Council Pushes For A 'Green' Museum

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 10, 2007

TAMPA - About six months before groundbreaking begins on the new Tampa Museum of Art, some city council members still want to tinker with the plans. They want the building to be "green."

They're not talking about the color but, rather, how environmentally conscious the new museum should be.

Councilman John Dingfelder, who has said Tampa is lagging behind other cities in creating environmentally friendly structures, requested a report by the end of the month on the museum's design.

Plans for the 68,000-square-foot museum already call for a "green roof," complete with lush landscaping.

Dingfelder and others said Thursday that Tampa should push harder for green buildings.

The art museum, Dingfelder said, "is a good place to start."

Councilwoman Mary Mulhern suggested the board take a hard look at a couple of other major museum projects: the new Children's Museum and Tampa Bay History Center.

In reality, the city council has little ability to dictate building standards for any of the projects. Tampa has donated land for the new Tampa Bay History Center and Children's Museum but isn't committing any other money.

The city has yet to adopt an operating agreement with the art museum or a guaranteed maximum price for the new building; that's where the council could delay construction.

Museum leaders already have approved an architect, Stanley Saitowitz of California, and a design.

Dingfelder asked that art museum leaders report to the council Aug. 30 about the building's environmental profile.

"If we don't get a satisfactory answer, maybe this council does not vote for the operating agreement," Dingfelder said.

That could be disastrous for the Museum of Art, City Attorney David Smith warned during the meeting. The project already has enough money to start work on the museum's $25 million first phase, which is roughly 44,000 square feet.

Fundraising efforts are under way to complete a 22,000-square-foot addition, Smith said.

Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena said Thursday she thought Saitowitz's design would achieve LEED certification, a special environmental designation created by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Smith told her that was never part of the plan.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation more than 950 buildings across the United States hold.

The new Tampa Bay History Center, slated to open in 2008, will seek LEED certification.

President Clarence Joseph "C.J." Roberts said it made sense to go for the stringent environmental standards because the building will get credit for being close to the streetcar line, redeveloping an industrial site and other measures, including recycling its stormwater.

So-called "green" standards encompass a range of considerations, from design and building - how construction waste is disposed of, for example - to operation elements, such as use of energy-efficient lighting, low-flow toilets and smaller boilers.

Saitowitz could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Santiago Corrada, the city's neighborhood services administrator, said Saitowitz has spoken in the past about how he tries to make his buildings as green as possible.

Judith Webb, a green building council spokeswoman, said green buildings save money only if the environmentally friendly elements are incorporated from the beginning of the design, not toward the end.

"If you design in a conventional way and tack on green things, it's going to cost a lot of money," she said.

Properly designed green buildings start saving their owners money from the day they open, she said.

Sandra Murman, a former state lawmaker who is leading fundraising efforts for the new Children's Museum, said plans aren't finalized for that $20 million structure yet.

"We're fully intending to do as much as we can to be a green building," she said.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius contributed to this report. Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or amccartney@tampatrib.com.