Beyond Green : The Harlequin on its way to becoming first LEED-certified complex in Benton County
Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Harlequin office complex, anticipated to be the first LEED-certified project in Benton County, is completed and its first tenant moved in.
LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The Harlequin has been nearly 17 months in the works. Brady Hill of Four Frogs LLC and builder Charles Benningfield will both tell you the project hasn’t been easy, but the end result marks the high point of both of their careers.
The Harlequin, at the northwest corner of Southwest B and Sixth streets, is unique in a couple of ways. For starters, it’s an example of successful redevelopment within one of the oldest sections of Bentonville. A matter of blocks from the Wal-Mart Home Office, the four-building office complex boasts a combined eight office spaces, specifically designed to cater to vendors, but with the added draw of 700 to 900 square feet of fully furnished living space directly above.
The idea is to provide the ideal setup for vendors who visit Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club headquarters one to two times each month but do not need the sprawling floor of a permanent vendor office for multiple employees. But Hill, a local businessman, had an even bigger plan in mind in 2006, when he broke ground on The Harlequin. Interested in environmental responsibility and having just constructed his own home incorporating the latest environment-friendly technology, Hill founded Four Frogs LLC and began working up plans with the U. S. Green Building Council and Benningfield, of McTab Inc.
The result has added more than just vendor space in a town that has already earned itself the unofficial nickname “ Vendorville. ” Walk through the office and living space at The Harlequin, and some of the “ green” details are obvious. The floors are made of bamboo, a natural resource that replenishes itself decades faster than wood. The rooms have giant windows, and an alpine-white metal roof reflects 70 percent of the sunlight that hits its surface. Bathrooms have low-flow toilets and other plumbing fixtures that dramatically reduce water consumption. In the courtyard at the center of the four buildings, pervious concrete and green-minded landscaping have been used to limit stormwater runoff. More than 50 percent of the wood used in the construction of the project is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Anyone who happened upon the project during the building process may have noticed construction waste piled on trailers and in special bins. That’s because more than half of those scraps were recycled. More than 20 percent of the materials used in the project were manufactured or extracted within 500 miles of Bentonville.
The lighting technology employed throughout the complex will conserve up to 92 percent of the energy consumed by standard bulbs and fixtures. Add the fact that the buildings are sealed with Biofoam insulation, and utility bills at The Harlequin figure to be a fraction of those of any other comparable-size office complex in northwest Arkansas.
“ If you combined all of your utility bills into one, do you know what percentage your lighting energy would account for ? ” Hill asked. “ The answer is 34 percent. When I learned that, I was blown away. I couldn’t believe it. Just think of the difference you can make by addressing that one issue. ”
That’s the difference Hill was going for with The Harlequin.
“ I hope this project inspires more people to follow LEED standards and go green, ” Hill said. “ We’re not just talking about being energy efficient with this project. It’s about site selection, sustainable materials and, above all, being healthy. Sustainability is becoming a big word, and people are trying to get in shape, eat organic foods and better their lives. They want to lessen the environmental footprint they’re making. ”
Hill, Benningfield — who coordinated and oversaw the construction project — and the many subcontractors involved in the building of The Harlequin consulted the U. S. Green Building Council, a community of leaders working to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, every step of the way. The goal was to be the first office complex in the area to earn LEED Gold certification from the USGBC, which requires adhering to rigorous standards.
LEED Gold goes beyond those requirements set for LEED-certification status, but Hill and partners appear to be on their way to achieving their goal, as LEED-certified inspectors have been monitoring the project throughout. According to Ashley Katz, spokesman for the USGBC, Hill has submitted the necessary documentation and the 30- to 90-day review process each finished project must go through in order to determine that LEED status is under way.
Meanwhile, the first tenant at The Harlequin is moved in. Green Source, a greenminded, Seattle, Wash.-based apparel company that does business with Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, couldn’t be happier to have found a space here that mirrors its own core values.
“ We produce garments and home products from 100 percent certified organic cotton, bamboo and other materials, ” Green Source president David Basson said. “ Companies like ours really support efforts like this. Living green has moved from a trend to becoming a lifestyle. You look around, and you see organic foods, hybrid cars, bamboo clothes. By moving into The Harlequin, we’re surrounding ourselves with an environment that has the same standards. ”
The Harlequin appears to have incorporated every last detail, from the bicycle rack at the west end of the property to the Hybrid and carpool-labled parking spots around the complex. Each unit features 1, 500 to 1, 800 square feet, 700 to 900 of that being the second-floor living space.
“ So many people assume a project like this is going to cost so much more, ” Benningfield said. “ That’s just not the case. It’s about making the right choices. In some areas, we did spend more, but that usually ended up saving us money somewhere else. This project has changed the way I approach what I do; I know that much. ”
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