Spain celebrates first LEED Platinum New Construction Building

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1 CONSEJO CONSTRUCCIÓN VERDE ESPAÑA Bilbao, Spain, June the 4th, 2012 Post Press Release. Spain celebrates first LEED Platinum New Construction Building The First LEED-NC Platinum building in Spain has been awarded the day of the 4 th of June in the City of Bilbao, in the north of Spain. It s a good time to reflect what you might find in Bilbao. First of all, the amazing Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry, now 15 years old, demonstrates once again what great architecture does: it informs, inspires and intrigues all at once. You ve all seen the photos, but inside the museum, this is an amazing experience of space and time, with geologic age sandstone and modern titanium combined into one huge volume. We would have to say, if you have time to see no other work of contemporary architecture in Europe, see this one! And we were fortunate to see a major exhibit of recent and older works by David Hockney, certainly one of great USA living artists. Also you will find the Iberdrola tower by Cesar Pelli, a Calatrava pedestrian bridge crossing the river, an Arata Isozaki residential complex close to the Guggenheim, Alhondiga storage building renovation in a shopping mall & public library by Philippe Starck, the Domine Hotel from Mariscal in front of the Guggenheim with its eclectic patio and nice terrace view towards the museum and many more interesting architecture like the Euskalduna Palace, that reflects the rust belt not so old times of this city. We have the occasion to visit Bilbao, because of a half-day green building symposium celebrating the inauguration of a new LEED-NC v2.2 Platinum Municipal sports center major renovation, of about 150,000 sq.ft., Polideportivo San Ignacio, the first such high-performance building in Spain. The organizers were the Bilbao City Hall in cooperation with the Spain Green Building Council (Consejo Construcción Verde España ), lead by Aurelio Ramirez, Msc, a civil engineer and LEED & project management consultant from Madrid. Active since 1998, the SpainGBC, has been strenuously promoting LEED, an effort which has lead finally to the pinnacle of green building achievement in Spain. It is interesting also to find out that, because of the Council s work, Spain has the third largest number of LEED registered and certified projects in Europe and Iberoamerica (22 & 101 respectively). In addition, there are about 150 LEED Accredited Professionals now in this country of 47 million, so we believe that despite the significant problems in the Spanish economy, particularly in the property ownership and real estate development sector that green building certification already takeoff in Spain. This is because many of the big Spanish international companies want to locate in LEED-certified space, from the big banks, power and energy companies, construction conglomerates, telecom, universities, to hotel chains, small medium companies and some local and regional government bodies. At this event, organized by the City of Bilbao with the support of the SpainGBC, Aurelio Ramirez (photo, at right) put in context the audience about what is the SpainGBC work, what LEED is, and some case studies about LEED buildings in the city and in Spain, we heard from the head of the Bilbao city council, the First Councilor, Mr. Ibon Areso (photo, at left) about how proud the city is of its LEED building and about how they expect that sustainable development will be a strong part of this region s future economic growth strategy. Following the opening presentation, Ramirez was joined on the panel by Zaida Basora, FAIA, Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Dallas, Texas; Lynn Perkins, AIA, Foundation New HQs Project Manager Avenida de Europa, 14, La Moraleja, Alcobendas, Madrid (Spain) tel.: fax.: Miembro Fundador del World Green Building Council (1999 San Francisco). Miembro del U.S. Green Building Council, desde el 2006 al 2011 inclusive Asociación sin ánimo de lucro inscrita en el Registro de Asociaciones del Ministerio del Interior el con el número de protocolo No y CIF.: G

2 for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and Jerry Yudelson, PE, Principal at Yudelson Associates. Basora, a former USGBC Board member (Vice-Chair), talked about how Dallas has gradually adopted green building ordinances and strategies over the past decade, a process that she has heavily influenced. Perkins discussed the work of the Foundation and its LEED Platinum headquarters building in Seattle. Yudelson a former USGBC board member & former GreenBuild Chair presented the business case for rapid development of green building in Spain. Afterward, we went to the City Hall (photo) where the Mayor of Bilbao Mr. Iñaki Azkuna, Youth & Sports Councilor, Mr. Sabin Anuzita and the former one Mr. Jon Sustatxa were presented with the official LEED certificate and the glass plaque that certify the City s achievement. In addition to Ramirez, SpainGBC Founder-Chair and Principal of the Zeta3 a pioneering LEED consultancy in Madrid, it was a great chance to get to know the other executive committee board members of the SpainGBC, Ignacio Losada SpainGBC Treasurer and Principal at PIAL an engineering consultancy in Madrid, Francisco de Paula Crespo SpainGBC First ViceChair, head of buildings for Bankinter ( a general Bank, and Javier Martin SpainGBC Secretary and Marketing Director of Aplein Ingenieros an engineering contracting-consulting company, and to discuss with them some next steps for the evolution of the Council. SpainGBC representatives were incredibly gracious hosts, taking visitors on Sunday for a tour of the City and the countryside around Bilbao. We also had a chance to spend time with Gerrit-Jan Teunissen of Traject Real Estate Management, a foremost LEED consultant from The Netherlands and founder of the nascent Dutch LEED Green Building Council, and to hear from him some of the issues in getting large real estate owners to revamp their development approaches to take into account LEED requirements. Bilbao is a very compact city, located along a river with tidal influence from the nearby Bay of Biscay (Viscaya), which has totally transformed itself the past 20 years from an aging industrial iron and coal town into a vibrant center for services, tourism and Basque culture. We can highly recommend a visit, not only for Gehry s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, but also as a point of departure for seeing the rest of nice architecture modern and old, and the lovely Basque countryside, well worth a visit, especially this time of the year and well into the fall. 2

3 From left to right: Sports Councilor Sabin Anuzita, Zaida Basora Former USGBC ViceChair, City of Bilbao Mayor Iñaki Azkuna, Aurelio Ramirez SpainGBC Chair, Vega Ingenieros Principal, Former Sports Councilor Jon Sustatxa. With plaque and certificate. 3

4 Zaida Basora former USGBC ViceChair and Aurelio Ramirez SpainGBC Chair giving the platinum certificate to City of Bilbao Mayor Iñaki Azkuna. Group Photograph at the Ceremony hall, at Bilbao City Hall 4

5 Communication department, Spain Green Building Council Avenida de Europa, 14 P.E. La Moraleja Alcobendas Madrid, Spain t e. 5