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By Chris Miller
FROM MARCH 6TH THROUGH 9TH THIS YEAR Seattle (a.k.a., “the Emerald
City”) hosted over 270 performing arts managers and Allied member colleagues
for IAAM’s 18th Annual Performing Arts Managers Conference. The theme of
this year’s conference was “sustainability for performing arts centers,” and
the Programming Committee developed sessions to explore strategies to
enhance environmental sustainability, as well as financial/ market
sustainability. This full educational agenda was complemented by networking
receptions at Benaroya Hall (home of Seattle Symphony) and McCaw Hall (home
of Pacific Northwest Ballet and Seattle Opera); a cultural facility
scavenger hunt; and tours of several unique arts facilities, including the
Experience Music Project. In keeping with the conference theme, the Program
Committee partnered with the Conservation Trust to offset the carbon
footprint of the conferenc e,
making this PAMC IAAM’s first “carbon neutral” specialty meeting.
In the space available here, it’s not possible to recap
all of the conference sessions. So, I’ll focus only on those related to
environmental sustainability, highlighting several key “takeaways” from each
session which hopefully will provide colleagues with guidance as they
explore sustainability initiatives for their own facility. I encourage
everyone to visit the IAAM website page that contains the Powerpoint
presentations and “session wisdom” summaries from the conference, which will
provide more detailed information. In addition to information there about
these sessions, you’ll find details of the other excellent sessions,
including “backstage bootcamp”; cultural facilities planning; trends and
issues in FOH design and operations; attracting TV productions to our venues
(business and technical aspects); and sustaining classically based arts
organizations in the 21st Century. The website address is: www.iaam.org/2010_
meetings/pamc/handouts.asp. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the
members of the Programming Committee for the incredible job coordinating
these sessions!
We began with an overview of environmental
sustainability issues for performing arts centers. Rip Rippetoe, chair of
the IAAM Sustainability Committee, moderated this session, which included
presentations by Jennifer Creighton with McKinstry Mechanical Engineers;
Phoebe Warren with Seattle City Light; and U.S. Congressional Representative
Jay Inslee. Rip described the Sustainability Committee’s current projects to
develop a “sustainability best practices” guide and sustainability
certification programs for public assembly facilities. Jennifer provided an
excellent overview of the LEED certification process, various strategies
PAC’s can consider to enhance sustainability, the very real financial
benefits of these strategies, and the value of an Energy Services
Performance Contracting process to assess sustainability strategies for your
particular facility with the highest ROI. Phoebe outlined how our local
utilities can partner with our organizations to assist with energy audits,
and to help determine which sustainability strategies make the most
financial and operational sense. Representative Inslee provided both an
overview of current federal initiatives and an impassioned perspective of
the social and ecological importance of pursuing sustainability.
Chris Jordan, an internationally acclaimed photographer
from Seattle, gave our keynote address. Chris related his personal story of
transformation from a corporate lawyer to professional photographer whose
work attempts to visually represent the staggeringly large numbers
quantifying the unsustainable consumption and waste inherent in the American
lifestyle. He creates large scale photo-murals, often of iconographic images
(e.g. Saurat’s “Grand Jatte” painting) in which the “pixel” elements are
items of trash, such as the number of soda cans Americans discard in one
day. It was a fascinating presentation, at times both beautiful and
disturbing, that provided a fitting framework for why the sustainability of
our facilities and operations is important.
Chris’s presentation was followed by a three hour
“Sustainability Strategies” mega-session. This “nuts and bolts” session
included experts in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering,
sustainable food service operations and waste management/ recycling for
public assembly facilities. They were complemented by representatives from
four performing arts centers who provided case studies of their
sustainability initiatives, relative to both new construction and existing
facility operations.
One of the key points that all these panelists made is
that there are several relatively low cost sustainability strategies that
can provide significant cost savings for existing facilities, with even
greater opportunities available for facilities under development, or
considering major renovations or system replacements. Many of our utilities
offer rebate programs to assist with the capital costs of implementing
electrical or mechanical systems upgrades. Portland Center Stage’s
renovation of an 1890 era armory building achieved LEED Platinum
certification by utilizing extensive daylight harvesting, highly efficient
HVAC systems and a grey water system to collect storm water runoff that is
used for irrigation and toilet flushing.
The INB Performing Arts Center in Spokane is on track
to receive LEED Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (EBOM)
certification by undertaking a series of relatively low cost improvements to
reduce water use (low flow fixtures), energy use (automated lighting and
HVAC controls plus demand management systems upgrades). Portland Center for
the Performing Arts is pursuing LEED EBOM certification for one of its four
facilities through relatively inexpensive program of chiller retrofits,
plumbing fixture replacement and changes in cleaning and pest management
strategies. PACE, a new 2,000 seat facility in development in Bellevue, WA,
is pursuing LEED Gold certification through a series of design and systems
choices, including green roofs on major portions of the facility, which has
a hotel and office building overlooking these roofs.
Our final environmental sustainability session, hosted
by ASTC, was “Sustainability Mythbusters” – a light-hearted but informative
examination of various widely circulated statements about the applicability
of particular sustainability strategies to performing arts venues. The panel
of theatre consultants tackled eight “myths” related to LED lighting,
waterless urinals, under-floor HVAC systems, windows in auditoriums,
fluorescent lighting for makeup mirrors, stage flooring materials, when to
replace HVAC systems and patrons’ willingness to use alternate forms of
transportation.
Among the panel’s conclusions were:
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LED lighting will likely not replace conventional incandescent stage
lighting for the foreseeable future, but is a viable choice for
various lobby and possibly auditorium lighting applications.
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Fluorescent lighting technology has improved in color temperature
and rendition to the point that it is a viable alternative for
make-up mirror lighting.
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Under floor air supply systems are the preferred choice for
auditorium HVAC systems in new facilities, providing both energy
savings and greater patron comfort over conventional “overhead
supply” HVAC systems.
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A number of recycled and/or sustainable flooring
materials exist now that are viable options for stage flooring, in
particular for “replaceable” decking applications, in place of masonite, for
example.
I hope this brief overview of these sessions at this
year’s PAMC, combined with the information on IAAM’s website, will be useful
as you wrestle with the flood of information about the sustainability
choices we face as performing arts center managers. I encourage you to also
utilize the resources available through the IAAM Sustainability Committee,
and support their work to develop standards applicable to our industry.
Finally, I invite all of you to join us for the 19th
annual PAMC, in Dallas next February! The local host committee there is
already hard at work planning a fabulous conference, with the theme of “The
role of the Performing Arts Center in the Community.” See you there!
fm
Chris Miller is general manager, McCaw Hall at
Seattle Center. Contact him at christopher.miller@seattle.gov.
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