IRONSTONE firm, sculpture studios, photo darkroom, ex-
ercise studio, art gallery, and retail stone
GARDENS
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Ironstone Gardens is an innovative
commercial development in the heart of
Santa Fe, New Mexico's warehouse district.
Situated in an abandoned industrial site the
former home of a concrete company the de-
velopment consists of 25,000 square feet of
space, on a 85,000 square foot (or 2-acre)
lot. The project began in 1991 with the
rennovation of the existing buildings on the
property.
The goals of the project's developer,
Burke Denman, are to create a commercial
development that is environmentally sound,
aesthetically pleasing, and economically
viable with the overarching goal of creating
a living environment
that provides both a
pleasant and a stimulat-
ing place in which to live
and work.
The many innovative
features of the develop-
ment include: passive
solar design; low energy
consumption; co-gener-
ating heating system;
low water use; on-site
waste water reuse;
heavy insulation (R40 in
roofs, R24 in walls);
low timber use; steel structural framing (60-
70 percent recycled content steel); and
pumice-crete building material.
Architectural design incorporates
old and new
Ironstone Gardens' design incorporates
7,000 square feet of existing warehouse
space, renovated at a cost of about $25 per
square foot, and 18,000 square feet of new
construction, at a cost of about $65 per
square foot. Numerous plants, fountains,
patios, benches, trees and pathways surround
the buildings, which are clustered in a com-
pound-like setting. To help preserve the park-
like atmosphere that the landscaping
provides, parking is located on the
periphery of the property.
With space for 20 tenants, the develop-
ment is made up of offices, retail space, and
artist studios (seven of them live-in).
Second story studios have views of moun-
tains from private balconies. Tenants include
an engineering firm, landscape architecture
for trim, window and door frames, with 90
percent made with metal. Any large timbers
company. Annual lease rates are typical of
rates in the area. Ironstone Gardens has
used in the project were recycled from
another building that was demolished by the
leased all but one of its tenant spaces. developer.
Public enthusiasm for the project has been The fourth building (5,200 square feet)
is constructed with a material
called “pumice-crete.” This
substance was used to build
parts of the Parthenon, 2,400
years ago, and is being used
as a commercial building ma-
terial for the first time in Santa
Fe. Because timber is an ex-
pensive commodity in the
Southwest and is straining
old-growth forest reserves
elsewhere, pumice-crete not
only produces cost savings
while minimizing the impact
on the environment, but
also provides a stronger, more
durable product for construc-
tion than many other
▼ alternative materials.
Interior of coopera- Pumice-crete is a light-
tive art gallery in
pumice-crete building weight, cast concrete material
at Ironstone Gardens. that uses light weight pumice
nodules bound by a light
Photo: Erika
Blumenfeld coating of cement and water.
Typical concrete uses four to
seven sacks of cement per cu-
▼
Pumice-crete build-
ing exterior and sculp- bic yard. Because of the en-
ture garden at Ironstone. ergy-intensive methods used
Photo: Burke Denman to make cement, it is a prod-
uct that, while low in price,
has high hidden environmen-
evident in the fact that all leases have been tal and energy costs. Pumice-crete, on the
handled through the developer, with no need other hand, uses pumice, which is derived
for a leasing agent and with minimal from volcanic ash. Only 2 1/2 sacks of ce-
advertising. ment per cubic yard is mixed with the pum-
Alternative building materials ice to produce a material superior to adobe
save wood in compressive strength and durability, with
The existing buildings in the Ironstone a natural insulating R value of 1 1/2 per
Gardens's development included a cement inch (versus an R value of .3 for adobe or 1
block building and a steel structure for wood). This translates, in the case of this
(unstuccoed). Renovation, which began in building, into an insulating value of R 24,
1991, included increased insulation, solar- using just the pumice-crete alone, without
izing (by adding south-facing glazing) and additional insulation. In addition to its insu-
cosmetic improvements. Of the four new lating value, pumice-crete has a compressive
structures in the development (built in 1994), strength of 600-700 pounds per square (psi)
three of them are constructed using a typi- inch, compared to adobe, which is around
cal, metal warehouse-style steel superstruc- 200 psi. In terms of overall cost compari-
ture. The steel R-panel skin is reversed, son, pumice-crete is approximately 25
screwed in place, and then stuccoed to percent less expensive than adobe.
achieve the appearance of adobe, a popular Energy savings through solar &
building material in the Southwest. Interior co-generation
walls are insulated with fiberglass (R24) and The development, designed with the sun
then sheet-rocked. The only wood used in in mind, is positioned to maximize solar rays
the buildings is small-dimension wood used for interior heating in winter. It will also use
SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION 71
a co-generation heating system for the first
time this winter. A glassblower's studio in
the compound, with two glassblowing fur-
naces that run at 2000 degrees, 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year will be tapped to heat
an additional 10,000 to 12,000 square feet
of art studios in winter.
The roof and walls are super-insulated for
both heating and cooling efficiency.
Heating costs are projected to be 25 percent
less than normal; cooling, 50 percent less
through the use of extra high ceilings, 10 to
20 feet tall. In summer, the high ceilings
draw the heat away from the lower living
and working areas, to produce comfort on
most days.
Waste water saves water
Water is a precious commodity in the
Southwest. To minimize the impact of the
Ironstone Gardens development on the aqui-
fer and on community resources such as the
sewer plant, several water-saving features,
including low-flow devices for plumbing
fixtures and 1.5 gallon low flush toilets, are
used.
What is most notable is the innovative,
on-site waste water treatment system for wa-
ter reuse that has been built into the project.
It handles all waste water from the complex,
returning it to be used for flushing toilets and
irrigating the development's landscaping.
The system, designed and installed by an
engineering firm that is also a tenant of Iron-
stone Gardens, will allow the development
to be taken off the already overloaded city
waste water treatment system. The on-site
wastewater treatment system uses anaerobic
pretreatment tanks, constructed wetlands
(with gravel beds planted with reeds, rushes,
and cattails), and recirculating sand filters
that have been incorporated into the site land-
scape plan. The advantages of this on-site
treatment and reuse system are:
■ water obtained from city water supplies
decreases by approximately 70 percent (it
is used only for drinking and washing);
■ treated effluent is made available for irri-
gation, or further disinfected through a
UV disinfection system, and used to flush
the toilets;
■ since no wastewater leaves the property,
the hydraulic loading of the city sewers
and wastewater treatment facilities are not
increased, and are, in fact, decreased.
Because the on-site system is the first of
its kind in a commercial development in New
Mexico, it is being used as a demonstration
project. Periodic monitoring reports will be
72 SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
How To Get in Touch with
Denman & Associates
Contact: Burke Denman
Denman & Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 4938
Santa Fe, NM 87502
Tel.: (505) 983–6014
Fax: (505) 986–1419
Email: dencorp@newmexico.com
Web: www.denmansantafe.com
Scope: Local, urban
Inception Date: 1991 (phase 1 – reno-
vation); 1994 (phase 2 – new construc-
tion)
Participants: Developer, residents
Project type: Commercial develop-
ment, redevelopment, “green construc-
tion,” waste water reuse
Methods used: Construction and
rennovation using new building mate-
rials that replace wood and new tech-
nologies that save energy and minimize
water consumption and waste
Lessons learned: Find an advocate
within the local bureaucracy to support
new and innovative building techniques
made available to interested parties and the
facility is open to public view.
Working through challenges
The main challenge to Ironstone Gardens
was the initial reluctance of the regulatory
bureaucracy to allow the use of proposed,
new technologies in constructing the devel-
opment: Their cooperation was essential in
obtaining approval of the innovative alter-
native building materials and wastewater
methods. Persistence was required to gain
the needed approvals for the project. At first,
by challenging, and then by working to edu-
cate and build a proactive relationship with
local authorities, the project eventually
gained the needed approvals.
Today, the developer's vision is a reality
and Ironstone Gardens can be credited with
advancing the standard for commercial de-
velopment in Santa Fe and the Southwest.
Other sustainable building development
projects are underway in the area, including
one using strawbale construction, with a
constructed wetlands for on-site waste
water treatment.
— Community Sustainability Resource
Institute
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
UPDATE
December 1997
Ironstone Gardens continues to prove the
validity of its cutting-edge construction tech-
niques. Although the pumice-crete construc-
tion method ran into some regulatory barri-
ers, and no further buildings have been con-
structed in Santa Fe using that material, its
resilience is being proven out. When
inspected, it was required that certain load
bearing portions of the stucture be reinforced
by regular concrete. After several years,
these are the only locations that are experi-
encing minor surface stress cracks. Burke
Denman, Ironstone's developer, is working
with the City of Santa Fe to get pumice-crete
approved as a building material.
The wastewater system has proven to be
extremely effective in processing wastes
from the site. In fact, there has been no use
of the public wastewater system at all. The
city continues to send monthly wastewater
bills to Ironstone, which have been con-
tested. However, until they have conclusive
proof that the facility is not using the public
wastewater infrastructure, the bills will con-
tinue. To resolve the dispute once and for
all, the city is planning to use a dye in
Ironstone's system, trace its route, and
determine conclusively whether or not
Ironstone is “off the wastewater grid.”
The project's wastewater system supplies
ample water to its landscaping, which has
just been completed. One lesson learned
from the project was that when the budget
for bank financing was developed, an insuf-
ficient amount was budgeted for landscap-
ing, so it took longer to get into place than
originally anticipated.
Also, the developer would have designed
more of the spaces to have plumbing outlets
available to easily convert a day studio to a
live-in studio.
Late Breaking News:
On Earth Day 1998 the Sustainability
Program of Denman and Associates was
honored by Renew America for its work on
Ironstone Gardens and another project, a
monastery, built using straw bale construc-
tion and photovoltaic solar panels. The
monastary is off the electric grid and utilizes
an on-site constructed wastewater treatment
system.
—Community Sustainability Resource
Institute