The Washougal Town Square project underway by Wes Hickey’s Lone Wolf Development has been chosen for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development pilot program.
The pilot is an effort by the U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council with the goal of developing a national set of standards for neighborhood location and design based on the combined principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building.
The rating will place emphasis on the elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape.
The $13 million mixed-use Washougal Town Square building in downtown Washougal is in the midst of construction and the next phases of the project – three partial-block buildings on three separate blocks just north of the Town Square building – will likely break ground in 2008.
Projections put the total construction cost at $45 million.
Hickey’s aim for the project is to help revitalize downtown Washougal and demonstrate principles of smart growth. Being part of the pilot will provide Lone Wolf with a regional and national platform to serve as an example of such, he said.
The pilot program was originally open to only 125 projects nationally, but 370 applied and all 370 were allowed to participate, said Taryn Holowka, communications manager for the U.S. Green Building Council.
