Although, the process of demolition, digging a hole, and building an underground garage is not glamorous or all that green on the surface we enjoyed it and found the green lining in it.

First of all, big powerful construction trucks are cool for guys no matter how old you are (especially my 2 1/2 year old son). Then watch them rip down a building, drill deep holes into the earth, hoist 30 foot steel beams into place, and dig out 15,000 cubic feet of dirt they become cooler. Then power them with biodiesel created from recycled vegetable oils collected from Southern California restaurants and they become even cooler.

Starting from demolition throughout the entire project all construction site vehicles will be powered by biodiesel, B100. When we first requested this of our sub contractors we got some funny looks, but they soon saw their construction trucks performed just as well. Plus, they started to see and pay more attention to some of the other green measures we were asking them to follow.

The demolition company we selected typically rips down and sorts different building materials to recycle but not to the degree we were asking of them. Their first surprise was when we had them carefully remove a piece of music studio control room glass. This was a delicate job for a demolition company, but we needed to save it because glass like this is not made anymore and it was worth close to $10,000. Instead of just breaking it and recycling it, we and the Robb Brothers donated it to a music studio for kids. The next surprise was when we wanted to take pictures of and get receipts for all the mixed waste, concrete, masonry, and steel that was divided up, put in different dump trucks and taken to different recycling centers. The demo guys had never seen two geeky looking business guys so interested in trash. All in all, 90% of the former Cherokee Recording Studios was recycled. Sometimes destroying can be green.

After the old was gone the next step in building our green infill development was to dig a big hole to put in underground parking. This process consisted of drilling holes to put 30 foot steel soldier beams around the perimeter to hold the wall of earth up around the garage. Shoring and lagging up those walls as the big machines dug all the dirt out on the way down to the bottom of the basement kept the dirt from falling back into hole. Then the Shotcrete subcontractor came in and shotcreted the walls of the hole to make it solid and prevent future water and dirt penetration into the garage.

 While the enormous drill, big crane, excavators, bulldozers, and loaders where pretty exciting you might be wondering how green this could be. Well, steel is recyclable and this steel contained recycled material most likely from old cars, the shotcrete consisted of 30% fly ash (which is a waste byproduct of coal plants), and the trucks again were powered by biodiesel. Digging a hole to bury parking is much better than putting it on surface parking lots for a number of reasons. First of all, it is a much more efficient use of land in a dense infill location that takes advantage of existing public infrastructure, transit, and local commercial services. It reduces heat island effect as surface parking lots absorb heat. Plus, surface parking lots often add to our storm water runoff problems by allowing all the engine oils and dirt to wash directly into the storm drains. Lastly, parking lots in an urban pedestrian locations are much less desirable than buildings that contain community serving retail or other more attractive elements than a hot parking lot of cars.

So, the first part of Cherokee Lofts and the first LEED Gold project in Hollywood has been completed. It all happened on schedule, on budget, and with our green goals achieved. Now it’s time to start actually building and coming up out of the ground in a green way. Stay tuned…