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Like its biblical namesake, the Lazarus Building is coming back to life.

Given the likelihood of aging structures that pose difficult renovation solutions being torn down instead of fixed up, the survival of the former department store into a second century seems little short of, well, a miracle.

James Thurber's eccentric mother, Mame, used to take her son there and pretend to shoplift, her idea of a good joke. Hundreds of thousands of former shoppers have fond memories of trolling through the treasures in the bargain basement, having a bite to eat in the various tea rooms and restaurants that came and went over the years, attending fashion shows. Ray Charles tinkled the ivories at the store during his Coke-commercial days.

A lot of history did not fall to the wrecking ball, and now what grew over time into a 1-million-square-foot building is itself making history in the approach being taken to its renovation.

Last week, during the Green Building Expo '06 at the Athenaeum, Max Moore of the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. offered a progress report on the massive undertaking during a presentation titled "Making Green Happen Locally: Project Case Studies."

Columbus officials, after Federated Department Stores Inc. shut down the former Lazarus in August 2004 and donated the building at Town and High streets to the city, turned to the private, nonprofit development corporation that is seeking to revitalize downtown.

The reason Moore was speaking at the trade show, which featured environmentally friendly and energy-efficient products, services and programs, was because of the way in which the $60-million RiverSouth project has been undertaken.

When city officials approached the CDDC about handling the project, they said something like, "OK," but rather hesitantly, according to Moore.

Then the CDDC was asked to do it "green," using innovative techniques to make the overhauled building more energy efficient and reduce its impact on the environment as well as use less natural resources than a traditional office building.

"OK," they replied, still more hesitantly, Moore said.

Then city administrators dropped the other shoe: We don't want just a green project, but one which will meet the rigid guidelines to qualify for the Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building.

At that point, CDDC officials must have thought, "Heck, why not?"

The Lazarus renovation will do more than achieve that lofty goal, according to Moore, project manager with the CDDC. It will, he said, set a "gold" standard for such efforts, achieving the highest possible ranking for a LEED project.

The Lazarus Building posed some daunting challenges, Moore told architects and others seeking professional education credits during last week's event sponsored by the nonprofit Columbus Green Building Forum.

The initial structure was built in 1908, Moore said, but since that time had undergone eight different renovation, reconstruction and addition projects involving an array of architects, building approaches and construction techniques.

Many of the floor levels didn't match up.

"From a renovating standpoint, it really is a nightmare," Moore said.

Demolishing the once-venerable department store would have been its own bad dream, from an environmental point of view. It has been estimated that the construction debris would have required landfill space the size of Ohio Stadium and three to four stories deep.

"There's that much concrete and steel in the building," Moore said.

Most LEED-certified projects involve new construction. Renovation efforts can earn points through recycling of construction debris, according to the CDDC project manager.

Imagine the surprise of the owner of a modest flooring outfit who got a call from someone at the CDDC asking, "Got any interest in 300 tons of used carpeting?"

It took a lot of effort and a lot of calling around locally, because the recycling wouldn't count toward LEED if trucked too long a distance, but over 50 percent of the debris from the Lazarus project has been recycled, Moore said.

That includes, in addition to the carpeting: