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<b>First Posted:</b> 3/22/2008<br><br>While the Borton-Lawson firm might have been rewarded for the rehabilitation of a brownfields site in Hazleton, credit belongs to far more than just the company, according to the project manager.
The Plains Township engineering and architectural firm received an Environmental Excellence Award for the design and construction of the Pine Street Neighborhood Revitalization project. The state  announced the award winners on Wednesday.
It&amp;rsquo;s a first for the company, but Patrick Endler, project manager, architect and company vice president, said the city and the Wilkes-Barre-based Housing Development Corp. were instrumental in clearing the way for revitalization of the community and the simultaneous incorporation of various environmental-building practices.
&amp;ldquo;What it means to us, and probably more for the (general public), is that we can take the principles of green construction &amp;hellip; and incorporate them into projects that are affordable,&amp;rdquo; Endler said. &amp;ldquo;A lot of people think that LEED (environmental certification) and green construction automatically mean a lot of money. This bears out that that&amp;rsquo;s not true.&amp;rdquo;
The Pine Street design incorporated large-scale environmentally conscious ideas, such as rebuilding on previously used land within walking distance of necessities. It encourages pedestrian travel, with residence-specific ideas, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs, solar panels and recycled building materials.
Endler said he liked using fiber-cement siding, which doesn&amp;rsquo;t expand when wet like wooden siding does. Yet, it isn&amp;rsquo;t environmentally harmful to produce like vinyl siding and rubber shingles made from recycled tires.
&amp;ldquo;Part of this entire program was to create a sort of prototype that we could take around &amp;hellip; to show them a working model of how brownfields can be recovered&amp;rdquo; and turned into beneficial, tax-producing sites, he said.
He acknowledged, however, that the size of the project allowed the use of more environmental options, and that the innovations might not be economically feasible for private homeowners, as demand hasn&amp;rsquo;t yet increased enough to lower prices.
 &amp;ldquo;I think the siding is becoming a lot more accepted,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re still on the upward swing of this curve as far as usage.&amp;rdquo;

    

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.

Engineer firm gets green accolade