention centers, chances are you’ll need to work around the noise of hammers and saws. The extent of construction—renovations, remodels, expansions—in convention centers and exhibit halls across the Western U. S. and Canada is impressive: upwards of 20 centers are the focus of some kind of building effort, ranging in scope from small remodels costing $1 million to huge projects vastly expanding convention centers in Phoenix, Ariz. and Vancouver, B.C., to a brand new facility in Anchorage, Alaska.

The good news is that a lot of renovations have already been completed, including expansions to the Oregon Convention Center in Portland and the TELUS Center in Calgary, Alberta. The better news is that virtually all of the construction will make these centers and halls more meeting-and-exhibit friendly, with more convenient and more accommodating meeting spaces, improved exhibit-hall loading facilities, and better sound, light and media systems.

The best news, however, is that many of the building and renovation projects take a “green” approach: meeting professionals will see a host of improvements in recycling, environmentally-conscious landscaping, and energy-saving heat, lighting and air-conditioning. Some centers are extending the green philosophy to include foodservice as well, from improved menus featuring local fresh ingredients to composting of food waste.

The result, taken as a whole, is a better array of choices for meeting professionals, whether their meetings are small boardroom-type gatherings or major consumer-product shows.

BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR IN THE NORTHWEST

The renovations to the Oregon Convention Center comprise a case in point. The project, completed in 2004, “effectively doubled the size of the facility,” describes OCC executive director Jeff Blosser. “We added an entire new ballroom and more meeting space, created breakout rooms and increased our exhibit space by 60 percent.” The second ballroom, he points out, means that a plenary session can be held in one ballroom while luncheon or dinner is being set up in the second ballroom. “It’s a great improvement to our flexibility,” he says. Moreover, the facility now can “marry a convention with a consumer show,” which hadn’t been possible before. The result is 15 new meetings and conventions at OCC per year, and expansion of some conventions and exhibitions that were already on the facility’s schedule. The center is now the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest.

But that’s just part of the story. The ‘04 renovations and construction put the OCC on the world map in terms of green buildings—in fact, it is just the second convention center in the U.S. to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The certification covers criteria such as energy and water efficiency, recycling programs, exterior maintenance, cleaning, indoor air quality and scheduled systems upgrades. An element that Blosser is very proud of at OCC is the facility’s “white roof,” which not only helps control heating and cooling costs, but also collects rainwater in such a way that it never pools or even meets the pavement in the parking areas. Plus, the lighter roof opened up hang-point possibilities for exhibitors in OCC’s exhibition hall.

OCC recycles cardboard, wooden pallets and shrink wrap from exhibitions, composts its food waste and donates leftover food to local food banks. Blosser says these efforts create cost savings, which can be passed on to meetings and conventions: “it’s just good business.” More importantly, however, the LEED certification and the environmentally friendly facility programs respond to what Blosser says he’s seeing more and more from meeting professionals: environmental requirements listed as part of a planner’s RFP. “Having things like the recycling and the food-donation programs, plus the LEED certification of the facility itself, has made us a good match for those groups that are conscious of the environmental impact of meetings—and believe me, there are more and more of those. We had the national Unitarian convention here a while ago, and their RFP had a whole list of requirements including foodservice from sustainable-agriculture sources, waste recycling, etc. But we’re in a position to handle that kind of business now.”  

Expansion news out of the 350,000-square-foot Washington State Convention Center is that the center is now looking to obtain an additional block of space that is conveniently located across the street. This would add new exhibit and function space of about 75,000 square feet. The location is at the corner of 8th and Pike. Meanwhile, the center does “recycle anything and everything,” says Heather Bryant of Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, plus it has an efficient lighting system. As things are renovated and changed, Bryant explains, they’re always looking for ways to update to meet contemporary environmental standards.

THE SOUTHWEST FOLLOWS SUIT

LEED certification is the goal of the renovation and expansion now underway at the Phoenix Convention Center. A cooperative effort of the city of Phoenix and the state of Arizona, the $600 million project will add 570,000 sq. ft. of meeting and exhibition space to bring the total of rentable space to 900,000 sq. ft. In overall size, the center will rank among the top 20 convention centers in the country.

The center’s new West Building opened last July, and Paul Peterson, spokesperson for the center, said the building will be submitted for LEED certification soon. “We’ve had a long-standing recycling program here; it’s part of our core-belief system,” he says. “LEED takes us to the next level.” The old North Building has been torn down, with a new four-level building in its place scheduled to open next year. North will be connected to West via skybridge and underground tunnel; the existing South Building, undergoing refurbishment, will stand alone as a self-contained facility. Peterson adds that the new West Building has an exclusive conference-center level designed to accommodate business meetings and other gatherings that don’t require acres of square footage.

Phoenix’s green approach has included recycling all of the excavated material (270,000 cubic yards) for the new West Building—this sand-and-gravel “cobble,” as it’s called, is crushed and used to make new concrete and asphalt paving material. Some building materials will be manufactured from recycled materials, and all construction materials will be sourced from no more than 500 miles away to conserve fuel used in transport. All of the buildings comprising the center will feature Energy Star-compliant roofing to reduce air-conditioning costs, and all landscaping will be xerographic—that is, water-efficient, an especially important consideration in the parched Southwest.

“We were limited by the size of the old center,” comments Peterson. “Now we can attract probably 80–85 percent of all the conventions and exhibitions held in the U.S. We’re in a great city with great weather, and we’re right in the heart of a downtown that’s being seriously revitalized with stores, hotels, restaurants and galleries. Chase Field” —the home of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks franchise— “is right across the street. The convention center is in fact the cornerstone of the whole redevelopment of downtown Phoenix.”

In Santa Fe, N.M., an entirely new convention center is rising on the site of the former Sweeney Convention Center. Slated for a late 2008 opening, the nearly $50 million structure will offer more than 72,000 sq. ft. with an exhibit area of nearly 19,000 sq. ft. While the specifications for the new center conform to the LEED Silver rating, the design of the structure will meld beautifully with the traditional style of the immediately adjacent historic center. Expect to find textured adobe walls with rounded corners, fireplaces in some of the rooms and lovely courtyards with fountains. “For me, it represents Santa Fe coming of age, with deference to its great roots in history, culture and the arts,” says Chris Madden, director of sales. “But also, it’s the city leaping into the 21st century with a building that can support the kind of business we seek and have great economic impact, while allowing us to keep our history, culture history of community and art in place.”

ECO-SAVVY CALIFORNIA CENTERS

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the city’s reputation for a progressive culture, San Francisco has also put a green touch to its central convention facility. Last October, the Moscone Center was named one of five winners of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Award, recognizing the center’s use of renewable energy. A solar electric system, owned by the city and county of San Francisco (as is the center itself) and involving a 60,000-square-foot photovoltaic array to generate electricity, was installed in 2004 on the roof of the center’s south lobby and Esplanade ballroom and has been providing abundant energy for the center ever since. It generates enough power—on sunny days—to power more than 550 homes. “This solar project marks the city’s first major step towards achieving its goal of obtaining all municipal energy from pollution-free sources,” said San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. 

Located less than an hour south of San Francisco, the Santa Clara Convention Center is another environmental award winner. The 20-year-old center has been honored with the WRAP award three years in a row, and is in the running for a fourth. This is given by the California Integrated Waste Management Board in recognition of the center’s exceptional effectiveness at recycling. Beyond the recycling, the center’s caterer contributed 5,640 lbs of food in 2005 to Second Harvest Food Bank.

The Santa Clara Convention Center is also undergoing an expansion and LEED certification is a goal of in the construction of its new 24,000-square-foot ballroom addition. “We’ve been working diligently,” says Steve Van Dorn, president and general manager, “within our budget, at a level that meets those requirements.” But comes down to dollars and cents. “People don’t realize how expensive green is,” he says. The new structure will be filled with natural light streaming in from its skylights and completely glass exterior, yet it will also be energy-conserving and can be darkened for A/V needs. The completely column-less space, divisible into six sections, is slated to be finished at the end of 2008. More changes may be afoot; the center is adjacent to a site that is under serious consideration for a new San Francisco 49ers football stadium.

In Palm Springs, a $34 million expansion of the Palm Springs Convention Center, completed early last year, created an almost new facility with a 120,000 sq. ft. with panoramic views of the dramatic desert mountains west of the city. High-speed Internet service has been added as well, and 12 new loading docks ease exhibition preparation and load-out.

In addition, a new “trash to treasure” program at the Palm Springs center collects unused or unwanted items from exhibition-hall exhibitors at the conclusion of shows and donates appropriate items—floral arrangements, plants, candy, even some medical supplies—to a local senior center. The response to the new program, report the convention center’s spokespeople, has been overwhelming.

Matthew W. Voreyer, deputy general manager of the 384,000-square-foot Sacramento Convention Center reports that this month they will be hosting the Green California Summit and Expo. The center, built in 1974 and expanded in 1996, has an extensive recycling program and also multiple energy-saving initiatives in place, one of which includes selling the meeting space in such a way as to conserve heat light and power. The center is also certified by the city’s utility district to use Green e-certified renewable energy for electricity. Better than recycling is not to use paper in the first place. The center’s collateral goes by e-mail. Interested planners call the booking office to talk over the rooms, while looking at floor diagrams online. “While talking with them, I can decide which room will work for them,” Voreyer says, “then I e-mail the specifics, contracts and so on. It’s pretty much paperless. Only the check has to come in the mail!”

NEW BUILDINGS, OLD LANGUAGES AND THE OLYMPICS

Like Phoenix, Anchorage wanted to energize downtown with a revitalized convention facility—or, in this case, a convention “district.” The new Dena’ina Civic & Convention Center is nearly half-finished, with an opening scheduled for late 2008. The facility, which will cover 215,000 sq. ft. when finished, will feature a 50,000-square-foot exhibit hall, plus loading docks and support space on a first floor, and a ballroom, breakout rooms and kitchen/catering on a second floor. The Dena’ina Center, named for the historic (and now nearly extinct) language spoken by the Cook Inlet Athabascan tribe, is part of a designated convention district within Anchorage that includes the William A. Egan Center (also undergoing renovation) and the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. The district abuts Anchorage’s central shopping, restaurant and downtown hotel area.

The huge, high-profile, $540 million expansion of the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (VCEC) is part of Vancouver’s makeover in preparation for the 2010 Olympics—a massive construction effort that’s changing the very face of Vancouver with new athletic facilities. The impending Games have already attracted new hotels, new restaurants and new stores; renovations to existing hotels, restaurants and the downtown area are underway as well.

The VCEC will serve as the Combined Main Media Centre during the Games, home-base for an estimated 10,000 members of the media from around the world. A new addition will comprise the International Broadcast Centre. But it’s the post-Games convention market that the expansions are being designed and built for. Existing exhibition space will grow from 91,000 sq. ft. to 316,000; existing meeting space will increase from 25,000 sq. ft. to 85,500, and the number of meeting rooms will increase from 20 to 73. The facility’s Signature Ballroom will transform from a 17,000-square-foot space to a 72,800-square-foot great room. These expansions put the VCEC in a new league in terms of meeting business: now, all but the very largest conventions and exhibitions can be accommodated at the facility.

Like the Portland and Phoenix projects, the Vancouver expansion focuses on a green path. BCHydro, the major energy supplier in British Columbia, has awarded a “Power-Smart” designation to VCEC, which has also received a “Go Green” honor from the Building Owners and Managers Association. The Centre’s extensive recycling program saw almost half of the total waste produced last year recycled. Menus in the Centre’s foodservice include “Happy Earth” choices, including a green breakfast buffet with locally sourced and organic ingredients.

Elsewhere in Canada, the TELUS Convention Centre in Calgary, Alb., completed a major expansion last September to create four separate new meeting rooms, each approximately 1,400 sq. ft., and a new prefunction lobby space inside what was an older exhibit hall. The renovation features top-grade material, including butternut doors at the meeting-room entrances.

“The expansion helps us compete with Vancouver and Toronto,” says TELUS spokesperson Heather Lundy. “Now we can go after business that’s been in those cities but wasn’t really available to us before—we’ll have a lot more flexibility.” A new recycling program has been added as part of the renovation.

Another Olympic town, Salt Lake City, also added to its convention center, the Salt Palace, in connection with the Games; the facility hosted the ice-skating competitions. But expansion since the 2002 Winter Games held in Utah, completed in July of last year, added a new 145,000-square-foot exhibit hall and 64,000 sq. feet of more meeting space, putting the Salt Palace in the rank of the Phoenix, Vancouver and OCC centers.

A $65 million two-phase project in Reno, Nev., completed in 2005, created a new special-events center in downtown that’s appropriate for large audiences and includes a ballroom and convention area. The multipurpose hall on the first floor can accommodate concerts, indoor sporting events, large dinners and small conventions and trade shows; meeting rooms and suites occupy the second floor at the Reno Events Center. Overall, the new facility covers 118,000 sq. ft., with 55,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space in the first-floor main room. There is available wireless Internet service and LAN service.

PART OF SOMETHING WHOLE

“Conventions are changing, and convention centers need to change with them,” comments OCC’s Jeff Blosser. “The old approach of just providing a lot of square feet in a box doesn’t cut it anymore. The people who plan meetings and conventions want them to be memorable, and that includes the building as well. When people go home from the OCC, we want them to say, Wow. We want them to be impressed with the steps we’ve taken to give them a great meeting at a good price, and we also want them to be impressed with the way our center is involved in our city, in our community and in our environment. You can’t operate in isolation anymore. You are part of something whole.”

Paul Peterson of the Phoenix center adds “To be part of a revitalized downtown is really exciting for us; it makes us part of the city as a whole. It used to be that convention centers were kind of apart from all the other business of a city, but no more. The new centers are as important to their cities and to the local culture as a concert hall or a ballpark. They can be emblems of a city as well as useful for groups from all over the country.”