1555 N. Talman

Location
1555 N. Talman, Chicago Map

Owner
Shangri-La Developers

Architect
Florian Architects

1555 N. Talman is a new 4-story mixed-use building with commercial space and parking on the first floor and 8 residential units on the upper floors. The projects is at the southeast corner of North and Talman, caddy-corner from the two-building Hispanic Housing development we've covered. This project is also seeking Chicago Green Homes certification. The presence of these three green buildings makes this little corner in Humboldt Park one of the greenest in Chicago!

This isn't a demonstration project with exotic features, but does include nearly all of the increasingly-standard features on green buildings, such as high-efficiency mechanical equipment, low-VOC and recycled content materials. It also includes the all-important layer of continuous insulation (to eliminate thermal bridging), which it is often so difficult to convince developers of this housing type to do. South-facing windows have overhangs (visible toward the right in the rendering) to provide shading - another important detail which is often cut from small speculative projects, unless it can be incorporated into a balcony. Also visible in the rendering is the green roof at multiple levels.

This is a small developer's first foray into green multifamily housing, and is a great example of a newer developer that recognizes how green building differentiates their product. 1555 N. Talman is schedule for completion in May 2008. Other project team members include general contractor (and primary business of the developer) Good Karma Construction, MEP engineer Quest Design Group Inc., and structural engineer The Structural Shop.

Comments

[Kevin Pierce]

I'd like to suggest tracking metrics on projects -- anyone worth their salt should be willing to share projected energy usage (compared to ASHRAE 90.1 or other standard) and other data. If projects are using the City's Green Homes checklist what are the key metrics that actually make a difference? Paul Florian is a good architect and I have no doubt this project is doing good things, but really, without data it's not much different than greenwash.

[Erik Olsen]

Kevin, I agree this would be great information to have. The challenge becomes, how to convince smaller projects of the value of taking the time (and money) to perform the modeling required for this type of prediction?

Energy Star certification is one good metric that I'd like to see more projects pursue - currently it's not required under Chicago Green Homes. Chicago Green Homes does require at least 90 points in its energy category, which is a good start, and awards a lot of points for seeking Energy Star. Also, Chicago Green Homes does include field audits to ensure projects have installed what was specified.

Like LEED, there isn't any required follow-up to show post-occupancy performance. Perhaps Chicago Green Homes should add a voluntary component allowing homowners to report their energy and water bills back to the program for statistical purposes.

[Payton]

Such reporting-back would make for an interesting research project for someone like CNT. Maybe a developer could auto-enroll occupants in something like RRTPP so that the data are readily available from ComEd. The data could then be compared to RRTPP participants living in other types of buildings, to see if the building's energy performance makes a big difference.

I'd love to know about water usage as well, but we do live in the city of "eternal spring" water fountains.

For what it's worth, you might forgive us Wicker Parkers for our skepticism: Good Karma is infamous around the neighborhood for having "accidentally" demolished the Ann Sather restaurant on Milwaukee.