Anneli Rufus, coauthor of the recently published Scavenger’s Manifesto, takes us through a photographic preview of the David Brower Center, a multipurpose space in downtown Berkeley that will house non-profits working towards environmental and social action. The 50,000 square foot building, opening to the public on May 10th, has been designed to be “green from the ground up” and will serve as a physical reminder of the very principles it’s hoping to promote. Its construction highlights include the use of 53% recycled materials, collection and reuse of rainwater for many of the building’s plumbing needs and the installation of low-energy radiant heating and cooling systems. The center is expected to receive a LEED Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council, making it the first of its kind in Berkeley and one of only a handful in the northern part of the state.
[via Scavenging]
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It saddens me to point out that something with the wonderful name David Brower Center, with such wonderful aspirations, turns out to be just a slick version of greenwash. Yes, the David Brower Center meeds the LEEDS platinum status. .. but the simple truth is that the David Brower Center is Class ‘A’ office space, much richer and fancier than humans need to work. I don’t see how such a waste of the earth’s resources, to achieve a luxurious, unnecessary level of building space, can be considered sustainable. It isn’t sustainable to build fancy buildings. Surely we humans need to build modest facilities.
Nobody needs top of the line office space and the earth can’t support it for all so why should some elites get it?
May 11th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Additionally, the David Brower Center received critical start up funds by persuading the City of Berkeley to allocate federal housing money to the project. Brower Center began on the backs of poor people. And now they have 97 apartments next door, for affordable housing with lots of new neighbors with incomes below median income, which is not necessarily ‘poor’. Remember, Brower Center is built on the money allocated for affordable housing. . . Brower Center is a party venue, adjacent to 97 apartment homes. And I am only counting the neighbors in Oxford Plaza. Brower Center has many apartment building neighbors, including Gaia Building and Allston Place, both on the same block as Brower Center. The Gaia Building is a really bad neighbor, hosting parties that violate Berkeley noise ordnances regularly. And now Brower Center joins the block with new party noise, the whole time spouting meaningless platitudes alleging that the Brower Center cares about community and environment. Noise pollution is pollution.
Berkeley has laws about noise. These laws reflect the collective agreement of the city. But politically connected people can break the noise laws with no consequences and there is nothing the rest of us can do about it. The law says one thing . .. but oops! people with money to donate to politicians can get noise permits. And guess what? the law says even with a noise permit, noise has to cease at 10 p.m. And guess again? Politically connected people can get a variance to the 10 p.m. law and party all night, which is what the Brower Center did last Friday night. Good neighbors my ass.
May 11th, 2009 at 6:56 pm