Press Room

Green Building Efforts “Well” Supported at Crescent Village

It’s hard to imaging that the first office building in Crescent Village’s Town Center could possibly be well on its way to achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the US Green Building Council. After all, the building’s foundation hasn’t even been poured.

But the successful drilling of two wells on the northeast corner of Shadow View Drive and Tennyson Avenue will help Arlie & Company Development Director Mark Miksis reach that goal. “LEED is really the benchmark for green building,” says Miksis, “and our goal is to reach gold or silver certification by applying innovative technologies and products into the design, construction, and operation of this building.”

The two new wells are part of the open-loop ground source water heating and cooling system planned in the 32,000 square foot Crescent Village office building. Although unusual in the Eugene area, such systems are super-efficient: it takes much less energy to heat or cool temperate groundwater than it does hot or cold seasonal air. “It’s the same general concept as a residential heat pump, but on a much larger scale,” explains Miksis.

After the water has been drawn wells through the piping to heat or cool the building, it will be returned to the aquifer in the Northeast Eugene neighborhood. “There are back-ups and safety in place to make sure the water doesn’t come into contact with contaminants or effect river quality,” says Miksis, “That’s the beauty of this system: we’re using a low-impact system to borrow one of our areas most abundant resources - groundwater - to reduce our use of a much higher-impact resource - electricity.”

The wells will improve the energy efficiency of the heating and cooling system by 35 percent and will decrease tenants’ energy bills. The building is scheduled for completion in April 2008.