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DESTINY USA ENVISIONS A GIANT GREEN MALL

By Susan Thorne

Pyramid kicked off the massive project in October, beginning construction on The Grand DestiNY Hotel.

Can the world’s biggest building be environmentally friendly? That’s The Pyramid Cos.’ stated goal with its $2 billion-plus DestiNY USA, which is being developed near Syracuse, N.Y. The 70-acre entertainment-retail-resort destination, will be housed in a 15 million-square-foot, domed building. Syracuse-based Pyramid, which has set up a company also called DestiNY USA to develop the project, says it wants to power the entire complex with renewable energy only — no fossil fuels — and to follow best environmental practices in construction and operations.

This is certainly a tall order, because truly going green involves far more than just adding a few solar panels, experts note.

Its plans are still evolving, but DestiNY would include 400 retail stores and 30 restaurants (the 1.6 million-square-foot Carousel Center would be incorporated into the new project), about 5,000 hotel rooms, live theaters and cinemas, and other attractions. Plans call for power to be drawn from a hybrid system pooling wind, solar and hydrogen fuel cells. Supplementary power would probably be provided through burning biological matter and using geothermal heat pumps, the company says.

The innovative project represents a personal mission for Pyramid President Robert Congel, who says he became concerned after Sept. 11 about America’s dependence on fossil fuels. The project is also unprecedented in terms of size and technology. At completion, DestiNY would be more than twice the size of the Pentagon and have an estimated power requirement of 80 to 100 megawatts — that’s comparable to the electrical load needed for a town of about 25,000 homes, at four kilowatts per home. Wind power would probably be the primary energy supply, the company says. DestiNY plans to either set up its own wind farm in upstate New York or to generate power through a private wind utility company like those in nearby Madison County. The 80 megawatts needed could be produced by means of 108 large turbines (three-armed windmills) generating 750 kilowatts each.

DestiNY would rely also on solar cells for a significant share of its power load. A new type of solar cell in the form of a transparent covering would be incorporated in the domed roof, said William Browning, senior consultant with the Green Development Service of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colo., which is working on the DestiNY project. The roof would span some 65 acres; he estimates that 200 acres of the cells could power the entire project.

Hydrogen-based fuel cells are another option that DestiNY favors, with natural gas likely providing the necessary hydrogen. For the time being, however, this source can only be implemented on a limited basis, because the project’s requirements exceed the available supply of this technology.

“There has never been a project that bought 80 to 100 fuel cells,” said S. Richard Fedrizzi, president of Syracuse-based Green-Think, an environmental marketing firm serving as a consultant to DestiNY USA.

Fuel sources are only one aspect of going green; equally important is using energy efficiently. Fedrizzi said that energy consumption will be minimized in a number of ways, including the use of heat-conserving materials and the installment of electronic controls for heating, cooling and ventilation. Taken together, these measures can cut power usage by 40 percent to 70 percent, he asserted.

Truly effective conservation involves coordinating a building’s materials and systems so that they work together. And that can only come about if the planning and construction professionals communicate right from the early design stages, said Jonathan Tauer, buildings programmer at the nonprofit Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, Greenfield, Mass., which consults on high-tech buildings, but is not involved in the DestiNY project. Such an integrated approach is very different from conventional project planning, he pointed out.

“Typically, the architect, the builder and the HVAC people don’t talk to each other,” he said.

That’s not the case with DestiNY, Fedrizzi said. The project has been developed jointly through meetings of up to 60 professionals whose expertise ranges from windows to transportation.

DestiNY’s vast, enclosed space, however, raises potential problems of air quality.

“There’s a real toxic soup in almost every building,” said Marc Richmond, project manager at the Austin Energy Green Building Program, an Austin, Texas, municipal agency. Carpets, vinyl flooring, chlorinated fountain water, dry cleaning and merchandise can all produce toxic vapors in a mall, he said, and satisfactory alternatives can be hard to find.

The developer is weighing these factors and will choose the least toxic options, Fedrizzi said. Vehicles moving supplies into and around the dome could also produce pollution, “so we’ll probably end up with a fair number of electrical vehicles,” Browning said.

Tenants also have a role; they may have to abide by certain principles, such as limiting energy consumption. Management will scrutinize in-store practices, even those of the retail suppliers, with an eye to reducing environmental impact.

“We might set standards for the recycled content of their shopping bags, for example, or try to cut down on the amount of packaging,” Fedrizzi said. “We want to take this idea of environmental awareness all the way back to the supply chain. That’s how you really create change in this world.”

Sustainable-energy experts say green buildings are expensive to build, though the costs may be recovered over time.

“It’s all up front when you want energy conservation, and there are levels of efficiency you can buy,” explained Bob Cross, president of Xencom Systems, Plano, Texas, suppliers of shopping center energy conservation systems. Even with the best planning, there are always trade-offs in energy efficiency, he noted. Solar cells set in a transparent roof, for example, will partially block sunshine — a plus in summer, but less desirable in winter.

Yet investing in energy savings is generally financially sound, said Tauer of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. “If a building is poorly designed, the heating and cooling costs will be high and passed on to the tenants,” he said. “If you put more up front in a good, well-designed building, you will typically get it back in five years — 12 for sure.”

DestiNY is also looking to get some money back in another way. Its executives are lobbying Congress to pass the “Green Bond” bill, which will assist green projects (it could mean up to $100 million in tax-exempt bond financing for the project).

But Austin Green Program official Richmond said he is skeptical that a six-story structure spanning 15 million square feet can ever be considered environmentally friendly.

“If you have a 10,000-square-foot house, and you install solar panels, that’s just a tip of the hat to environmentalism,” he said. “You’re already using more space and more power than you need.” DestiNY is in the same category of excess, he said. Another problem is its location on the edge of town. “You have to use your car to get there, and it takes up land,” he said. Even sustainable energy is a topic fraught with controversy, as seen by recent citizen opposition to wind farms in the Cape Cod, Mass., area, he noted.

Pyramid broke ground on DestiNY USA in October, commencing with construction of The Grand DestiNY Hotel, but no completion date has been set.

“The real proof is in the pudding,” said Tauer. “If the developers’ hearts are in the right place and they’re really committed, it could be a fantastic project. DestiNY could advance technology, and other projects will learn from it.”

But the company certainly has its work cut out.

“It’s hard to do this,” Tauer said. “You have to clear a path. You can’t just go out and buy a kit at Home Depot.” Green projects will become easier, though, he predicts, through the increased use of less-expensive technologies such as wind power.

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