6/17/2008

By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

Just a week or so after a huge EF5 tornado effectively wiped the town of Greensburg off the map in 2007, the governor's office got hold of the architectural firm of Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Architects about rebuilding the city.

"We weren't really sure what that meant at the time," said Stephen Hardy, a city planner with Kansas City-based BNIM, a firm that specializes in both disaster recovery and sustainable development.

What Hardy, a city planner with BNIM, and Rachel Wedel, who works in planning and urban design for the firm, found out it would mean is a year -- so far -- of five-hour weekly commutes from Kansas City to the central Kansas community, and a share of a national spotlight as Greensburg has chosen to become a model of "green" development.

The rebuilding of Greensburg is the cornerstone of a new Discovery Channel network called "Planet Green," which is available on Salina digital cable channel 103; a sneak preview of the first episode was aired Friday evening on the main Discovery Channel network.

The two Mustangs -- Hardy graduated from Salina Central High School in 1996, and Wedel in 1999 -- knew each other back in high school, and they performed together in at least one musical.

"I taught him how to tap-dance," Wedel said. She's the daughter of Alan and Sandy Wedel; he's the son of Randall and Saralyn Reece Hardy.

Environmental influences

Both also say that growing up in Salina, they learned some of the lessons that led them into their current field of sustainable development -- and hence, to lead the redevelopment of a devastated town.

"John Waccholz," is the first thing Hardy said when asked what set him on the path to his career in sustainable development. Waccholz, a longtime biology teacher at Salina Central High School who retired in 2005, emphasized environmental and nutritional issues, and the link between the two.

"He really changed my life, and lit a fire in me about sustainability," Hardy said. "Since his classes, it's been a passion of mine. The city planning has been my twist on it."

Hardy also said he learned much from Wes Jackson, founder and president of The Land Institute, 2440 E. Water Well, who was also "a major influence of mine."

Wedel started a little earlier than high school, learning by example from her father, Alan, whose "second passion is stewarding land north of town" near Minneapolis.

"I was also encouraged by the science department at Salina Central," Wedel said. "I didn't have a class with Waccholz, but I spent a lot of time talking with him."

Because of those influences, she said, "I wasn't interested in architecture if it wasn't with a sustainable firm."

Not really a clean slate

Working with a clean slate -- with no legacy what-goes-where -- is something only a few city planners ever get to do.

And though Greensburg has been described in those terms, that wasn't really the case, Hardy said.

"We'd kind of assumed a clean slate, too, when we were going in," Hardy said. "In fact, there's a lot there, especially infrastructure."

And, Hardy said, "people remember what it used to look like, so the land use will be much like it was."

After all, Hardy said, while nothing might be left of grandma's house, many people still feel an attachment to the land it was on -- and wouldn't want to be told it was going to be the site of the new city hall, library or park.

The property lines were still intact, Wedel said, and "if a plot of land has been in the family for four or five generations, going back through your parents, grandparents and to your great-grandparents who settled it," that plot retains some importance.

"We quickly learned that without any buildings, what you think of as a community, the community is still there," Hardy said. "All of what you think of as a community is gone, but the relationships are still there."

Making more connections

But that still left BNIM with an opportunity to try something new -- a something new that the people of the town welcomed.

The residents "wisely decided that if they're going to build back, they need to build back in a different way than they did before," Hardy said. Even decades before the tornado, Greensburg was a "dying town," as are many across the Plains, he said.

What Wedel, Hardy, and many Greensburg residents realized was that the community needed to rebuild in a way that made it more of a community.

That meant more than just planning out roads and parking to handle automobile traffic.

"We were really focusing on enhancing the connections -- that it wasn't just about the road you'd take to get there, but also about walking or taking a bike," Hardy said. "That was a direction we got from the people of Greensburg -- that they wanted to be able to be out and seeing their neighbors.

"In a small town, so much is about community, and knowing your neighbors," he said. "They realized that if they're getting in a car and driving two blocks, they're not having those connections with their neighbors."

So as Greensburg rebuilds, it will include a trail system for walkers and bicyclists, connecting parks, schools and the downtown, Wedel said.

No green ghost town

It also means taking a close look at how the city handles and retains its rainwater runoff, sewage and even eventually a recycling system, Wedel said.

In addition, the city government has committed to rebuilding its public buildings according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum standards, making it the first city in the country to do so. That means buildings will be built to the highest energy efficiency standards.

The city has also set a goal of getting 100 percent of its power from renewable resources, such as wind. Monday, Greensburg was awarded the 2008 Sustainable Cities Award, given annually by the London-based Financial Times newspaper and the Washington D.C.-based Urban Land Institute.

The decisions the townspeople have made, Hardy and Wedel say, will help ensure the country's greenest city doesn't become a ghost town in a generation or two.

Renewable power, Hardy said, should prove an attractive selling point to manufacturing companies.

"We know what the wind costs," and that price isn't going to increase, Hardy said. "If you can tell a manufacturer your power is 100 percent renewable -- and lock in the cost -- that's a huge benefit."

It also might enhance tourism to the city, Hardy said, as people interested in green development come to the city to see the ideals in action.

"Their real crisis was an economic crisis that's been looming for 40 years," Hardy said. "They've rededicated to the community, which means they have to solve that economic problem. It's the hope of all of us that we create the kind of community that's attractive to business."

"We've been more inspired by them than any other community we've worked in," Hardy said. "They've set targets we would have thought a year ago were impossible."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.