Importing limestone from Israel, hoping for platinum LEED status
Construction for the new Barnes Foundation on the Parkway in Philadelphia is underway, with $100 million allocated the new building’s completion as part of the Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Projects (RACAP) in 2002. With the help of the taxpayer funds, the Barnes Foundation hopes to re-locate from Lower Merion in Montgomery County to downtown Philadelphia.
Another $11 million in grants was released by Gov. Ed Rendell at the end of 2010. With part of the building not yet designed, the projected cost may increase because of the museum’s environmental goals.
“We’re trying to attain the highest standard of LEED certification,” said Andrew Stewart, spokesperson for the Barnes Foundation.
The LEED certification is issued by the U.S. Green Buildings Council and stands for Leadership, Environmental and Energy Design. The Barnes Foundation on the Parkway is trying to receive the Platinum Standard certification.
“We’re doing very well right now,” said Mr. Stewart. “It’ll be a very environmentally friendly building. On top of the architects, there’s an associate architect called Ballinger from Philadelphia and they’ve taken the lead on moving ahead with the environmental design.”
While the Barnes Foundation and building designers are striving for sustainability, they are also shipping Ramon Gray limestone over from Israel – about an acre’s worth – for the exterior of the building. Limestone is found naturally in the U.S. and Pennsylvania, and the Lower Merion Barnes Foundation used locally quarried limestone.
“Yes, [it’s] from Israel,” said Beth Lilith, assistant to the building project manager. “[The LEED’s process] is a point system so they have to give us a list of all of these things we can try to reach. We’re going for platinum and it just so happens one of them we’re not going to get. We’re using Ramon Gray [limestone].”
Hy Myers, a retired Philadelphia architect, questioned the necessity of using limestone from Israel when the building is trying to be as sustainable as possible. Mr. Myers attended a forum held by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the architects designing the Barnes Foundation on the Parkway, last fall.
“That didn’t make any sense,” said Mr. Myers. “Could it be that special a material? If you were building it with lapis lazuli and there’s only one source for that, near Russia, that’s where you have to go. What they did say is they liked the fossils embedded in this limestone. Limestone all has fossils, it’s based on fossils. How could it be that special to be that less sustainable?”
Mr. Myers is also a member of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a group opposing the move of the collection from its current location in Merion, just outside of Philadelphia, to the Parkway in Philadelphia. The group is joined in their opposition to the move by the Board of Commissioners for Lower Merion Township, who issued a resolution requesting the plans to move the Barnes Foundation be abandoned.
Established in 1922 in Lower Merion Township, the collection of the Barnes Foundation is expected to move to the Parkway by the end of 2012, though no public trust has yet been established for annual maintenance and attendance typically comprises 10 to 20 percent of a museum’s revenue.
The museum will also include a large stone water basin to reuse as much water as possible, said Ms. Lilith, as well as installing solar panels on the top of the building’s light box. In addition, the construction of the new building includes some of the previous structure’s concrete and trees that were torn down to make space for the building.
Specifics such as sustainable lighting and plumbing have not yet been decided upon, however, which Janet Milkman, executive director of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council, said should be done near the start of a project.
“What the LEED certification process recommends is you use a process called integrated design, which means you get all the people involved in the building at the very beginning,” said Ms. Milkman. “Before the architect designs the building, so you get everything drafted. It’s really great to have everyone on board and understanding the goals. You can avoid some mistakes that way.”
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, out of New York City, also designed the American Folk Art Museum, for which they won awards. That museum is now facing bankruptcy after remodeling only a few years ago, and Mr. Myers said a similar fate could await the new Barnes Foundation on the Parkway.
“The economic conditions for museums are not very good now,” said Mr. Myers. “The number of people who will go there will be large in the beginning the first year or so and then it will drift downward and finally fail, from not only having attendees but also the support of donors to pay for it. Other museums are having the same exact problems all over the United States, especially new museums.”
