If there's a payoff in producing a healthy bottom line, there's an even bigger one in a triple bottom line.
It's attention to the latter in the design of Dockside Green waterfront development that has won Victoria architectural firm Busby Perkins + Will (BPW) a 2005 Award of Excellence from Canadian Architect magazine.
Never heard of a triple bottom line? It's the architectural version of a hat trick that many hope will become standard: attention to a design's social, economic and environmental ingredients.
"In very many instances, a project will be awarded for its esthetic qualities, in others its environmental qualities, and naturally most developers look for any development to be economically viable," explains Terence Williams, BPW's managing principal architect. "In this instance, the City of Victoria adopted a policy of meeting a triple bottom line, that is, to achieve a high standard of rigour in all three elements, not just one."
Jurists noted that in the past, such rigour would produce a prosaic, utilitarian design, but in this case, BPW used the constraints to produce a design that could be a model for future developments.
Dockside Green, a project of Van City Enterprises and Windmill Developments, knits together residential, office, industrial and commercial development on a 15-acre waterfront site off Tyee Road between the Bay and Johnson street bridges. Construction is about to begin after an extensive cleanup on the polluted site, says Williams.
The project has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum rating, the highest attainable under the international standard. Features of the development include on-site sewage treatment with wastewater used in irrigation, reduced water-use in buildings, pedestrian-friendly design and on-site production of energy for heating, cooling and electrical needs through burning of wood waste.
"It establishes a really high goal for this development and for any future development," says Williams of the acknowledgment from his architectural peers. "We are extremely pleased and proud."
Jurist Claude Provencher called Dockside Green one of the most comprehensive sustainable development projects in Canada.
"We must applaud the talent and creativity of these architects, for not only have they proposed good architecture, but also strong urban design," Provencher wrote.
Williams, a founding member of the Canada Green Building Council, says such national acknowledgment could encourage Greater Victoria to become a leader in environmental design and sustainability.
"There are a lot of people living in this part of the world who are interested in [the] natural environment, and an extension of that is to start dealing with it in urban-planning terms."
Urban development and environmental concerns seem to live in a perpetual state of conflict, but Williams says LEED standards can reconcile the two.
"We have to solve the problems of housing humanity. That's why bringing together social considerations, environmental considerations and economic considerations makes a lot of sense."