Page 27 - College Planning & Management, July/August 2018

Facilities CAMPUS SPACES
Green Demolition
Often before a new building goes up, an old building must come down. These are the steps to a systematic, sustainable approach to demolition.
BY STEPHEN ASHKIN
A CCORDING TO AN APRIL 2018 REPORT, at least 50 buildings of 10 stories or more are going up in Chicago. Now that we have entered the summer sea-
son—when building construction typically picks up—even more buildings may be under way or about to be completed.
It’s getting difficult to keep up with them all. In response, what one local business publication has done is create a “cranes report.” They publish how many cranes are found dotting the city, and use that as an indication of how much construction— and demolition—is going on.
Now, Chicago is the second-most urban city in the country, right behind New York. That means there is little or no empty space, whether that’s in the business district or on one of Chicago’s many urban college campuses. In most cases, for a new building to go up, an old one must come down.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
more than 534 million tons of construction and demolition debris is generated in the U.S. each year. However, here’s the zinger: de- molition represents more than 90 percent of this debris; the actual construction of the new facility generates only about 10 percent.
So where does all this debris go? You guessed it: to landfills.
Solving the Landfill Problem
It doesn’t need to be this way. Whether we are talking about a new office building, a new apartment building, or new construc- tion on a college or university campus, there are ways to bring sustainability into the demolition process. These opportunities are all too often unrealized or overlooked in the haste to get the new structure up and running.
To be fair, if the facility being torn down has historical signifi- cance or is filled with artifacts and building materials of importance,
JULY/AUGUST 2018 / COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 27
PHOTO © WILL IREDALE