Building Blocks Lazarus: Largest Green Building the Midwest
Budding trees aren’t the only touches of green downtown this spring. After three years of rehab, The Lazarus Building has been reborn as the Midwest’s largest “green building.” When Federated Department Stores vacated the more than 1 million-square-foot landmark at High and Town streets in 2004, the City of Columbus and the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation stepped up with some radical plans—to not only renovate the former department and make it premier office space, but also to create an eco-friendly building using environmentally aware construction practices. Phase 1 of the project complete is now complete, the new offices of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Environment Protection Agency have moved in and are officially open for business. Later this year, Ohio State is expected to unveil its 10,000-square-foot Urban Arts Space on the ground floor that will include a gallery and performance space. The new and improved Lazarus Building uses utilizes harvested rainwater for its cooling system, a “living roof” landscaped with plants to reduce summer heat buildup, energy-efficient windows and low-flow plumbing. More than half of the 10,884 tons of old materials removed from the building were recycled, including almost 2,000 tons of metal, 95 tons of wood, 33 tons of carpet and 25 tons of ceiling tiles. “We not only renovated a historic Columbus landmark, we created space for 1,800 jobs downtown in the most significant ‘green’ building in the Midwest,” said Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “Lazarus is going to be a national model.” The project is remarkable in another way, too: Led by the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, The Georgetown Group and Turner Construction, it came in under budget. “I’m very excited about the opening of the first phase of the Lazarus Building,” said Guy V. Worley, the new CEO of the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation, which owns the building. “As the first project in the RiverSouth district, it’s important that we build on this momentum.” Ultimately, tours of the Lazarus Building will provide an up-close look at the power of recycling. “Our larger objective is to enable Columbus residents to utilize the Lazarus Building as a teaching tool for school children, other real estate professionals and residents,” said Georgetown Company partner Edgar Lampert. “We hope to share the lessons of Lazarus, which will be useful in our daily personal and professional lives.”
