City officials urge Cottage Hospital
renovation to be environmentally friendly

Two of Santa Barbara's most powerful entities are colliding over their visions for a revamped Cottage Hospital.

City officials are prodding Cottage to incorporate major, environmentally friendly building standards as part of the rebuilding of the $350 million hospital on Santa Barbara's upper Westside. They view the project as a milestone in the city's history that could prove to be a turning point in environmentally friendly building.

Hospital executives say they are trying to respond to the city's requests.

"I know we are very interested in being environmentally progressive, but I don't know how much work has been put into how much it will cost or delay the project," said hospital spokeswoman Janet O'Neill. "We are on a fast-track and we have to be sort of moving ahead."

Through e-mail sent by Ms. O'Neill, Cottage Chief Executive Officer Ron Werft said the hospital plans to pursue a high level of environmental certification but did not mention specifics.

"Even before the design process began, Cottage has been interested and committed to implementing as many green elements into this project as possible," Mr. Werft said.

"This has been our own goal since day one, and continues to be."

But city officials believe that Cottage constrained by the need for speed and by cost concerns isn't doing enough.

The cost of rebuilding to meet state earthquake standards is estimated at $350 million and Cottage is trying to complete the project within that budget, using all private money. Meanwhile, Cottage is under the gun to meet state-mandated deadlines to complete construction by 2013. The hospital will remain open during construction and be rebuilt in phases.

Cottage's bid for speed is creating problems for city planning commissioners and city staff, even as the project has stirred up community debate, largely stemming from the concerns of its residential neighbors. In public meetings on the issue, Cottage officials repeatedly emphasize that that they are building an expensive hospital that's likely to serve all members of the community at some point.

But rifts have popped up over planning Commission requests to create a pedestrian pathway through the hospital and a Cottage plan to close one block of Castillo Street to allow the hospital a more efficient, contiguous design.

Now comes a Public Works request for the hospital to pursue a Leadership in Energy and Environmental design platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council the same distinction given to UCSB's Donald Bren Hall, one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the country. The city has no legal authority to force green-building techniques into the hospital project, but if Cottage chose to use them, it could earn political clout.

Stephen MacIntosh, the city's environmental programs supervisor, said it would also bring the hospital international acclaim.

"That would be huge for Cottage, Mr. MacIntosh said. "Cottage could become the first platinum certified hospital in the country and the world."

We would have people coming in from all over the world to see what Ron Werft has done. It would be a huge feather in the executive management of Cottage's cap."

Green-building techniques center around conserving water and energy, promoting natural light, using recycled building materials, toxin-free paint, flooring and carpeting, and other design and building techniques that reduce consumption of natural resources.

But such endeavors are expensive. Neither Cottage nor the city would estimate the amount, but Mr. MacIntosh said that Cottage needs to explore the cost. He suspects that green-building techniques would pay for themselves through water and energy savings and employee retention swiftly.

"They would be making money in three to five years," he said. "It would be silly not to factor in or build these features into the building if you are looking at the bottom line after five years."

Cottage's project architect, Erich A Burkhart of the Los Angeles firm Lee, Burkhart and Liu, said the hospital will incorporate many green aspects. He said the hospital would be very proud to be certified by the Green Building council. That group is also in the process of developing different environmental standards for hospitals, he said, and Cottage plans to meet them.

Ultimately, said Mr. Burkhart, "it comes down to balancing the community's needs and the hospital's pocketbook."

"Physically, it is realistic," Mr. Burkhart said. "I cannot speak to the budget issues relative to that In the hierarchy of things, meeting the hospital's clinical needs and the state-mandated deadlines is a critical priority for us."

Planning Commissioner Harwood "Bendy" White expects that speed and costs will continue to be the "prevalent theme" behind Cottage's actions rather than top-level green building. That's OK with him, he said, because there are a lot of things Cottage could do to make the project more palatable that Cottage has already said are cost prohibitive.

For example, he said, putting all of the parking underground, rather than in two parking lots, would be better for the community. So would moving the emergency room closer to the Pueblo Street exit off Highway 101, reducing ambulance traffic and noise in the nearby residential areas.

Some of the disagreements have been tough to grapple with, he said. "It's frustrating," said Mr. White