‘Green’ building comes to Stockyards in Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center
June 5, 2009
By Sarah Severson | June 2009
It is not easy to look at a dilapidated warehouse and imagine it as a functional space. Yet industrial designer John Edel had the vision to save a 24,000 square foot, threestory industrial building that had fallen into disrepair and turn it into something spectacular.
The project fed his excitement for trying new building techniques and designing efficient spaces that could be used for boutique manufacturing companies.
The building, now known as the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center at 1048 W. 37th St., is the first sustainably renovated structure in the Stockyards Industrial Corridor. Edel had studied industrial design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and always had an interest in industrial preservation.
“I like to find ways to reuse old industrial buildings in creative, unusual ways,” Edel said. “I’m also passionate about sustainability and reducing the footprint of our industrial and office activities.”
Edel bought the building in 2002 and faced major obstacles while improving the space. The first three and half years, the site had no water main in the street, so he had to bring in drinking water and use water from the sump pump to flush toilets. He also lacked other utilities, such as heat. On the other hand, he lucked into a team of dedicated volunteers who shared his vision of improving the building and were not afraid of getting dirty.
“Cleaning out a building like this—scraping paint, shoveling muck, demolishing walls, installing windows—was a lot of work,” he said. “The green roof was done entirely by volunteers.”
The roof holds 9,600 sedum plants that replicate a photograph of Edel’s daughter Zoe when she was six months old.
“Each plant is a pixel in the image,” he explained. “These plants are very hardy, capable of withstanding burning and freezing and drought conditions.”
The roof is only the beginning.
A high percentage of the building is made of recycled materials, including items salvaged from dumpsters. Other materials came from a distributor who could not sell them because they were damaged slightly. The building’s radiators came from buildings set to be demolished; Edel paired them with modern German condensing boilers that are 98% energy efficient.
“The lighting, windows, insulation… it’s as efficient as can be,” Edel said.
He also plans to experiment with ground source cooling to air condition the building: using an old elevator shaft as a convection chimney, the system would pull cool air from an underground reservoir up to the top of the building. Edel calls the structure a “green business incubator,” where he leases space to start-up businesses that use recycled materials or reduced toxicity paints or that are conservative in the amount of energy and resources they consume.
Now fully occupied, the Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center has drawn about 40 jobs back into the community.
Most tenants make things, such as art, fabrications, and tshirts. One business creates tutoring kits for at-risk schools. “John Edel has been a pioneer in that neighborhood,” said 11th Ward Alderman James Balcer. “What he has done is remarkable — he put his nose to the grindstone and refurbished a building that was literally falling apart. He’s done a great job.”
Edel often gives advice to others working on industrial or commercial projects to boost their properties’ efficiency and sustainability; he also has given tours to architects and City officials interested in his technologies and methods. Now he is busy planning the next big project: vertical farming, which takes farming inside a building to grow plants on a grand scale.
For more information, log on to www.bubblydynamics.com or email info@bubblydynamics.com.
