BACK TO SCH O OL I S S UE
Our 2013 Education Portfolio 96 Why Community Colleges Matter 86 Six Projects That Put Food First 58 G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N J U LY + A U G U S T 2 0 13
d by edite t s e ert u “G s exp chool s n ! e r te ” gre l Gut e h c a R
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The Defining Event for the Stakeholders Responsible for the Planning, Design, Construction and Operations of Healthcare Facilities October 1- 3, 2013 Navy Pier Chicago, IL RegISTeR For 26 years the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo has NOw! been the forum where leaders share ideas on healthcare delivery Use code FH 2M to Save 20 6P improvement and how the physical space directly impacts % on your the staff, patients and their families. Architects, Engineers, registration . Facility Managers, Healthcare Administrators, Interior Designers and Construction Professionals alike come together as friends to collaborate, hear fresh perspectives, understand current trends and discover new products and solutions. Spend just three days at the Symposium and you will be inspired to evoke change and the advancement of a better delivery of healthcare. This is my Symposium because, for a few days each year, I am
able to renew my own personal mission statement by focusing my time and attention toward education with subject matter experts who share best practices in healthcare planning, design and construction. When I return to work, I feel informed, reenergized and ready to lead my team with confidence.
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create a better industry. I learn from leaders in the healthcare industry whose expertise spans executive administration, architecture, engineering, construction, and patient care. It’s this world class group of leaders that inform me of knowledge and experiences I cannot possibly acquire on my own.
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Please visit www.hcarefacilities.com for more information and to register. For information on exhibits and sponsorships, please contact Nancy Jo Hauck at 843.388.4098 or nj@jdevents.com.
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
In This Issue Case studies at four leading community colleges, p.88
Transcending traditional education in Canada, p.110 New York City and SOM craft Vanessa Santos on the
a solar shell, p.96
promise of the community
photos: Barry Halkin (p.88); SOM (p.96); Lee P. Thomas (p.58); samantha simmons (LEGOs)
college, p.86
PLUS! Green schools expert Rachel Gutter moonlights as a gb&d editor, p.12
Six projects integrating education and food, p.58
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Table of Contents Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List p11
p21
p39
p57
p69
p85
p109
p137
p151
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
12 editors’ desk Back to School Issue 17 Notebook Alan Oakes 18 Defined Design 18 York
70 74 75 78 82 84
education
22 23 24 26 28
Texas Tech University Xavier University School District of Fort Atkinson Southern Illinois University Edwardsville American Hebrew Academy
86
the promise of the community college
96 108
development
29 31 31 33
Baldwin and Sons Live Oak-Gottesman The Franklin Institute Castle & Cooke
operations
34 37 38
U.S. Equities Realty St. John’s Hospital Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center
40 45 46 50 51 52
Benson Tower Earth Rangers A-P Hurd Nancy Malone DM Development EcoVillage at Ithaca
food + Education
60 61 62 65 66 68
Durham College Centre for Food Grow Dat Youth Farm Locust Trace AgriScience Farm Capital Area Food Bank PS 216 Edible Schoolyard Savannah College of Art and Design
gb&d
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission 1990 Central Avenue HGTV Dream Home 2013 David and Lucile Packard Foundation Broad Institute Building San Francisco General Hospital
110 116 118 119 121 124 126 128 132 135 136
These underrated institutions may hold the key to more green-collar jobs 2013 Education portfolio
138 On the boards Washington University in St. Louis 142 carbon neutral Northern Arizona University 144 in progress Parkland Hospital 147 city planning City of Union City 149 Net zero One Sky Homes
152 developer to watch LocalConstruct 155 material world 3M Prestige Line Window Film 156 groundwork Green Leaf Inn Pt. 3 160 Toolbox Advancing Efficiency 162 On the spot Rachel Gutter
Zero-energy schools in multiple states, designing for autism, and more Discussion Board
How does the physical environment affect student performance?
Plus 7 From the Publisher 9 Editor’s note 10 Index 161 ad Index
Learn
Douglas Park Elementary School Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy Chesapeake Child Development Center live
Écologia Montréal Bernier Residence / Milne Triplex The Whitley Ruby House play
St. Elizabeths East Gateway Pavilion Whitney Museum of American Art Expansion New York Palace Hotel Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitors Center
july–august 2013
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DM GROUP Development Management
We are a real estate development firm with over 16 years of experience in all phases of development and/or redevelopment from time of initial acquisition through stabilized occupancy. Our mission as owner's rep is to provide clients the very best quality of representation, ensuring their interests are kept at the heart of every part of the project. Too often in this industry, project owners are left to fend for themselves against general contractors, architects, engineers, suppliers, vendors and many other entities involved in construction everyday. FRATERNITY HOUSE-UCLA DM Group provides the project owner the tools and resources necessary to successfully manage their project ensuring it is built on their terms.
smart . michael . simonoff
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
18662 MacArthur Blvd. Suite 101 949.757.3240 WW
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Irvine, CA 92612 P HI KAP PA P SSuite I 101 949.757.3240 WW
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• Budget Development and Analysis • Contract Administration • Constructabilty/Plan Review
• Construction Management
• Design Team Selection
• Quality Assurance/Quality Control
• Bidding
• Closeout
• Value engineering
• Sustainable Building/LEED
• Contract Development and Review • Construction Defect Litigation Management/Workout
DM Group Development Management | 2238 Malcom Ave. | Los Angeles, CA 90064 | Phone: 323.208.9550 | Fax: 424.273.1258
“Quality and Production Without Compromise” Blackstone Builders Inc. is family owned and operated. We are located in Corona, CA with easy access to service our customers in Riverside, Orange and Los Angeles. Blackstone Builders mission is to always exceed our customer’s expectations. Our expertise and professional services can help you take your project from concept to completion within your buget and time frame. Our goal is not only to build projects, but more importantly to build relationships.
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“The True Measure of Performance” • Green Building (LEED) • Ground Up • Institutional
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BLACKSTONE BUILDERS INC. | 170 N. Maple Street, Unit 101 | Corona, CA 92880 | Phone: 951.736.1600 | Fax: 951.736.1601
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
From the Publisher Wanted: Green-Collar Jobs
photo: samantha simmons
To build more sustainable cities, we need an educated workforce, and so there is one type of school uniquely prepared to impact the industry. The community college. These schools are already trade-focused, with students excited to develop their skills in fields such as manufacturing, transportation, technology, and engineering. With such a growing demand for a green economy, we need more green-collar workers, and community colleges are the missing link to equip them. Institutions such as Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland (p.88) and Clover Park Technical School in Washington (p.92) offer programs in things like sustainable building science, but a crucial aspect is their pace. “They move so much faster than fouryear institutions,” explains Rachel Gutter, executive director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools, on p.15. “Community colleges are a place we can invest to rapidly catalyze transformation—one that’s going to have a local impact because the majority of students who are attending community colleges are going to stay rooted right in those communities.” In other words, the two-year colleges dotting the nation had tons of latent potential for green growth. They just needed a little support, So the Center for Green Schools launched something called the Community Green initiative, which offered community colleges free membership to the USGBC and helped provide leadership around deploying green-collar professionals. Because yes, we need environmentally minded architects and engineers, but we also need energy-savvy electricians and plumbers, because they are on site. The entire workforce needs trained on technologies that are emerging and changing every day. Community colleges can help do this. A huge number of students are benefitting as well. Gaining real-world perspective is one of the most important things we take away from a college education. A vast majority of community colleges gb&d
offer top-notch programs and better yet, a chance to gain hands-on experience at a fraction of the cost of a four-year university. Although I did not attend a community college, as we dived deeper into creating this issue, I became aware of the programs they offer and was amazed to hear more about their commitment to developing vocational skills. There are plenty of young adults out there who know exactly what they want to specialize in. They’re ready to get their feet wet. Just ask Christopher Saucedo (p.95), a student at Clover Park and vice president of the USGBC student group at the school. “My generation has a real interest in sustainability, but sometimes it’s difficult figuring out where to start,” he says. Community colleges and their outreach programs offer exactly the start that students like Saucedo are looking for. We need to continue to capitalize on community colleges because they already offer affordable, accessible educations for people looking for green collar jobs and certifications. They are the future of the green building industry, and they will, in turn, help all of us create greener communities for ourselves. Check out our feature on p.86 for more innovative schools and insights from educators. Enjoy! Best,
Laura Heidenreich Associate Publisher laura@gbdmagazine.com july–august 2013
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EXECUTIVE ASSISTANTS
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gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Editor’s Note Why I Don’t Matter How ironic.
Timothy A. Schuler Managing Editor tim@gbdmagazine.com ON THE COVER We needed a cover that said sustainability, building, and education. So what better medium to use than LEGOs? We could build anything, so we constructed our cover line and added a green roof, a water cistern, and a wind turbine. For more LEGO fun, flip to p. 86.
B AC K TO S C HO O L I S S UE
Our 2013 Education Portfolio 96 Why Community Colleges Matter 86 Six Projects That Put Food First 58 G R E E N B U I L D I N G & D E S I G N J U LY + A U G U S T 2 0 13
by edi ted “Gu est ool s exp ert sch !” gre en Gut ter Rac hel
JULY+AUGUST 2013 VOL.4, NO.22
portrait: samantha simmons; cover photo: Samantha Simmons
Cheers,
Essential to sustainability
gb&d
rounded by big bluestem and native cottonwoods. We grew our own Christmas trees, spent summers shucking sweet corn, and were schooled in the ecological benefits of no-till farming. But we also drove 50 miles to Walmart for groceries and ate off paper plates every night. I was being raised as two parts naturepreservationist and one part American suburbanite. But just because you and I are probably “beyond repair” doesn’t mean we stop building greener schools. It’s our responsibility to pave the way for these future “sustainability natives,” and that effort is more exciting and more successful than ever. In Canada, centuries-old ideas about education are being questioned and prompting similar questions about school design (p.110). New York City unveiled a net-zero-energy elementary school literally covered in solar panels (p.96). And the LearningSpring School grew organically out of a need for classrooms designed specifically for kids with autism (p.98). The revolution is long overdue. We’re at a tipping point where, with just a tiny push, we might enter an era in which our schools and the things they teach are unrecognizable to us adults. Flip through the issue and you’ll see a glimpse of the future. You and I may not be around to see that future, but we can help usher it in.
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
always thought changing the world would be complicated. But it turns out that the recipe for positive change is incredibly simple: Be realistic about who you can help. I don’t mean just choose an issue. I mean forget about the majority of the population—specifically, everyone over age five. Let me explain. When Geoffrey Canada founded the Harlem Children’s Zone in an attempt to provide underprivileged families a road out of poverty, he didn’t start with twenty-somethings; he started with young kids. Really young. Most of them hadn’t been born. Canada created a “pipeline” that began with The Baby College, a series of workshops for pregnant mothers based on research that said irreparable damage, when it came to learning abilities, often happened between ages zero and three, long before kids even began their “education.” The concept made perfect sense, until you realized Canada was essentially giving up on a huge population. Harlem teens? It was too late for them. Rachel Gutter has the same message regarding sustainability. Gutter is the executive director of the Center for Green Schools, part of the US Green Building Council in Washington, DC, and I’m thrilled to introduce her also as the guest editor of this issue. Like Canada, Gutter has accepted that same unpopular truth: it’s too late for many of us. A greener future is only possible by raising what she calls “sustainability natives,” kids who inherently throw food scraps into compost piles, walk and bike to school, and think houses without rainwater cisterns are weird. In our conversation, which begins on p.12, Gutter sums up the rationale: “I am not going to waste my energy trying to [appeal] to the altruistic side of grown-ups. I think most of us—and on some days, I count myself among these ranks—are sort of beyond repair.” I agree. I grew up in rural Kansas, sur-
july–august 2013
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Index People & Companies
# A
18 York, 18 1820 Cottle Avenue, 149 1990 Central Avenue, 74 3M Prestige, 155 A-Light, 81 Alarcon, Scott, 17 All Florida Management Group, 74 Alternative Utility Services, 157 American Hebrew Academy, 28 American Hydrotech, 116 Amorim Cork Insulation, 160 Anderson & Shaw Roofing, 117 Anne Arundel Community College, 88 Arcola Community School, 114 Arturo Toscanini School, 66 Atlanta Gas Light, 38 Atrium Landscape, 117 Aurora Street Pocket Neighborhood, 55 B Baldwin and Sons, 29 Barrett, Bruce, 96 Benson LeBlanc, Rita, 40 Benson Tower, 40 Benson, Tom, 41 Bernier Family Residence, 120 Bernier, Paul, 119 Biesheuvel, David, 17 Big Sea Design and Development, 74 Bike to Work Week, 37 BK Lighting/Teka Illumination, 81 Blackbirds Development, 152 Bloomberg, Michael, 97 Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center, 38 Bon Appétit Management Company, 68 Bosch, 74 Boston Properties, 82 BR+A Engineers, 82 Brach Design, 127 Brach, Dave, 127 Bright Endeavors, 37 Bring Back the Wild, 45 Broad Institute, 82 Brown, Mike, 152 Bus Arc, 160 C Camden County College, 92 Cannon Design, 143 Capital Area Food Bank, 65 Carbon Efficient City, 46 Castle & Cooke, 33 Cedar Bend Professional Center, 31 Center for Green Schools, 87 Champions Square, 44 Cheeves, Larry, 147 Chesapeake Child Development Center, 118 Chez Panisse Foundation, 66 Public Building Commission of Chicago, 116 Christopher Rose Architects, 75 City of Atlanta, 38 City of Chula Vista, 29 City of Dallas, 145 Climate Action Plan, 147 Clover Park Technical College, 91 Community Green, 87 Corporate Realty, 44 Costanzo, Jennifer, 117 Couse, Chris, 18
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Crockatt, Nancy, 34 D David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 78 David Baker + Partners Architects, 148 Davis Brody Bond, 129 Davis Energy Group, 150 Dawson, Joyce, 88 De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop, 136 Decoster, Mike, 94 Dedmon, Brandon, 51 Delmar Loop Redevelopment, 138 Department of Public Works, 71 Dierking, Maria, 145 DM Development, 51 Douglas Park Elementary School, 110 Drogi, Agnes, 142 Dufek, Paul, 143 Durham College Centre for Food, 60 Dyal Compass, 75 Dyal, Candace, 76 E E. Sam Jones, 38 Earth Rangers Centre, 45 Earth Rangers, 45 Écologia Montréal, 122 EcoVillage at Ithaca Center for Sustainability Education, 53 EcoVillage at Ithaca, 52 Edible Schoolyard Project, 66 Efrussy, Joel, 124 Elkus Manfredi Architects, 82 Elliott + Associates Architects, 118 Emanuel, Rahm, 34 Epstein, 65 Erlandson, David, 82 Evanoff, Mark, 148 F F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates, 117 Faber-Taylor, Andres, 15 Fayette County Public Schools, 62 Fenwick Place, 23 Fielding Nair International, 112 Fielding, Randy, 112 Florida Native Nursery, 74 Fong & Chan Architects, 84 Fong, David G., 84 School District of Fort Atkinson, 24 Fortin, Gervais, 123 Frecker, Joe, 23 Furuta, Andrew, 33 G Garbowski, Ron, 92 Gaswirth, Erica, 98 Gentile, Larissa, 133 Georgetown Independent School District, 17 Gilliland, Allen, 149 Gow Hastings Architects, 60 Green Apple Xlerator, 16 Green Leaf Inn, 156 Green, Aaron, 28 Gromatzky Dupree & Associates, 124 Grow Dat Youth Farm, 61 Guardian, 31 Gutter, Rachel, 12 H Haase, Stephen, 29 Haeger, John, 142 Hall, Tom, 74 Hamilton Anderson Associates, 94
I J K L M N
Hanover Architectural Products, 117 Harper, Kathy, 145 Hasiuk, Greg, 112 Health & Learning Center, 142 HGTV Dream Home 2013, 75 Hoff Dining Complex, 23 Holly & Smith Architects, 44 Houzz, 16 Human Health Building, 105 Hurd, A-P, 46 Illuminating Engineering Society, 81 Innovia Automatic Paper Towel Dispenser, 14 Jacobs/Ryan Associates, 117 Jair Lynch Development Partners, 65 Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building, 51 JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design, 78 Kahn, Ned, 33 Karim, Ibrahim, 122 Karsenti, Sabine, 122 Keene Building Systems, 150 Khan, Siraj, 105 Kone, 23 Kreiss, Fritz, 156 Kuchenmeister, Dennis, 24 Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, 18 LearningSpring School, 98 Ledalite, 81 Lepore, Barrett, 124 Lifeline Energy, 27 Linda Herrington Elementary School, 17 Live Oak-Gottesman, 31 LocalConstruct, 152 Locust Trace AgriScience Farm, 62 Lopes, Nuno, 84 Lord, Catherine, 101 Lovisa, Don, 60 Lowenberg, Jeff, 82 Lumio, 160 Lynch, Casey, 152 Malloy, Joan, 147 Malone, Nancy, 50 Maloney, Bill, 132 Marshall, Nancy, 139 Marzwell, Aaron, 51 McNeal, Cody, 129 MacRae, Julie, 110 Mebrahtu, Brooke, 71 Melink, 23 Mercedes-Benz Superdome, 41 Mid-Pen Housing Coalition, 147 Milne Triplex, 121 Molina, Michael, 22 Moraitakis, Ann Marie, 38 My Yoga Online, 15 Nelson, Dixie, 114 New Orleans Centre Mall, 44 New Orleans Hornets, 40 New Orleans Saints, 40 New York City Department of Education, 96 New York Palace Hotel, 135 Nicholas and Athena Karabots Exhibit Pavilion, 31 Nolan, Janet, 78
O P R S
Northern Arizona University, 142 Northwood Hospitality, 135 Number TEN Architectural Group, 112 Oakland University, 104 Ochsner Health Systems, 44 Ogami, 15 Oldcastle Reliance, 31 Onavo Extend, 13 One Sky Homes, 149 Otay Ranch, 29 Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 150 Palmisano, Wesley J., 44 Parkland Hospital, 144 Passive House Institute US, 127 Paul Bernier Architecte, 119 Pearson, Doug, 33 Peerless, 81 Petroleum Engineering Building, 22 Phi Kappa Psi, 51 Piano, Renzo, 132 Piatt, Mark, 143 Pittsburgh Paints, 31 PlaNYC 2030, 97 Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, 98 PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower, 18 Principal Real Estate Investors, 124 PS 216, 66 PS 62, 96 Purdy Elementary School, 24 Rabena, Rich, 32 Rayburn, Bob, 51 Rediger, Ron, 117 Regina Public Schools, 110 RSP Systems, 135 Richardsville Elementary School, 103 Ring Around A Tree, 16 Riverside Resources, 124 Rose, Christopher, 76 Roundhouse Creative Studio, 74 Ruby House, 127 Sabbah, Maurice ‘Chico,’ 28 Sage Classroom, 14 Salmon, Hilary, 65 San Diego Gas & Electric, 29 San Francisco General Hospital, 84 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, 70 Santos, Vanessa, 87 Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, 116 Saucedo, Christopher, 95 Savannah College of Art & Design, 68 Savarino, Paul, 135 SaylorGregg Architects, 32 Schonberger, Andy, 45 School Energy Managers Project, 103 Science Building Complex, 27 Searles, David L., 32 Seven Stones Community School, 114 Shaper, 81 Shaw, 31 Sheeran, Bob, 23 Sherman Carter Barnhart, 103 Siegel & Strain Architects, 50
Siegel, Mike, 44 Sierra Club, 74 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 96 Smith, Dan, 91 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, 26 Spielman, Mark, 28 St. John’s Hospital, 37 Stading, Greg, 37 Stanfield, Kenny, 103 Station Center Family Housing, 147 Stollsteimer, Terry, 105 STR Partners, 116 T Tange, Kenzo, 35 Tate Hill Jacobs Architects, 62 Taylor, Jim, 88 Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, 32 Texas Tech University, 22 Tezuka Architects, 16 The Franklin Institute, 31 The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, 38 The Whitley Printing Company, 124 Thorton, Tim, 155 Touchstone, 46 Trane, 31 Tse-Chan, Chiu Lin, 84 Tulane City Center, 61 Tulane University’s School of Architecture, 61 Turkey Foot Middle School, 103 Turner Construction Company, 65 U UCLA, 51 Union City Station District, 147 U.S. Equities Realty, 34 V Van der Ryn, Sim, 50 Venue, 13 Village Homes, 50 W Walker, Liz, 53 Walker, Rich, 26 Wanninger, Joe, 125 Warren County Public Schools, 103 Washington University in St. Louis, 138 Waters, Alice, 66 Wayne County Community College District, 94 Webcor Builders, 71 WegoWise, 160 Weigert, Karen, 34 Weisburd, Jerry, 55 White, Megan, 73 Whitley, 124 Whitney Museum of American Art, 132 Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitors Center, 136 Willhite, Ron, 103 Wilson, Jay, 103 Woodward Design+Build, 44 WORKac, 66 Wright, Mary, 62 X Xavier University, 23 Y Yanez, Dennis, 117 Yosemite Environmental Education Center, 50 Younkman, Steve, 31 Z Zero Energy House, 92 Zumthor, Peter, 119
gbdmagazine.com
GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 12
Editor’s Desk
17
Notebook
18
Defined Design
gb&d
Rachel Gutter and the Back to School Issue Alan Oakes: Honey, they cloned the schools! 18 York, KPMB Architects
july–august 2013
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UP FRONt
Editor’s Desk Back to School Issue
Rachel Gutter used to be a teacher. Now she serves educators as executive director of the Center for Green Schools. We’re thrilled she also guest edited this issue of gb&d.
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PART I. Environmental Dilemmas
Timothy Schuler: Do you remember your first memory of nature becoming something more than just, “I like climbing trees,” where you realized that you, as a person, were in relationship with nature? Rachel Gutter: Yeah. Every summer, my family has spent time on Cape Cod, and I was an extremely early talker. By the time I was one-and-a-half, I was speaking in full sentences and talking my parents’ ears off, and I think I was driving them crazy. So my father introduced me to sea glass and beach combing. I have memories of it from a young age, but it’s exactly the same today—the second I get to a beach I will take my shoes off, walk straight to the ocean, and keep my head down while I walk several miles hunting for sea glass. Sea glass is so fascinating to me because it sits at this intersection of that which man creates and that which the sea delivers to us. I had a great conversation with my father’s best friend, who’s also an avid beach comber, and anyone who does a lot of beach combing, especially in the United States, will tell you that blue glass is one of the biggest treasures the sea gbdmagazine.com
photo: center for green schools
When we began planning the Back to School Issue, we wanted a guest editor who was an expert in both education and sustainability, who had experience in the classroom as well as in design, who was an ideas person but also working at the ground level. Rachel Gutter was the perfect fit. As the executive director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools in Washington, DC, Rachel oversees multiple initiatives across all levels of education in the United States and abroad and is a go-to resource on the topic of green schools. Rachel and I had the chance to discuss just some of what the Center for Green Schools and gb&d have in mind as we explore how we might build greener schools. Alongside our conversation, we share a few of our favorite things, from a modular classroom prototype to the best website for design inspiration. Throughout the issue, you’ll find more of Rachel’s handiwork: She poses our Discussion Board question on p.108, comments on the intersection of food and education on p.67, and is subjected to the gb&d Questionnaire on p.162. We’re indebted to Rachel for helping us put together the issue and thrilled to participate in the dialogue of how to green our schools. —Timothy Schuler, Managing Editor
UP FRONt
“It’s not about the materials themselves; it’s our relationship to the materials and our larger relationship with the Earth.” Rachel Gutter, Center for Green Schools
offers—it’s a lot more rare than other colors. He and I were having this environmentalist’s dilemma; he wanted to make a gift to the sea in the form of a blue glass bottle, a gift to the sea and also a gift to other beach combers, and yet we’ve been conditioned never to throw anything like that into the ocean! We were really scratching our heads about it. It was a very funny conversation. Schuler: Did you throw it in?
English major. I love paper and books. [They have] something I can’t get from my computer. This is another environmentalist’s dilemma. We’re plagued by our own sense of guilt. We know too much. One of the things people need to come back to is that it’s not about the materials themselves; it’s our relationship to the materials and our larger relationship with the Earth. We have to get back to a much more healthy and balanced relationship.
Gutter: We did not. But I will admit to the fact that we didn’t largely because there were other people around, and we were afraid of how it would look to them. I think otherwise we probably would’ve done it because in our minds it could only be a gift. The beauty of it is that glass is made of sand in the first place, so one could argue, I suppose, that it’s not a pollutant in and of itself.
Schuler: It’s tough. It’s helpful to look back—that’s probably one of the most helpful things we can do to see a more sustainable time—but I’m sure you run into situations all the time where people say, “That’s not helpful anymore. How can we make real change in this world, where things are where they are?” That’s a little bit what the USGBC is all about, right? Practical, pragmatic change.
Schuler: My environmental dilemma is always around the use of real paper, paper made from trees. I’m sure you read Cradle to Cradle at some point—
Gutter: Definitely. That has been our secret sauce. As a movement, with the early adopters of LEED, we’ve been able to demonstrate that you don’t have to [go green] to the detriment of your lifestyle. In fact, it can have tremendous implications for an improved lifestyle, improved educational experience, improved health and well-being. This is really where the USGBC differentiated itself earlier on and was able to be so successful as a different kind of nonprofit. We connected it to the business case, and we touched on a set of priorities that much of the rest of the environmental community had not been particularly focused on or tuned in to. They were talking about saving the planet, which only a subset of people can connect to emotionally. Or they were talking about saving the polar bears, and only a subset of people can relate to that. I personally have been to Alaska, where they have to have these massive fences built around some of their schools because polar bears eat kids! So I also do
Gutter: In the bathtub. Schuler: —they talk about how that book was made. It’s actually synthetic paper that can be easily upcycled and made into something else. And in one part of my brain, I completely agree with their argument, yet the idea of nature gifting something back to you and actually being usable is so incredible. A tree can be so many things; it can be turned into furniture; it can be turned into a book. And just the smell, the physicality, the materiality of it is so wonderful that I have a hard time imagining a world where trees are just trees. Even though maybe that is the greener thing. It seems like a loss and a gain at the same time. Gutter: I can totally relate to that, particularly as a bibliophile and a former gb&d
EDITORS’ PICKS 10 things guest editor Rachel Gutter and gb&d managing editor Tim Schuler unabashedly endorse
Onavo Extend RG: As a person who relies on my iPhone for everything from getting me from point A to point B, to finding a cobbler in an unknown city for an emergency stiletto repair, I frequently find that I’m exceeding my data allowance for the month. The app Onavo Count presents a super simple picture of exactly how you’re consuming data. There’s a sister app, Onavo Extend, that actually helps you to reduce data usage without decreasing functionality on your phone. Now that’s an app that makes me, and my IT guys, happy campers. onavo.com
Venue TS: You don’t spend time in the design world without quickly running across Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, co-directors of Studio-X NYC and founders of BLDGBLOG and Edible Geography, respectively. Their latest project is Venue, a 16-month expedition across the country that melds ecology, geography, design, data collection, ethnography, and good old-fashioned storytelling. I love that this 21st-century Lewis-and-Clark team are thinking about the US beyond its cities and documenting it in such a fun, accessible way. v-e-n-u-e.com
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UP FRONt
Six projects at the intersection of food, education, and design
EDITORS’ PICKS food Where cation u d and e .58 meet, p
Farm to Class
to fork. Farm to table. Farm to fork. Field be a straightforward concept: you popular mechanism for what should farm However you say it, the idea is a But formalizing this beyond the and you eat it (or serve it to others). and grow your food, you prepare it, bypassing much of the red tape of urbanized communities requires or introducing it into the heart (and misinformed) than ever before. system, which is more convoluted middlemen of the modern food cooks in the kitchen. There are, quite simply, far too many of sustainable building, are starting to prove that the devices serve to circumvent the But innovative projects and programs environmental responsibility can food. Bon appétit. public interest design, and grassroots systems inhibiting access to healthy increasingly complicated political
not connect as emotionally with polar bears as an icon for global warming or climate change as I do with this idea about it being about our children. Innovia Automatic Paper Towel Dispenser RG: I’ll admit to being a gadget girl. My latest gizmo obsession is the Innovia automatic paper towel dispenser. Wave your hand in front of the sensor for hands-free, germaphobe-friendly paper towel access*. Best of all, if you’re a select-a-size lover like me, you can use only as much as you need, and Innovia will suck the remaining paper towels back up. (*Lesson I’ve learned the hard way: Innovia and Viva paper towels are not friends. Viva’s cloth-like velvety goodness is just too sticky.) Innoviahome.com
SAGE TS: Most students will race for the door when the bell rings no matter how nice their classroom, but the SAGE (Smart Academic Green Environment) Classroom has a chance of keeping kids in their chairs. I toured the modular prototype, a winner of the International SEED Award, at Greenbuild last year and was pleased to find a clean, healthful, affordable solution to learning environments. The team, which includes Portland State University, Blazer Industries, Pacific Mobile Structures, and LG Electronics, did its homework so that students can too. sageclassroom.com
PART II. fitness & figure skating
Schuler: Do you have a morning routine? I know you do yoga. Gutter: Lately, on one morning a week I actually head to a local ice rink that is one of DC’s best-kept secrets. Typically I’m the only person on the ice, which as a former competitive figure skater was unheard of growing up, and I plug in my iPod and just... dance. That has become one of my favorite morning rituals. Schuler: How did you get into figure skating? Gutter: When I was five, I went with my mom and her friend and daughter, and it was just love at first glide. It’s one of my earlier and more vivid memories. My father likes to say that when you sign your kid up for group lessons at the rink and you see the ice-skating coach walking up to you afterwards and saying, ‘Your daughter has a lot of talent; you should consider private lessons,’ that you should run in the other direction. (Laughs) Because in more ways than one, skating really took over not just my life but the lives of my sister and my parents. But I credit it with being one of the most influential factors in shaping the person I am. From the perspective of discipline, of balance, staying cool under pressure, pushing body and mind to the limit together. Schuler: I’m sure just learning the capabilities of your own body was really important. Gutter: I think it absolutely was. I also think that’s why yoga has become such a lifeline for me now that skating is not a
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By Benjamin van Loon
daily thing because, as Americans in particular, we have a very low intelligence for the connection, or awareness even of the connection between mind and body. And more broadly than that, it connects to this environmental theme, this idea that all these things are separate and siloed. That mind and body are separate, that I am different from you, and I am not one and the same as the Earth. And this much more Eastern perspective of thinking about all these things as operating as part of a whole, for me that began with skating, at least from an individual perspective, and then yoga expanded that practice to a much more holistic and global one. Particularly for those of us who work in the sustainability movement, when we are confronted with information that suggests a rather grim outlook on our future, it’s all the more important to have a three-dimensional life, to have other places to find hope and joy. Schuler: I’ve been fascinated by models abroad where classrooms are designed in such a way to really enhance movement. Is there a way for the Center for Green Schools to get involved in that dialogue? Gutter: In fact, we are working on that and have been collaborating with the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), which is a foursome of the largest funders of childhood obesity and wellness initiatives in the United States—it’s USDA, NIH (National Institutes of Health), CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And we convened a gathering around the connection between the built environment, child obesity, and nutrition and produced what I think is a wonderful publication called “Green Health: Building Sustainable Schools for Healthy Kids” that has some terrific information in it. The outcome of these efforts—the academic paper—will be be published soon gbdmagazine.com
UP FRONt
“There are so many ways we intersect with this conversation about physical fitness and wellness and preventing obesity in our kids.” Rachel Gutter, Center for Green Schools
in the Journal for Preventative Medicine. We just received a grant from Robert Wood Johnson to continue to collaborate with members of NCCOR on this topic in particular, whether it be active design— which is the principle you were basically alluding to, keeping kids moving through the design of the building and the flow of the space—to safe, walkable paths to school to kitchens that are set up to facilitate healthy eating to edible schoolyards. There are so many ways in which we intersect with this conversation about physical fitness and wellness and preventing obesity in our kids. Schuler: The Center for Green Schools recently launched a program focused exclusively on community colleges. I was intrigued by your choice to put significant resources into these institutions. You helped us put together a whole feature on this (p.86), but in your words, why are community colleges such an important part of the education landscape of the United States? Gutter: One of the most exciting things is that [community colleges] deploy so quickly. They are going to be the best hope we have for educating this green workforce that we pay so much lip service to. They move so much faster than four-year institutions. So even in a short period of time with just a little bit of support, they are moving at breakneck speed to create new courses and to engage their students in activism and career building opportunities. When you think about it, many students—perhaps the majority, I can’t say for sure—not only are going
to be rapidly deployed to the workforce, they are already in the workforce. When you compare that to the numbers of students at four-year institutions who go directly to grad school, and simply the four-year timeline, community colleges are a place we can invest to rapidly catalyze transformation and one that’s going to have a local impact because the majority of students who are attending community colleges are going to stay rooted right in those communities. PART III. Our Gravest Mistake
TS: Printing ink on paper has been one of our most powerful acts as a species, and Hong Kong-based Repap may let us continue in a more sustainable way. The company creates paper from stone. The stuff filling the pages of its Ogami notebooks is calcium carbonate, a limestone byproduct, and water. In addition to saving trees, the process for making the acid- and chlorine-free paper is efficient and requires no bleach since the product is naturally white. I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. ogamicollection.com
Schuler: When I think about people that I consider to be contemporary heroes in education, I think of Geoffrey Canada at the Harlem Children Zone, I think of the Kalamazoo Promise, trying to get every high school student to college, I think of Gary Comer here in Chicago, down in Pocket Town and all the investment that’s been done specifically around education. Who are some of the heroes you’ve found out about and maybe even been able to partner with? Gutter: For me, forever and always, the biggest heroes are the teachers themselves. And one of the most inspired teachers whom I have ever met is Steve Ritz. He has a terrific TED Talk that I highly recommend. He’s one of our Green Apple Ambassadors, and he’s one of the only—well, I think he’s a celebrity, but technically he probably doesn’t meet the definition as a teacher in the Bronx— non-mainstream personality Green Apple Ambassadors that we have. He’s just that amazing, and he is that kind of hero.
Andrea Faber Taylor TS: You can never have too much evidence that green schools actually do help encourage learning. Andrea Faber Taylor, a child environment and behavior researcher at the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has found that just a view of green space boosts student performance because it will capture a child’s “involuntary attention” and allow his or her “directed attention”—the kind we use to listen, study, take tests—a chance to rest. I hope administrators, architects, and builders pay attention. lhhl.illinois.edu
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Ogami
Myyogaonline.com RG: Myyogaonline.com makes it possible for me to stay sane when I’m on the road for up to two weeks out of the month. For a monthly fee that is less than a single yoga class in Washington, DC, you can stream unlimited yoga videos by world-class instructors. Search by level, class length or style and get your zen on. I don’t leave home without my manduka travel mat. Best of all, when checking in to a hotel, asking the receptionist if my room has space for a yoga mat gets me a free upgrade every time! Namaste. myyogaonline.com
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EDITORS’ PICKS
“I really don’t care why you vote in favor of a green school policy. I think it’s about how many more schools can we green, and how quickly can we do it?” Rachel Gutter, Center for Green Schools
Green Apple XLERATOR RG: I know, I know. It’s a bit of a shameless plug, but if you happen to be in the market for a commercial hand dryer, a portion of the proceeds from the purchase of a special edition Green Apple XLERATOR gives back to the work that we do at the Center for Green Schools to put every student in a healthy, safe, and efficient school. Fun fact: it’s the first time that a cause-marketing brand (think Pink Ribbon or RED) appears on a building product. If, dear reader, a hand dryer isn’t on your 2013 wish list, when you do come across one, take a photo and tweet it at the center, @mygreenschools, or me, @RachelGutter. Where we learn matters! mygreenapple.org
Ring Around a Tree TS: I took a dance class once, a mistake I will never make again. However, it did show me how little we use our bodies as adults. Kids push their physical limits, and they learn from doing so. This is what’s brilliant about Tezuka Architects’ Ring Around a Tree. Six floors are sandwiched into the height of two stories, creating a space that forces students of Fuji Elementary in Tokyo to interact with it by crouching and crawling through spaces, which is especially beneficial to kinetic learners. We need more of anything that trains our kids not to sit at desks for eight hours a day but to use their bodies. tezuka-arch.com
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Teaching students in the Bronx, who not only are not expected to go to college, they’re not even expected to finish high school. Teaching them about indoor organic farming, helping them to feed their families, helping them see there are ways to make money that don’t involve illegal activities, instilling in them a sense of pride. The work that he is doing is so transformative. He is just this incredible bundle of joy and energy. Schuler: You used to be a teacher. Do you ever miss teaching and being in the classroom? Gutter: What I miss is the regular contact with kids. I think people assume that my job entails a lot of that. It turns out I spend the majority of my time with elected officials and potential and existing funders and college and university presidents and superintendents. I have precious few opportunities, unless I really seek them out, to actually just hang out with children and listen to them. Schuler: Do you ever have moments where you think, “If all these schools and all these companies make better decisions for the environment based on the case that it will save them money, will we lose sight of why we’re doing it in the first place?” Gutter: It doesn’t worry me at all. The thing that the environmental movement gets wrong, our gravest mistake, is that we continue to insist that intellectual agreement is one and the same as the inspiration to act. It turns out that all of the research around everything from consumer purchasing patterns to political affiliations are, at the end of the day, largely emotional and related to your community and not tied to the science, not tied to the facts. If I have to hear another one of these leading, iconic environmentalists say, “We just need better science to
convince the skeptics,” I might punch them in the face. Schuler: (Laughs) Gutter: Because that is so wrong. That’s us ignoring the facts, because we have all the science we could ever possibly need. It’s not compelling even half of us on any given day—and actually, it’s not compelling way more than half of us to actually shift our behaviors. So my perspective is, I really don’t care why you vote in favor of a green school policy as a school board member. I really don’t care why, as a student, you decide to go to a college or university with a significant sustainability commitment. I really don’t care why a policy maker wants to make this their publicfacing legacy. I don’t think it matters. I think it’s about how many more schools can we green, and how quickly can we do it? Because at the end of the day, regardless of why you make the decision, we’re putting our kids in schools that are healthy, safe, and efficient and positioning them to be successful into the future. I’ll worry about getting to those kids and making sure they understand that this is part of a “higher calling,” if you will. I’ll worry about educating those kids to be sustainability natives. But I am not going to waste my energy trying to [appeal] to the altruistic side of grown-ups. I think most of us—and on some days, I count myself among these ranks—are sort of beyond repair. gb&d Houzz RG: Recently I purchased my first home, a 100-yearold, brick, Victorian row house undergoing a gut renovation. I partnered with my contractor to spec all of the fixtures and fittings from dual-flush toilets to an LED chandelier. I spent untold hours on Houzz.com, which is a great site for home design inspiration. My favorite feature is the idea books, where you can store and tag the things you love the most. houzz.com
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Notebook Honey, They Cloned the Schools! By Alan Oakes
When I received the assignment to report on Douglas Park Elementary School (p. 110) and began researching the new facility, it was immediately apparent that the school was designed to its specific site in Regina, Saskatchewan, with a careful study of sunlight and how the natural resource would be incorporated into the structure. With long frigid winters, the architects shaped the building to absorb this very precious commodity for both health and economic reasons. Their creation is a one-of-a-kind facility, which works with the site in a number of ways to improve the educational experience of children. Which is in contrast to the school designs I see in Texas where I live. Many of the newer schools in Texas use essentially the same plan, yet when I speak with eco-minded architects, they suggest the greatest gains in building performance are achieved by designing a building to its site. So what gives? I took my question to Scott Alarcon. Alarcon is the president of Georgetown Independent School District’s board of trustees, the same school district where I’m employed in Williamson County. “I think there is a natural gravitation to those things that are familiar,” he tells me. “Using the same plan design gives you a greater comfort level regarding budget and possible areas of concern regarding contingencies.” For more than a decade, Williamson County has been listed as one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. It’s just north of Austin and home to a cluster of high-tech companies and groundbreaking medical facilities. The county attracts family-friendly professionals who demand a top drawer education for their children. Citizens approved hundreds of millions of dollars of civic bonds to create an education infrastructure that is truly remarkable, with robust building happening throughout the economic recession. But most of the school districts in the county have relied gb&d
on standardized templates for school design. There is a sameness to many of the school buildings, no matter the neighborhood, no matter the building site, no matter the grade level. It’s no accident. When I’ve asked students if they like the fact that a portion of their high school is exactly the same as their middle school, they generally agree that they like the familiarity. The first day of school is a little less anxious because they know the building. That goes for administrators and teachers as well. Plus, with budgets squeezed, there is little room for more experiments that may or may not eke out more efficiency. “I don’t want to be a guinea pig for new designs and not really know if they’re going to provide true savings or not,” says David Biesheuvel, my district’s director of construction and facilities. “Theoretical savings on paper does not always translate to actual savings in the field.” It’s not just an unwillingness to spend more for experimental designs. Alarcon also sees a number of up-front cost savings from standardization, citing the efficiencies that come with short timelines, contractor familiarity, and known professional fees. Not that green design is somehow being shunned by schools in Williamson County. Instead, they are forced to take a pragmatic approach. “If it takes 100 years to achieve payback, then it’s probably not going to get far in our design planning,” Alarcon says. A good example is Round Rock’s Linda Herrington Elementary School just down the block from my home. The school’s plan has been used repeatedly in the county, but as refinements in green design have become more economical, the design has been tweaked to incorporate new innovations. “I have seen costs
steadily come down over time as LEED engineering has become more commonplace and efficient in commercial construction,” Alarcon admits. A noticeable improvement at Herrington, which the neighborhood has lauded, is the rain-harvesting system. Rooftop runoff is collected in a number of very prominent galvanized-metal cisterns at all the downspouts and used to irrigate the school’s indigenous landscaping. Biesheuvel pointed out that many green features are less site-specific. “[Today’s] school buildings have better HVAC systems and computerized central controls to ensure proper airflow and conditioning, … accounting for not only temperature, but also carbon dioxide and humidity levels, which are critical to good air quality,” he explains. “New technologies in lighting are also increasing energy efficiency, which also reduce heat loads and the energy needed to compensate for hotter interiors.” We aren’t there yet, but I hope in the future we enter a phase of school planning where the best of standardized layouts will be incorporated with the efficiencies and healthful performance of site-adapted sustainable design. Alarcon remains cautiously optimistic. “It is my hope we strike the right balance of environmental sensitivity and healthful performance along with being good fiscal stewards of the community’s resources,” he says. When it comes to education, it is our collective responsibility to meet that challenge. gb&d Alan Oakes is an architectural historian, writer, documentarian, and regular contributor to gb&d. Drop him a line at alanoakes@gbdmagazine.com.
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Defined Design KPMB Architects’ 18 York Details
For mo re 18 York downlo ad iPad ap our p via iTunes
Location Toronto Size 850,000 ft2 Completed 2011 Cost $200 million Owner British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) Development Manager GWL Realty Advisors Architect Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects Construction Manager EllisDon Project Manager Pivotal Projects Structural Consultant Halcrow Yolles Mechanical Consultant The Mitchell Partnership Electrical Consultant Mulvey & Banani International Building Envelope Consultant Brook Van Dalen & Associates LEED Consultant Halsall Associates Landscape Architect Corban and Goode Landscape Architecture and Urbanism
The PwC Tower is serious about alternative transportation initiatives, including 128 indoor bicycle parking spots, changing rooms, parking stalls for car-share programs, and proximity to PATH and public rail systems.
Structural engineering to support the urban forest on the third-floor terrace needed to allow for a soil depth of five feet, which is the depth required to allow the native tree species to grow into full-sized specimens.
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UP FRONt
The Toronto skyline is still a living thing, evolving with each development, and the new, 26-story, LEED Gold 18 York, also known as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Tower, is a testament to an ongoing urban evolution. Designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB), the site used to comprise prime harbor-side land in the 19th century but was cut off from downtown by 20th-century infrastructural development. Now, with access to the PATH transit system and other urban amenities, such as the Air Canada Centre and the Rogers SkyDome, investors like British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC), along with PwC, began to see the benefits of revitalizing this parcel of neglected downtown real estate. “[The building] proved to be so attractive to PwC and other forward-thinking tenants that the building was fully leased before construction was complete,” says Chris Couse, principal in charge at KPMB. “The building provides tenants with a supportive office environment that offers incredible access to daylight, seductive views, loft-like space, and a LEED Gold sustainability approach.” gb&d —Benjamin van Loon
18 York keeps energy costs low based on its off-peak use of the city’s Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling utility, which uses drinking water from the lake as a heat sink for cooling in the district.
photos: tom arban
humanistic / ‘hyü-mə-,nis-tik / adj. Of or pertaining to human affairs, nature, welfare, or values. The sustainable design of the building at 18 York is fundamentally humanistic. Sheathed in highperformance glass cut to maximum size to reduce mullions and thermal bridge conditions, the PwC Tower allows for optimal daylighting while indoor temperature is moderated by thermal storage tanks held in the lowest levels of the building. An automated roller-shading system takes environmental cues to determine shade levels, and raised access floors with under-floor air distribution help to create a loft-like environment. An ‘urban forest’ garden makes up the third floor terrace of the tower. The garden is planted with indigenous plants and trees that recreate St. Lawrence Lowland ecology, and it is spotted with small seating areas to offer human points of natural connection.
impetus / ‘im-pə-təs / noun A driving force. In addition to providing a strategic point of connectivity between Toronto’s forgotten harbor shoreline, or ‘South Core,’ as the developers call it, and downtown Toronto, the building at 18 York also serves as an impetus for continued development in the area. Noticing 18 York’s impact on the site and its access to downtown, investors from bcIMC acquired proximal South Core land and have begun marketing it as the Southcore Financial Centre. A second office tower on the site is complemented with a new, four-star Delta Hotel, and the entire building is being developed to similarly high sustainable standards. Additionally, across the way, Union Station, is refurbishing and enlarging its public spaces, and Waterfront Toronto has launched a plan to revitalize the harbor-side lands nearby.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List Education
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Texas Tech University
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Xavier University
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School District of Fort Atkinson
Green construction is paying off
Adding space, slashing energy use
Taking notes from Wisconsin students
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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Science Building heralds a LEED era
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American Hebrew Academy
Development
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Baldwin and Sons
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Live Oak-Gottesman
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The Franklin Institute
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Castle & Cooke
The new master-planned community
Bringing greener offices to Austin
A new pavilion with attention to detail How Hawaiian climates affect housing Operations
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U.S. Equities Realty
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St. John’s hospital
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Atlanta Civic Center
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Smart design meets an eco-minded culture
A Chicago skyscraper sets the pace
Patient-friendly, sustainable additions
Retooling a facility for the next 40 years
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Approach education
10%
Expected energy savings in the new Petroleum Engineering Building
Texas Tech Builds Green for Big Savings New construction will reduce energy consumption by 10 percent, support campus-wide efforts Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, has committed to reusing its resources and conserving energy, and green initiatives are most prevalent in its upcoming and most recent construction work. Texas Tech is in the beginning stages of building a new $20 million, 41,000-square-foot Petroleum Engineering Building that is being designed to obtain LEED certification. But this is not the first time Texas Tech has worked with LEED. In 2011, the school finished a $70 million initiative for its College of Business Administration (COBA) building that was recently awarded LEED Gold certification [featured in gb&d Jul/Aug/ Sep 2012]. “Once we started that project, we implemented a goal that all new capital projects of the right fit would at least be LEED certified,” says Michael Molina, vice chancellor of facilities at Texas Tech. Which is where the Petroleum Engineering Building fits in. The university
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aims to exceed 10 percent energy savings in the building, based off its historical index on campus, and the biggest factor in this reduction is in the lighting and controls systems. The team is not only looking at motion sensors but also digitally programmed and managed lighting. “On a college campus, students don’t always flip the switches,” he says. “Timed energy and lighting controls will be used.” Texas Tech plans on using the highest energy-efficiency products that its budget allows for just about anything that has an end feed to an electrical current. But even small changes pay big dividends; in 2011, the university saved 1.5 million kilowatts with ballast switches, lighting fixture retrofits, and managing air-handling units better. Construction for the petroleum building was just wrapping up demolition and laying the structural elements and
foundation in February, so only some of the materials had been selected at that point, but the school plans to use terrazzo flooring with recycled aggregate, glass particulates, and reused metals. The university has focused on using less water in the past few years, so all fixtures in the new building will be low-flow. Ideally, the building will have waterless urinals as well; however, studies are being done to address the smell that has come up in the COBA building, where waterless urinals were first used on campus. But small setbacks on construction aren’t stopping Texas Tech across campus. The university has two large cisterns that collect condensation and rainwater to be recycled for irrigation. In 2011, the campus saved 2.7 million gallons of water. “We have completely changed the way we water plants and grass, and our
2.7m 7,582 Gallons of water saved at Texas Tech in 2011
Trees saved in 2012 alone through paper recycling
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APPROACH
Join the conversation @gbd_mag
photo: greg rust (xavier university)
“Our board of regents and chancellor … have put us in the position to make this a priority. That’s a refreshing, cutting-edge mindset that is much appreciated.”
Xavier University increases space, not energy use
535 beds and 800 dining seats have been added to the Ohio college
Michael Molina, Texas Tech University
Utility bills remain unchanged despite 265,000 more square feet
building systems and physical plant have done fixture change-outs to low-flow,” Molina says. In that same year, Texas Tech recycled 385 tons of its 3,477 tons of waste. “Any time we demolish a building, we make a strong effort to recycle,” Molina says. “We demolished our old Thompson Hall and COBA buildings that year. Our institution does a great job making an effort in all of our buildings to create a sense of excitement around the sustainable efforts.” In the housing and hospitality and all academic buildings, the university appoints champions of sustainability that help collect cardboard and other recyclable materials after student group meetings. “Hats off to the recycling champions and being part of the bigger initiatives,” Molina says. “They are the ones really pushing to make this happen at a grassroots level.” In 2011, the university was able to save 6,545 trees and 146,300 gallons of oil with paper recycling. Molina says the upper level management at the university has been enthusiastic about these efforts. “Our board of regents and chancellor have been real champions,” he explains. “They have put us in the position to make this a priority. That’s a refreshing, cutting-edge mindset that is much appreciated.” The biggest challenge, but a good one, Molina notes, has been educating the building users and students who don’t really understand what LEED is. “End users need to understand the value,” he says, “and that it’s not only a sustainable solution, but these solutions, in many cases, are more efficient and run better than conventional methods.” gb&d —Jennifer Nunez
In July 2009, Xavier University in Cincinnati set out to eliminate dorm room overcrowding, fill a campus need for more dining space, and do both with sustainability in mind. In just more than two years, the university was able to plan, design, and construct a 265,000-squarefoot residential complex to LEED Silver standards. Located at the heart of campus, the structure added 535 dorm room beds and 800 seats for dining. “Xavier University experienced a growth in enrollment, and we were already short on beds here on campus—we were tripling up our double rooms,” says Joe Frecker, construction manager at Xavier University. “With the construction
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of Fenwick Place and the Hoff Dining Complex, we would be able to enforce our own rule that all freshman and sophomores need to live on campus.” The building’s design, meanwhile, reinforces the school’s commitment to sustainability. It uses an envelope panel system to make it weathertight, and tongue-and-groove panels act as an insulation layer and vapor barrier, so once the building was enclosed, the team was able to concentrate on the interior. Bob Sheeran, vice president of facilities, says that an integrated project delivery system allowed Xavier University to bring in certain critical elements of the project early on, including the installation of five elevators by Kone. The structure consists of four wings for dorms and a dining hall in the lower level of the building. To harmoniously combine living and dining in one structure, the kitchen exhaust was fashioned to come up through the middle of the residence hall towers and exhaust five stories above the ground to prevent students from smelling it at ground level. The university installed a Melink system that uses sensors to handle the exhaust by making the fans speed up or slow down as needed. “Having the variation saves energy because every time you turn on the hood, you are sucking energy out
“Even though we increased our square footage on campus by 25%, our utility bills remained the same because of the efficiencies we received from the new equipment.” Joe Frecker, Xavier University
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At its new residential and dining complex, Xavier University holds energy competitions between wings, which have meters that provide key data, to see which one is using the least amount of energy and encourage the students to conserve.
$58m
Cost of construction for Fenwick Place. Construction took 19 months to complete.
of the building and having to replace it with fresh air,” Sheeran says. Many of the LEED credits for the structure came through using low-flow toilets and showers and daylighting. “The building uses 20 percent less water because of the flow restrictions, and the living areas and lounges get significant daylight,” Sheeran says. Xavier University invested in state-ofthe-art building management systems in its new central utility plant. Mechanical and electrical systems were dedicated to water efficiency, energy conservation, and the quality of the indoor environment. “Even though we increased our square footage on campus by 25 percent, our utility bills remained the same because of the efficiencies we received from the new equipment,” Frecker says. Since the project’s completion in August 2011, the complex has been able to energize the core of campus. “It was the tooth missing in our smile,” Sheeran says. “There was a void on campus that Fenwick Place and the Hoff Dining Commons was able to fill.” gb&d —Jennifer Hogeland
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‘Green teams’ put the kids in charge in Wisconsin The School District of Fort Atkinson lets students lead sustainability initiatives Purdy Elementary wins Green Ribbon Award from the Department of Education Ever since geothermal heating systems were installed in four of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin’s six schools in 2006, sustainable building practices have been embraced by the School District of Fort Atkinson. The district has been so dedicated that its Purdy Elementary School won a Green Ribbon Award, which was given to only 78 schools out of more than 350 applicants across the
nation for exemplary success in sustainable practices. And Dennis Kuchenmeister, director of buildings and grounds, says that although all six schools in the district have made great strides toward energy efficiency, the Purdy Green Team has seen the most success thus far. Although all schools in the Fort Atkinson district now have Green Teams, Purdy pioneered the idea and formed the first one in the 2008-2009 school year. It now has 10 members, all in third through fifth grade, and it runs much like a student council but with a primary focus on promoting and working on sustainability-related projects. The Purdy Green Team has become a vital part of the day-to-day procedures at the school. The students were intricately involved in the school’s Energy Star certification process by doing inventory for computers, windows, doors, projectors, and space heaters, among other things, and surveying transportation habits, lighting usage in rooms, and recycling habits. Their efforts helped the school win its certification in summer 2010. The team also administers weekly checks of classroom conservation participation, including writing out “tickets” to rooms that fail to turn off lights or not following proper recycling practices. Each month the team awards the most energy-efficient classroom a frog figurine called Eartha. These ambitious youngsters even run the school store where they manage the accounting, marketing, and merchandise orders and manage inventory. Profits are used to promote the team’s interest in sustainable habits, energy-efficient items, and educational products. The Purdy Green Team has been so successful that is has not only reduced electricity use, completed tree transplants, and increased overall recycling, but it has also cut the plastic spork usage at the school by 95 percent, saving a large amount of plastic yearly. In addition to the geothermal heating systems, Purdy has a photovoltaic array
“The biggest benefit is that it’s a source of education to the kids in the school.”
Dennis Kuchenmeister, School District of Fort Atkinson gbdmagazine.com
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Although it looked like a war zone during the drilling process, this field now has 220 bores for the geothermal system that provides energy for heating and air-conditioning of the 185,000-square-foot school.
Science building an example for Southern Illinois Southern Illinois University Edwardsville wraps the first of six planned LEED Silver or higher facilities
Solar panels and wind turbines at many of the School District of Fort Atkinson schools have also helped lower costs.
$71,000
Amount saved through geothermal heating in 2010, a 53.5% overall energy savings
on the roof, which was installed in 2010. Other schools in the district have solar hot-water systems for heated swimming pools, and one even has a wind generator. The district has not done an overall revamp of roofing, lighting, or water fixtures, but when replacements are needed, sustainable options are used. “The goal is to have all the schools have some sort of sustainable system in place,” Kuchenmeister says. “Every school has been converted from 32-watt T12 lights to 30-watt T8 lamps. We also put in energy-efficient ballasts. Now what we’re
“The goal is to have all the schools have some sort of sustainable [lighting] system in place. Every school has been converted from 32-watt T12 lights to 30-watt T8 lamps.” Dennis Kuchenmeister, School District of Fort Atkinson
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doing is through attrition, or as they burn out, we are replacing them with 28-watt lamps.” The geothermal wells have been a big saver for Purdy and the other three schools that have them. Purdy saw a 59.7 percent energy savings, and the district as a whole had a 53.5 percent savings, which is approximately $71,000, in 2010. “The biggest benefit is that it’s a source of education to the kids in the school,” Kuchenmeister says. “There is a heat pump for every room. We can heat a room on one side of the building, and at the same time, we can run the air-conditioning on the other side. If a room is not being used for any period of time, we can schedule it off so we aren’t running pumps in that room.” gb&d —Jennifer Nunez
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) has embarked on a major expansion effort to upgrade many of its campus facilities. In doing so, the school has turned to LEED construction principles to reduce its environmental impact. By the time all projects are complete, six campus facilities will be LEED Silver or higher, the second highest total among all Illinois universities. “It was a concerted effort that started out one project at a time,” says Rich Walker, assistant vice chancellor of administration at SIUE, which is less than 20 miles from St. Louis in Edwardsville, Illinois. “It continues to evolve into something more.” In today’s competitive field of higher education, universities must find a way to deliver the amenities that prospective students want without significantly increasing their tuition costs, and an increasing awareness of environmental issues by SIUE constituents also have influenced decisions on new construction and renova-
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“Since we’ve started these building projects, awareness has increased throughout the university.” Rich Walker, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
tion projects on campus. “Students are interested in doing the right thing, but they don’t want to pay more to go to school,” Walker says, who adds that SIUE has already reaped financial benefits from its efforts. “It really is paying off dividends in terms of utility bills.” One major project expected to achieve LEED Silver is the Science Building Complex, which will be completed in two phases. The first is the new construction of the building that will house labs and offices for the chemistry, biology, and environmental sciences programs. The second phase, which has not yet begun construction, involves renovations to an existing building that will be home to the school’s math, statistics, and physics departments. After the project is complete, the two buildings will be connected via a sky bridge. “We are intentionally using similar strategies in the new building and the existing building,” Walker says. “We don’t want anybody to feel left behind.” Some of the noteworthy eco-friendly features include a 1,100-square-foot green roof, which will double as an educational tool for biology faculty, and a 30-kilowatt photovoltaic array featuring panels from Lifeline Energy. Seventy-five percent of construction waste is being diverted from landfills, and 10 percent of materials used for the project have been sourced locally. The new building will also have an energy dashboard prominently displayed in the lobby. “It’s really a learning oppor-
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tunity more than anything,” Walker says. “It helps to make students aware of the energy the building is using.” The new building will get rid of the old singlepane windows in favor of newer models. At first, it was difficult for the building users to adjust to the lighting’s automatic sensors because they can shut off when a classroom is filled but has little activity. The university also struggled to attain LEED standards because its local contractors had limited experience in the area, and many of those contractors had to hire LEED consultants as a result. But the projects have been worth its challenges, Walker says. SIUE has found room for improvement in testing envelope components to ensure they are achieving desired outcomes. “We’re finding some good results in that we are identifying problems during construction rather than later,” Walker says. The biggest benefit of SIUE’s LEED projects has been the eco-conscious campus mentality. “Since we’ve started these building projects, awareness has increased throughout the university,” Walker says. SIUE has hired a campus sustainability officer, and students have formed an advisory group on efficiency issues, ensuring that sustainable building will continue on campus. gb&d —Kelli McElhinny
The 26-building American Hebrew Academy campus was designed by architect Aaron Green (1917–2001), a Cooper Union graduate, former associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, and winner of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Gold Medal in 2001. Green’s design makes the campus very walkable, and Mark Spielman says there are hardly any cars on campus, making it easier for students to bike.
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‘Green Ribbon’ for Jewish boarding school
to forcibly articulate. According to Mark Spielman, director of admissions and administration at AHA, sustainability is simply a part of what the school is. He points to the school’s 756-well, closedloop geothermal system as an example of this. “When they were building the school,” Spielman says, “they built a geothermal energy center, which was not only unheard of but was the largest of its kind at the time.” Data produced by the Greensboro’s American school suggests that the system reduces Hebrew Academy uses a 756-well the campus heating and cooling costs by geothermal system and composting roughly 30 percent per year. program to set a sustainable The students also are a big part of the example for the country school’s green aspects without necessarily knowing it. “It’s a large campus, Of the 350 American schools that but it’s very pedestrian,” Spielman says. applied for the Green Ribbon School “Students are walking or riding their title when it was offered by the U.S. bikes around campus. There are no cars Department of Education in 2012, the anywhere, and through required wellAmerican Hebrew Academy (AHA) in ness and fitness classes, our students Greensboro, North Carolina, was one of are encouraged to be very active.” These just 78 schools selected to receive the efforts are further complemented by prestigious award. organic, locally grown dining options, Situated on 100 acres of forested and all food waste is added to a comland and bordering a 22-acre lake on posting system that is used to fertilize a the northwest side of the city, the AHA ‘Gardens of Israel’ garden, tended by the is a multidenominational, or ‘pluralstudents. Food grown in the garden is istic,’ Jewish boarding school founded then donated to a local homeless shelter. in 1996 by agronomist Maurice ‘Chico’ A green club and classes in Eco-Judaism Sabbah. The 26-building campus opened are also offered. in 2001 and was designed by architect AHA is home to roughly 155 high school students from around the All buildings at the Hebrew country for the Academy are clad in Jerusalem unique experience stone, providing an architectural of boarding school. linkage between it and Israel. Aided by a low student-to-teacher ratio of 12 to 1, the school is expected to grow in the coming years with the geothermal system forecasted to save the school up to 60 percent on heating and cooling costs, one ingredient among many conAaron Green, a former associate of Frank tributing to its status as a Green Ribbon Lloyd Wright. School. Drawing on his agronomical and Jew“Sustainability has always been at ish background, Sabbah founded AHA the forefront of our minds,” Spielman on the idea of tikkun olam, or ‘repairing says. “Looking forward, we’re planning the world.’ Although sustainability is a to improve and grow our environmental fundamental aspect of the school’s misprograms, as they mean so much to us.” gb&d —Benjamin van Loon sion, it is not something AHA has had gbdmagazine.com
Approach DEVELOPMENT This “green belt” is a vital aspect of Otay Ranch, connecting local streets to a system of bicycle and pedestrian paths.
The End of Large-Lot Development Baldwin and Sons’ Otay Ranch signals a sea change in the housing market Newest villages are built on smaller lots for higher-density green communities Baldwin and Sons is looking to add 1,500 homes to Otay Ranch, its sustainable community in Chula Vista, California. These additions will be on smaller lots because Stephen Haase, senior vice president of development at Baldwin and Sons, says that the firm is realizing that allocating more land for natural landscaping doesn’t necessarily make a project more sustainable. This is a big shift for the developer, which held to the idea that larger plots of land were more sustainable because there is more of the natural environment intact. “Part of sustainable communities is protecting a significant portion of the natural environment,” Haase says. “[But] large lot development is no longer sustainable.” Otay Ranch is a master-planned community that includes 19 villages on approximately 23,000 acres. Baldwin and Sons had emphasized maintaining open space as a conservation measure and specifically set aside more than 11,000 acres gb&d
for natural habitat. With its new plan for growth, Otay Ranch’s smaller lots will further emphasize the community’s sustainable aspects. Otay Ranch’s villages are organized to reduce environmental impact, and every effort is made to locate public facilities within walking distance of homes. The communities feature wider sidewalks and bike lanes for greater safety, trafficcalming features, and bike and pedestrian bridges over busy intersections. These design principles minimize the need for people to use their cars and reduce the distances they have to drive. Otay Ranch residents also have ample opportunity to use public transportation. “Transit is a big part of our communities,” Haase says. “We simply can’t continue to drive on freeways or to our parks, libraries, and schools.” The homes, apartment complexes, and retail and municipal buildings of Otay Ranch also strive to live up to the environmentally conscious standards of
the surrounding community. In order to set itself apart from competitors, Baldwin and Sons has emphasized amenities such as garage plug-ins for hybrid vehicles, photovoltaic-ready homes, and conservation technology such as Energy Star and WaterSense fixtures. Baldwin and Sons has collaborated with public utilities, including San Diego Gas & Electric, to ensure residential properties maximize energy efficiency, and all the green amenities have increased Otay Ranch’s appeal to house-hunters. “There’s a strong tendency for California homeowners to be environmentally conscious,” Haase says. “From that standpoint, we’ve responded to market demands.” Even renters are engaged in resource conservation efforts. The apartment complexes have sub-metering for utilities in each individual unit. Haase says that tenants are going to be more energy or water conscious if they pay the bill directly rather than it be included in the overall monthly rent. The City of Chula Vista supports sustainability too, striving to have all of its public buildings, such
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Villages and planning areas within Otay Ranch. Developer Baldwin and Sons says current and future homes are being built on smaller lots.
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as schools and police stations, be at least LEED Silver certified. Sustainability in Otay Ranch is not just manifested in its buildings, parks, and schools; there also is a social sense of permanence. The community atmosphere at Otay Ranch is a major source of sustainability, encouraging residents to put down roots. “It’s not buying a house,” Haase says. “It’s buying a home and a neighborhood and a community.” gb&d —Kelli McElhinny
Austin medical offices respond to demand for green Real estate developer Live Oak-Gottesman earns LEED Silver certification New building’s utility costs are 25% less than expected In response to a thriving medical industry in Austin, Texas, Live OakGottesman, a local full-service real estate development firm, designed and constructed the 70,000-square-foot Cedar Bend Professional Center. In the similar mindset of health for people, the realty firm constructed the center with special attention to the health of the environment. The building, completed in 2012, scored 31 points to earn it a LEED Silver certification under the Core & Shell rating. “As a company, we believe that having buildings that are more mindful of the environment, such as being LEED certified or even a locally recognized green building standard, is important,” says Steve Younkman, CFO of Live OakGottesman. “From a company standpoint, it’s economical. Tenants were requesting it. In fact, some tenants won’t lease space within a development unless the building is LEED certified or something similar.” gb&d
“There are a lot of factors that led us to make the conscious decision to be LEED certified,” Younkman continues. “We realize there is an additional cost and the development may take more time, but in the end it is worth it both economically and environmentally.” Research data suggests the new buildings that are LEED certified help reduce electrical energy costs by 25 to 30 percent over non-LEED buildings. Since coming on line, Cedar Bend Professional Center’s monthly utility costs are 25 percent less than what they were expected to be, a figure with which Younkman says he is happy. Construction and waste management was crucial for Cedar Bend’s LEED certification; more than 94 percent of all construction waste was diverted from landfills. Live Oak-Gottesman’s general contractor used weight tickets for every haul off-site. To avoid wasting water, Live OakGottesman implemented xeriscaping and planted only native or adaptive vegetation on the property. A drip irrigation system was installed for trees and shrubs and a sprinkler system for turf grass. The company expects to see a 47 percent water use reduction compared to non-LEED developments, which will be achieved with its landscaping measures and its low-flow fixtures. Some fixtures include one-third-gallon-per-flush toilets, one-gallon urinals, and 0.5-gallons-perminute faucets. Cedar Bend’s exterior contains 12,000 square feet of exterior glazing. The glazing was a combination of the Oldcastle Reliance curtainwall system and Oldcastle ICR 225 storefront system with Guardian Superneutral 68 one-inch-thick low-E glass. The HVAC system uses an energy-efficient Trane system that consists of two 90-ton rooftop units with a combination of variable-air-volume and fan-powered terminal units for the air-handling system. The project included demandcontrolled ventilation integrated with a
Despite 12,000 square feet of windows, the Cedar Bend Professional Center in Austin saves 25 to 30 percent in electricity costs from its energy-saving efforts.
unit economizer to minimize fresh air intake during periods of low occupancy. Additionally, the system is controlled by a centralized DDC control system, which can be monitored and adjusted remotely to minimize energy use in the building while still providing occupant comfort. Other green features in the building are the T5 lighting fixtures, use of concrete versus asphalt for paved areas, installation of Shaw 5000 pressure-sensitive adhesive for the anchoring system for the flooring that uses 15 gram/liter of volatile organic compound versus 50 gram/liter allowable, low-VOC paints by Pittsburgh Paints, and 30 percent of the total building material content was manufactured from recycled materials. gb&d —Jennifer Nunez
The Franklin Institute builds a sustainable addition The Philadelphia science museum looks to add hands-on science features and earn LEED certification in the process The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is constructing a 56,000-square-foot addition called the Nicholas and Athena Karabots Exhibit Pavilion. The new pavilion will bring several unique, green features to the hands-on science museum, including a cutting-edge permanent exhibit dedicated to the study of july–august 2013
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125 the brain, a rain garden, and a shimmer wall. The new pavilion has an expected completion date at the end of 2013 and a planned opening in June 2014, and the three-story addition is targeting LEED Silver certification, but project architect David L. Searles of SaylorGregg Architects says the building has been “in Gold range for a while now, and we are doing all we can to keep the certification level as high as possible.”
Supported by a gift of $10 million from the Karabots, the $22.5 million pavilion is the museum’s first expansion in more than 20 years and will introduce a permanent in-depth brain and neurology exhibit presented by Teva Pharmaceuticals USA covering 8,500 square feet of the second floor’s 10,000 square feet and housed in the Frank Baldino, Jr. Gallery. On the third floor, another 10,000 square feet of climate-controlled space will host
Number of new jobs in construction and other fields that have been or will be created in Philadelphia as a result of the Karabots Pavilion
traveling exhibits, and the first floor will serve as an education and conference center with classrooms and integrated learning technologies. The Franklin Institute’s vice president of operations Rich Rabena says the pavilion provides much needed space for permanent exhibits and special activities. “When the institute was opened in 1932, it was originally designed to cover an entire city block but ended up covering only half a block,” Rabena says. “In 1989, there was an addition, and now the pavilion will allow a connection to public circulation around Franklin Hall and will convert the dead-end galleries into a continuous route on all floors.” The pavilion’s attractions continue on the outside with a highly sustainable rain garden that will serve as an extensive storm-water-management system, an important aspect of the exterior design that addresses new city codes prohibit-
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ing the dumping of storm water into the sewage system. “It’s very much an active experience of watching how the water is utilized,” Searles says. When a science museum constructs a sustainable building, the story doesn’t stop there. An informational plaque, which might earn the project a LEED Innovation credit, on the exterior of the pavilion will describe the entire sustainable design process and include details about the exterior elements of the rain garden and the shimmer wall. Created by artist Ned Kahn, the aluminum kinetic façade of the shimmer wall is designed to make wind visible and is the first of its kind in the state. Other sustainable elements in the building include LED light fixtures where possible, energy-efficient chillers to replace the existing ones, fly ash in the concrete, and countertops with recycled aluminum. Through the implementation of these various sustainable elements, Searles estimates a 17.5 percent energy savings. “But it goes beyond that,” he says, “because of the existing building, where the old chillers and cooling towers are all being upgraded.” Rabena points out that the museum will also promote alternative transportation with bicycle racks, electric vehicle-charging stations in the parking garage, and opportunities for ride sharing to the museum. gb&d —Suchi Rudra
Housing in Hawaii adapts to climate Veteran developer Castle & Cooke’s residential projects respond to both island weather and changing market demands Castle & Cooke, a longtime housing developer in Hawaii, is starting a new, sustainable era in residential development. “Embracing sustainability is the right thing to do in our industry, in more ways than one,” says Doug Pearson, Castle & Cooke’s vice president of construction. gb&d
Castle & Cooke incorporates elements such as solar-water heating, PV panels, and double-pane windows to take advantage of the generous sunlight that the Kapolei region offers. To combat Hawaii’s ferocious termites, Castle & Cooke uses light gauge steel made from 30 percent recycled material to build wall frames.
“People move here for our homes. We need to be keeping up with the market and our buyer’s needs.” Founded in 1851, Castle & Cooke has been rooted in Hawaii since its creation, and the company’s most recent adaptation to the changing market is to implement green features in its projects in the Kapolei region, which is near Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Since 2009, Castle & Cooke has built more than 650 homes on 20 acres in Kapolei, including multiunit and single-family homes and a community center on its way to LEED Silver certification. These Kapolei projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2013, and Castle & Cooke has used their natural benefits to overcome the inherent challenges of developing sustainable housing in Hawaii. Using Hawaii’s natural resources has always been a priority for the company. In addition to Energy Star appliances and low-flow fixtures, Castle & Cooke take advantage of Kapolei’s generous sunshine with solar-water heating, PV panels, and double-pane windows. The team recognizes that Hawaii’s inherently mild weather is a way to reduce energy consumption. “Our version of heating is to turn our fans down a notch, and even air-conditioning is not a standard,” says Andrew Furuta, a project manager at Castle & Cooke. Furuta also notes that the tropical climate lets his team have a year-round construction schedule. Although Hawaii offers obvious benefits, there also are challenges. Island property is very expensive, and building materials have
“The steel frames are a huge green feature. Not only are they able to be recycled after a home has been standing for years, but they also save project time by being panelized off-site.” Doug Pearson, Castle & Cooke
to be imported, which has historically hindered Hawaiian development. Castle & Cooke received development rights from the State of Hawaii and partnered with the state in order to keep its housing affordable. But there is another pesky building problem. “Termites are a real issue in Hawaii,” Pearson says. “They are ferocious.” In order to combat the insects, Castle & Cooke uses light gauge steel made from 30 percent recycled material to build wall frames. The annoying problem becomes an opportunity to get creative with a sustainable solution. “The steel frames are a huge green feature,” he adds. “Not only are they able to be recycled after a home has been standing for years, but they also save project time by being panelized off-site.” Castle & Cooke’s commitment to better building attempts to prove that longstanding businesses are capable of adapting to changing markets and embracing sustainability. Through the use of natural resources and bringing in consultants to implement additional green features, the company aims to stay true to its mission of serving Hawaii and building for its future. gb&d —Kelly Hepner a message from ROYAL CONTRACTING
Castle & Cooke believes in being a good neighbor during construction. They want us to control the dust, minimize noise, control erosion and minimize traffic and other disruption. They are also willing to plan their projects and share the expense of being a good neighbor.
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Tracking the Value of ‘Retrofit Chicago’ With a LEED Gold State Street skyscraper in its portfolio, U.S. Equities Realty is an important partner in the city’s new program Responding to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “Retrofit Chicago—Commercial Buildings Initiative” challenge, Chicago-based realty company U.S. Equities Realty enrolled its 30-story office building at 515 N. State Street in the program and earned LEED Gold in the process. Retrofit Chicago is the city’s iteration of President Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge for reducing energy usage in commercial buildings by 20 percent in the next five years. Nancy Crockatt, property manager for U.S. Equities, says, “We eagerly took on the Retrofit Chicago challenge because it aligns with the firm’s long-held company philosophy to focus on sustainable and best energy practices for the management of buildings.” Karen Weigert, the chief sustainability officer for the City of Chicago, says of the Retrofit Chicago program, “Simply put, the City of Chicago—private and public—has over a half-million buildings that we heat, cool, and operate. We estimate that this costs around $3 billion and accounts for 71 percent of Chicago’s carbon emissions. There’s a huge potential for impact here.” The building at 515 N. State is a Class A office tower standing at 427 feet at its
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Chicago’s 515 N. State Street, originally built in 1990, went through a LEED Gold overhaul starting in 2009.
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The property received LEED Gold certification in March 2012 following an extensive overhaul of the equipment and habits used and practiced within the building. The HVAC systems were retrocommissioned, leading to revised operating sequences, automated functionality, and the establishment of procedures for reviewing trend logs. Along with LED lighting, occupancy sensors, low-flow water fixture aerators, variable speed drives on condensers and water pumps, U.S. Equities also implemented green cleaning, pest control, and water treatment programs. “All recycling and waste, including construction and demolition debris, is tracked through our waste hauler,” Crockatt says. “A waste audit is performed each year and the results are shared with our tenants. The other important component is tenant engagement and community impact. Over the last three years, we have focused on implementing green best practices accompanied by an extensive tenant awareness and education program.” gb&d
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(404) 351-3250
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operations APPROACH
Aspects of the program include green gift giveaways supporting local charities, such as Bright Endeavors, organic food served at tenant events, encouragement to participate in Bike to Work Week, adopted land at Chicago’s Northerly Island, the purchase of renewable energy credits, and several other community-oriented efforts. “Recognizing that commercial real estate has a significant impact on our environment, U.S. Equities is dedicated to serving as a leader in sustainable real estate services,” Crockatt says. Although U.S. Equities’ LEED overhaul at 515 N. State and consequent LEED designation was concluded before the initiation of the Retrofit Chicago program, for Crockatt and U.S. Equities, aligning the building with the program made simple sense. “When Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration announced Retrofit Chicago, we were one of the first companies approached to become a partner because the program is a perfect fit with the firm’s overall philosophy and current activities,” Crockatt says. Retrofit Chicago is a multifaceted program, and though the first step of the program involved the City of Chicago retrofitting its own assets, it was through the partnership of companies such as U.S. Equities that allowed the City of Chicago to announce the commercial buildings aspect of the program. “This announcement of the commercial buildings aspect was concerning 14 million square feet of at least 14 buildings that have all agreed to at least 20 percent energy efficiency improvement in the next five years,” Weigert says. “It’s an extraordinary group of buildings. We have buildings built in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century, and they span the architectural styles. This was the city that built the first skyscraper, and now we’re working to be the first city to green our skyline.” The articulation and corresponding success of green-minded municipal programs similar to Retrofit Chicago depends on strong relationships between private entities, such as U.S. Equities, and the public sector. By initiating its own retrofit programs, U.S. Equities oriented itself as an ideal partner for the Retrofit Chicago program, which not only benefits U.S. Equities stakeholders, but the City of Chicago as a representative of the modern city. gb&d —Benjamin van Loon gb&d
Illinois system overhauls major medical center St. John’s Hospital strives to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance the patient experience St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois, is taking advantage of upcoming construction projects to improve building performance, facilitate more efficient processes, and help it weather the current economic environment. Both the hospital’s bottom line and patient satisfaction are expected to benefit as a result. “There is constant pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency,” says Greg Stading, director of facilities at St. John’s. “We consider these strategic capital investments. They’re absolutely critical to our long-term viability.” The first phase of construction includes a new inpatient surgical facility and renovations to a 1930s-era patient tower. Construction of both projects will be completed in March 2014. The project will involve the consolidation of the hospital’s sterilization functions into a cenTwo building projects at St. John’s Hospital will make up 166,652 square feet of new construction. A surgical facility will connect the main campus to a pavilion, creating an overall surgical platform that can use shared resources more efficiently.
tral location in the surgical facility and the installation of a plasma-displacement sterilization system that is friendlier to the environment than the ethylene-oxide system currently in place, which releases gases into the atmosphere. Not all instruments can be sterilized in the plasmadisplacement system, but the hospital eventually hopes to eliminate its reliance on ethylene oxide. This phase will also include equipment upgrades, but some of the old equipment still functions well, and the hospital will send those items to Mission Outreach, where it will be reused in disadvantaged areas. Conserving human resources is another important construction goal. The new surgical center will feature the same number of operating rooms, but the rooms and other support spaces will be larger, facilitating more efficient patient transport and allowing for a larger surgical caseload. “The new setup increases our throughput capacity,” Stading says. “A lot of thought was given to physical layout.” Patient satisfaction, of course, is one of the most important considerations in modern health care. “That’s a large part of the driving force behind the renovations,” Stading says. The number of private rooms in the patient tower will increase from 20 to 32, and incorporating larger windows in those rooms also will improve the patient experience. Both projects feature all of the elements expected in modern green construction. New T8 lighting fixtures will be installed, and a white rubber service roof on the surgical facility will reflect many of the sun’s rays, reduc-
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APPROACH operations
The Atlanta Civic Center is used approximately 200 days a year. The venue will host Family Feud for the third time in April 2013, and 180 shows will be taped in the auditorium.
ing solar heat gain. The new dual-flush toilets will come with stickers offering instructions on how to use them, and those stickers will be located throughout the new spaces, which will feature lowVOC flooring and paints. More efficient air-handling systems are also expected to reduce energy consumption. The focus on sustainability is not merely cost-effective; it helps fulfill the hospital’s mission. The mission is set by the hospital’s sponsoring organization, The Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, which emphasizes proper stewardship of the Earth’s resources. In the upcoming expansion and renovation, the hospital accomplishes this and more. gb&d —Kelli McElhinny
Atlanta Civic Center exceeds efficiency expectations A $2.1 million renovation enabled by a city-utility partnership modernizes the facility while cutting energy use by almost 40% After renovations of the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center were completed in early 2012, the civic center hoped to see a 25 percent reduction in energy use, but it actually saw a reduction of 39.4 percent. The 232,000-square-foot facility was built in 1967, and being 40 years old, the original equipment became unreliable after long outliving its 20-year expected life. “We were having high demand for our exhibition hall and auditorium, and we just couldn’t continue with the equipment that we had,” says Ann Marie Moraitakis, director of the civic center. Although the updates were overdue, the Atlanta Civic Center faced capital budget constraints. The $2.1 million in renovations were made possible by a partnership between the City of Atlanta
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and Atlanta Gas Light with the first contract under the Georgia Sustainable Environmental Economic Development program. The city turned one of its highest energy users into a showcase facility with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. Prior to the updates, the civic center’s annual energy costs exceeded $500,000. “We went from number 10 down to number 21 in ranking of municipal energy users, even though we are larger than many facilities,” Moraitakis says. “We are on track to save $200,000 in 2013.” The installation of a highly efficient HVAC system made a considerable impact on the civic center’s energy use. The exhibition hall was set up with individual zone controls, and a Web-based automation system was added to the entire complex. “Atlanta temperatures and our facility needs vary,” Moraitakis says. “Our startup/shutdown and demand-control ventilation allows us 24-hour access to the system from any computer. This is especially helpful in managing our energy
“Our startup/shutdown and demand-control ventilation allows us 24-hour access to the system from any computer. This is especially helpful in managing our energy use during our facility’s unoccupied time periods.” Ann Marie Moraitakis, Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center
Prior to the renovation and retrofit, the Atlanta Civic Center occasionally needed to bring in auxiliary HVAC systems to control the building’s temperature and humidity. These temporary systems cost the center $13,500 per month.
use during our facility’s unoccupied time periods.” The Atlanta Civic Center used to be an all-electric building, but several of the new systems use natural gas, including the replacement of inefficient 1,500-gallon electric water heaters with two gascondensing water heaters. Lighting contractor E. Sam Jones replaced the incandescent lighting in the auditorium with LED screw-in dimmable lights that are 82 percent more efficient. The remaining lights were changed out for high-efficiency T8 fluorescent fixtures, and motion sensors were installed in rooms throughout the building. During construction, all materials that were removed were processed through a recycling center. The building’s rubber floors are reclaimed, and the bathroom partitions and countertops are made from recycled milk cartons. Moraitakis says, “The milk cartons makes a nice composite piece because they are easy to clean and to maintain.” gb&d —Jennifer Hogeland a message from E. Sam Jones Lighting & Energy Solutions
E . Sam Jones Lighting & Energy Solutions provided design-build services for the lighting upgrades in the Atlanta Civic Center, resulting in maximum energy efficiency improvement and overall fixture quality at minimum installed costs. Total lighting power in the facility was reduced by more than 65 percent using leading-edge technologies, including LED and high-performance fluorescent fixtures and occupancy-based controls. In addition to outstanding energy savings results, longer equipment lives will significantly reduce operating costs through avoided replacements.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 40
Benson Tower
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Earth Rangers
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A-P Hurd
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Nancy Malone
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DM Development
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Ecovillage at Ithaca
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A symbol for New Orleans’s renewal
A green organization inside and out One of our nation’s boldest developers What a career in sustainability looks like Greening a fraternity house at UCLA How cohousing respects the Earth
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TRENDSETTERS
The Beacon of New Orleans The Benson family owns a good bit of New Orleans, including two of its sports teams. After Hurricane Katrina, Rita Benson LeBlanc took the reins of her family’s endeavor to rebuild the city and revitalize its downtown real estate. Her most recent achievement is a restored high-rise that stands tall as a symbol of a more sustainable future: Benson Tower.
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nly a certain type of executive straps on a mountain-climbing harness and rappels down the side of an office tower. Rita Benson LeBlanc is the type. The vice chairperson of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Hornets, LeBlanc is hardly an amateur. She’s been rappelling down New Orleans real estate every year for some time in a fundraising stunt for the Special Olympics. When she had the opportunity to go down the side of the newly LEED-certified Benson Tower,
By Alan Oakes
The Bensons and New Orleans The new Benson Tower is directly next to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which is also owned by the Benson Family and is home to the New Orleans Saints.
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which her family purchased four years after Hurricane Katrina, she knew the charity had to move its rappelling site to a higher and more harrowing plunge. Now every September LeBlanc can be seen, strapped in, zipping down the side of the office tower that bears her family’s name—a building that is more than 400 feet tall, taller than a football field propped up on end. “This is another example of the excitement of life in New Orleans and how our friends inspire us to try things we would never dream of embarking to do on our own,” she says. The Benson family is a colorful fixture in the city of New Orleans. Tom Benson, LeBlanc’s grandfather, was born and raised in the city and was the owner of several automobile dealerships before moving into banking and finally realizing a lifelong dream of purchasing the NFL’s Saints in 1985. “New Orleans is a part of our roots and our blood,” LeBlanc says. In 2012, the Benson family acquired the NBA’s Hornets franchise for more than $300 million. Along the way, the Bensons have become major real estate developers and property owners in the city. LeBlanc is part of the executive team that manages the family’s real estate dealings, and in the tumultuous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Bensons began working with government entities to begin rebuilding parts of the city, which had a special interest in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the surrounding area, which included the office building now known as Benson Tower.
Many in New Orleans know the building by its former name, Dominion Tower. The Bensons purchased the 26-story office building in consort with a redevelopment deal the family made with the State of Louisiana. As a part of the deal, the state invested half a billion dollars of improvements for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, which had become an infamous symbol of mismanagement after the hurricane. “In essence, the state agreed to invest in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome at the
“We ... have the first LEED-certified high-rise commercial office tower in New Orleans. I hope that our efforts will inspire others to invest in efficient and environmentally friendly choices.” Rita Benson LeBlanc
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Benson Tower As the first LEED-certified high-rise office tower in New Orleans, Benson Tower was able to reduce its net energy consumption by 50% with a green roof, new air distribution systems, occupancy sensors, and an energy-efficient HVAC system.
same time that we agreed to invest in the blighted property adjacent to the sports facilities on state property,” LeBlanc says. “The sports and entertainment district of New Orleans needed investment, and both sides had faith in the power of our fans and the recovery of our community.” When the Benson team began the renovation of the 488,000-square-foot office building, which was left neglected and vacant four years post-Katrina, LeBlanc knew she wanted an efficient, sustainable approach and would be unsatisfied with a standard repurposing of the hurricanebattered structure. She set a high bar for its renovation. “Conservation and green design are a personal priority for me,” she says. “We made several design investments in order to Continued on p. 44 july–august 2013
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Congratulations to the Benson family for achieving LEED certification for Benson Tower in New Orleans. - from your Benson Tower development team
TRENDSETTERS Benson Tower
“I always envisioned Champions Square as similar to the community nature of an Italian piazza and an oasis in the city.” Rita Benson LeBlanc
have the first LEED-certified, high-rise commercial office tower in New Orleans. I hope that our efforts will inspire others to invest in efficient and environmentally friendly choices.” The Benson family partnered with Woodward Design+Build to modernize the building and employ LEED standards while Holly & Smith Architects provided the design for the tenant space for both the State of Louisiana and Ochsner Health Systems. Woodward used its experience of sustainable design and cost-benefit analysis to shape the team’s planning choices. Wesley J. Palmisano, vice president of operations at Woodward, says the Benson Tower redevelopment featured plenty of noticeable green elements, such as the green roof and finishes with high recycled content, but he says he’s most proud of the behindthe-scenes systems that made possible an almost 50 percent reduction in energy consumption. “The building’s existing MEP systems were outdated and inefficient,” he says. “We designed and installed a state-of-the-art central plant, new air-distribution systems, and all new lighting with occupancy sensors.” LeBlanc is pleased with the building’s efficiency but believes there is additional work to be done. “I continue to conduct research on lighting technology and wall materials that consume less energy or create better sound solutions with environmentally friendly or recycled materials,” she says. “The challenge is finding products and companies while maintaining construction schedules and sourcing from a rapidly evolving sustainable construction and design industry.” Benson Tower now houses a host of state government agencies that were once spread around the city, providing greater efficiency and interaction. “These
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state entities have been brought together to strengthen the downtown area,” Rita says. “This movement of strength in unity to spur creation following adversity is a lesson we learn every day.” With the help of Corporate Realty, which was hired by the Benson family upon their acquisition of the property to lease and manage Benson Tower, the building is almost 100 percent leased with tenants champions square This 60,000-square-foot redesigned public space outside the Superdome and Benson Tower can accommodate up to 8,000 New Orleanians for football games or concerts.
such as the Ochsner Clinic Foundation, which leased more than 100,000 square feet for administrative and human resource operations, and a high-tech WVUE Fox 8 television studio, another Benson-owned entity. As a part of the real estate deal the Bensons made with the state, the family also acquired the New Orleans Centre Mall attached to Benson Tower, directly across LaSalle Street from the Superdome. It demolished much of the shuttered mall and created an open-air area it renamed Champions Square. The space has been redesigned into an entertainment venue capable of hosting 8,000 guests for pregame festivities and year-round concert series.
“I always envisioned Champions Square as similar to the community nature of an Italian piazza and an oasis in the city,” LeBlanc says. “We have palm trees in the square and green walls along LaSalle Street. This is a place of game day excitement, community engagement, and peace during a casual workday stroll to food and parking.” Benson Tower and Champions Square are key pieces in the effort to revitalize the downtown of New Orleans. The significance of the development is not lost on Mike Siegel, president of Corporate Realty. “Benson Tower is a real estate redevelopment project that rose out of the devastation of Katrina to become the catalyst for the redevelopment of the Poydras-Loyola corridor,” he says, and he believes Benson Tower will also lead the way to a greener future for New Orleans. “Realistically, receiving the LEED certification is a big deal today, but my expectation is that in the very near future virtually all new developments will be LEED certified.” Siegel is quick to credit the Bensons as impresarios in the push for sustainable design in New Orleans. “It is not surprising that Tom Benson and his family, especially Rita Benson LeBlanc, who was advocating to make Benson Tower LEED certified, would also become leaders and advocates in the green movement,” he says. Many believe that the post-Katrina era of New Orleans will come to be seen as a renaissance for the city and will show the true nature of its inhabitants. “There is an entrepreneurial, can-do spirit in New Orleans,” Siegel says. “This spirit, and the confidence and optimism that comes with this spirit, will help define New Orleans over the next generation.” With high-flying entrepreneurs like Rita Benson LeBlanc, the city can’t help but win. gb&d gbdmagazine.com
Who are the Earth Rangers? And what are they doing with New Guinea singing dogs? By Russ Klettke
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hildren have a nose for authenticity. So it makes sense that Earth Rangers, the Canadian organization working to educate schoolkids on biodiversity and habitat preservation, would endeavor to make its headquarters building as sustainable as possible. The Earth Rangers Centre has met that standard, twice in fact, as the building was certified LEED Gold in 2006 after first being constructed in 2004 and subsequently as LEED Platinum for Existing Buildings in 2012 to reflect its continuing efforts to reduce operational energy, water, and resource use. These are human standards that we use to measure environmental success in buildings—60 homo sapiens work in the Earth Rangers building—yet a majority of the occupants belong to other species.
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Canadian homes could be powered from the Earth Rangers Centre’s solar array
100%
Of the building’s energy comes from renewable or low-impact hydroelectric sources
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Peregrine falcons, ring-tailed lemurs, serval cats (an African wild cat), New Guinea singing dogs, monitors, bald eagles, snakes, and more. These animal ambassadors represent the globe and have widely varying temperature, humidity, and light requirements. The energy demand within the four-season climate cycles of Woodbridge, Ontario, is consequently formidable. “The strategy is to get to net-zero energy use,” says Andy Schonberger, director of Earth Rangers. Thirty percent of current energy needs are generated on-site through two photovoltaic arrays, and 90 percent of natural gas consumption was eliminated through the installation of a ground-source heating and cooling system in 2010. Earth tubes temper 100 percent fresh air delivery, providing free air-conditioning for a majority of Canadian seasons. The organization
sells the electricity it generates through photovoltaic modules to the grid, adding about $80,000 annually to the nonprofit’s revenue stream. Earth Rangers’ Bring Back the Wild campaign is a web-, schools- and broadcast media-based educational program that captures the imagination of young Canadians with “animal ambassadors” to communicate the more complex topics of habitat, biodiversity, and sustainability. Leadership within the organization was committed to “walk the talk,” as Schonberger says, in how its headquarters operates. “They wanted to know if original investments in ecological construction were working,” he says. “We have found ways to improve performance of the building by about 10 percent every year since moving in, so we decided to shoot for the highest standards possible.” The Earth-friendly structure and operation is just as important to stakeholders as it is to educators and children. The organization receives only about 10 percent of its funding from the government sources and receives the bulk of its $5 million annual budget from corporate, foundation, and individual donors— people who understand that tropical reptiles need extended ultraviolet light for health and that it would be somewhat incongruous to draw that energy from fossil fuel sources. The Platinum certification came after an energy audit of the structure, which was originally designed as an animal hospital with an outsized ventilation system. The program changed, so meter-monitoring systems helped identify where the greatest reductions in energy- and wateruse could occur. Rainwater harvesting and on-site wastewater treatment help meet toilet, landscaping, cleaning, and fire protection needs. The result was the highest-scoring existing LEED building in all of Canada. Not that the fauna within would know the difference—to them it’s their habitat. gb&d july–august 2013
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TRENDSETTERS
watch out for A-P hurd She’s one of the smartest, boldest, put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is developers in the United States, and she has no problem confronting strangers about bad environmental habits. Glad she’s on our side. Interview by Seth Putnam
A-P Hurd took an unlikely route to her current job as vice president of Touchstone, a developer of commercial real estate in Seattle. Some of her many hats have included journalist, engineer, and professor, but her most recent role is as an author. Carbon Efficient City, which Hurd cowrote, explores the policies and structures that stand in our way as we attempt to build smarter urban environments. Central to her philosophy is the idea that LEED-certified buildings are important, but they aren’t magic bullets for eco-friendly living. It takes, as they say, a village. With her sights set on sustainable development, Hurd’s operating style might just be the swift kick in the pants the notoriously slow-moving world of policy needs. In our conversation, Hurd unpacks the secret history of urban migration (hint: it has something to do with innovation cycles) and why her daughter attends a school within walking distance of her home. gb&d: You’re known for your view that sustainable buildings aren’t the be-all and end-all of sustainability—smarter cities and neighborhoods are critical too. A-P Hurd: When I first started working on the book, it was pretty bifurcated
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TRENDSETTERS
“Without revisiting [our] regulatory framework, it’s very hard to get as much capital flowing to the kind of delightful innovation that could also save energy and water.” A-P Hurd, Touchstone
between people who when you said “green building” were thinking about a system that was bounded by the building envelope, and then other people [who] were thinking about things like land use and transit but not really thinking about that in the same bucket as green buildings. Since I started this project in 2009, there has been, certainly in the Northwest, a really increased awareness that green buildings aren’t just about what you build but also where you build it. In the Northwest, a really significant part of our emissions come from people going to and from buildings. The rest come from operating buildings, industrial processes, embodied carbon, and things like that. When you look at a pie where such a significant piece of it is people going to and from buildings, it’s hard to put a building in a place where everybody’s going to drive a long way to get there and give yourself a pat on the back for having done something really sustainable. Then I would say that a third leg of this is some really good research by the National Trust for Historic
When Policy Wins A-P Hurd’s four favorite policy initiatives 1. Road tolling Hurd loves Washington’s new road tolling because it creates transparency around the cost of the road and frees up capacity. On some roads, the price depends on the number of cars trying to use them. “We can redevelop land to go from a two-story building to an eight-story building, but we can’t build any more road between that building and the building across the street,” Hurd says. “So, we just have to get smarter.”
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Preservation Green Lab, [which shows] a lot of embodied carbon in buildings. If you’re looking at an existing building and you’re proposing to replace it with a building that’s the same size, it will take 40 to 70 years for a brand-new LEED Platinum building to catch up to the carbon footprint of the existing building with moderate retrofits. That is really significant. gb&d: Our culture sort of prizes instant gratification. How do you get people to buy into behavioral change that takes generations? Hurd: If you can invent something that really delights people, you can change what people do... just because the new thing is so much better than the old thing. When dishwashers came around, they were a lot better for most people than washing dishes by hand. Most people have dishwashers today not because they use less water than washing by hand—which they do—and not because they use less energy than washing by hand—but they do—it’s because they love that the dishwasher does it for them and saves them a bunch of time.
2. Revenue-neutral carbon tax New governor Jay Inslee pushed for Cap & Trade as a congressman. Now, Hurd sees a glimmer of hope that in the near future Washington might move toward a revenueneutral carbon tax in the footsteps of British Columbia or Australia. 3. Tax increment financing Washington is currently one of the only states without a financing mechanism that allows cities to build infrastructure bonded against property tax. “This is really, really important to urban renewal,” Hurd says. “We need to get a constitutional amendment to do it, which is one of the reasons we haven’t so far, but there’s lots of momentum right now, which is very exciting.”
The challenge is, how do you create enough of that kind of innovation? I think [we need to] revisit our energy regulation framework in this country, which dates back to the 1950s and ’60s, because it doesn’t really represent the goals that we have in terms of energy use today. Without revisiting that regulatory framework, it’s very hard to get as much capital flowing to the kind of delightful innovation that could also save energy and water. In order to change behavior and voting patterns, we probably need to get to a point where there is a social stigma around wasting energy in the same way that there’s a social stigma around smoking or around throwing litter out of the window of your car. Forty years ago, there was not much social stigma around these behaviors. Nowadays, people are quite vociferous in their disapproval about both of those things. As somebody who thinks a lot about energy, if I’m going into a store and I see somebody idling outside, and I come back and they’re still idling, I’m at the point where I will go up and ask them to please turn off their car. 4. Food trucks Seattle just relaxed regulations on food trucks, which encourages people to explore their neighborhoods. Some feared the trucks would poach business from regular restaurants, but the opposite has been true. “Giving people different reasons to live in cities is not just about logic and why they ought to,” Hurd says. “It’s also about what makes cities delightful.”
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TRENDSETTERS A-P Hurd
“Concentrated land-use does beg the question: can we preserve some kind of ecosystem that is functioning and in balance?” A-P Hurd, Touchstone
recommended reading A-P Hurd’s recent book, The Carbon Efficient City, offers a framework for implementing tools to better use cities’ resources.
gb&d: What do they say? Hurd: Sometimes they turn their car off, and sometimes they just roll their window back up. gb&d: It’s a bold move. Hurd: My husband hates that I do this, but it just makes me so furious. It’s like somebody throwing cigarette butts out the window; it’s just terrible. gb&d: Seattle recently put in a light rail. Would you say there’s more momentum behind making a city walkable or bikeable instead of driving everywhere? Hurd: Yeah. A lot of younger people think that it’s a good thing not to drive too much because they realize it pollutes. That’s not something that people who are older than 50 grew up thinking. I’ve never owned a car. I kind of think if you can get to 30 or 35 years old and never own a car, you’re pretty likely never to own a car. I chose where my daughter goes to school so that I could then walk her home. I just thought, I’m not driving her around just so that she can go to a particular school. I’m going to go to the one that’s near my house, and it’s really a pretty good school. gb&d: Are you seeing companies shift from their previously suburban campuses to city centers? Hurd: In Seattle and other cities—Toronto and New York come to mind—major corporations are choosing to locate their campuses back in urban areas. One of the
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hypotheses about why this is happening is that this generation likes to ride transit to work because it’s really convenient and there are more amenities downtown. I think all of that is absolutely true. But I think another factor influencing companies about where they want to locate is that the speed of innovation keeps increasing in this country. Before, when there were long, slow innovation cycles, then the most important thing once you had innovated something was to protect your intellectual property and make it a corporate secret and protect anybody else from letting it out. Flash forward to today, there are very rapid cycles of innovation, so it’s less important to put walls around intellectual property and more important to quickly generate new ideas that have transformational potential. gb&d: And more and more people are making that choice to move from rural to urban environments. Hurd: In 2008, 74 percent of the people in developed countries and 44 percent of people in industrializing countries lived in cities. By 2050, 70 percent of the entire world population will live in cities. There will be a 20 to 25 percentage point shift in the number of people in industrializing countries that live in cities. So, it’s just a staggering shift. If five billion of the world’s seven billion people live in industrializing countries, we’re talking about a billion more people moving into cities in the next four years. gb&d: That’s an immense load on the infrastructure. Hurd: Yeah. It’s a huge number of people to put in cities, and it creates both a challenge and an opportunity to get it right. gb&d: Why do you think there’s such a rural-versus-urban debate? Hurd: Well, in the 19th century and even well into the 20th century, there was a prevalent pastoral ideal that living in the country is more in harmony with
nature. In an automobile-oriented society, that just isn’t true. One of the things that we’re realizing, because of climate change, is that probably the two biggest places where our population load is out of sync with the carrying capacity of the planet is carbon emissions and water supply. Land-use is the really critical challenge. As these people are moving to cities, it’s imperative to get land-use right if we want to avoid baking the planet. So to me, this number of people moving to cities doesn’t feel like a bad thing. Concentrated land-use, however, does beg the question: can we preserve some kind of ecosystem that is functioning and in balance? gb&d: What do you think the answer is? Hurd: I don’t know. We’re really good at inventing stuff, but we’re not really good at inventing ecosystems and getting them into balance. It’s something that has to evolve into place. We’re facing that question in Puget Sound because a lot of people want to build a very sustainable, productive, innovation-driven kind of mega-city region and economy. But at the same time, we have an ecosystem around us related to Puget Sound and all of our watersheds and our farmlands and our forestlands. If you can be successful in concentrating more and more people into these sort of compact, urban regions, you still need to make sure that you’re not completely exceeding the carrying capacity of that place. gb&d a message from soundearth
SoundEarth provides exceptional consulting services to private companies and public entities, focusing on contaminated site investigation and remediation, water quality, water supply, storm-water support, demolition, and environmental permitting. We have some of the best and brightest scientists, geologists, and engineers working with us to achieve your objectives. We are respected, assertive client advocates who have consistent success. Our project managers are proactive, responsive, and collaborative. It’s not about one person’s vision—it’s about reaching your goals, quickly and cost effectively. We’re concerned not only with what’s technically possible but also with what makes good business sense for you and your organization.
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SoundEarth Strategies, Inc. was founded in Seattle, Washington in 2001 and has grown to include offices in Washington, California, Colorado, and Oregon. Our primary services/specialties include the following:
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TRENDSETTERS
The I n im ita b le
Nancy Malone
Inspired by a series of fortunate events, the LEED Fellow was an environmental proponent even before she became an architect. Her message to the green movement? Embrace criticism. It only makes you stronger. By Russ Klettke You could say that architect Nancy Malone is a product of amazing luck. Now a LEED Fellow and principal at Siegel & Strain Architects in Emeryville, California, the young Malone happened to study under green design pioneer Sim Van der Ryn at the University of California–Berkeley as she was earning her master’s of architecture degree. Before that, while a design studies undergraduate at UC–Davis in the late 1980s, Malone had the opportunity to visit Village Homes, one of America’s first environmentally sensitive residential developments, constructed in the ’70s and ’80s. But saying that Malone is simply the product of fortunate circumstances is not an accurate statement—a better analogy would be to liken her story to good seeds falling on fertile ground. Although a majority of 1980s architecture was caught up in the aesthetics of postmodernism, Malone’s innate sensibilities
pulled her toward sustainable practices, a decade before green became truly popular. “In my undergraduate years, there was almost no discussion of the environment in the design community,” Malone says, noting the exception of a single professor who brought it to her attention. Then while taking an interior design class, she took her first step toward energy-efficient design by choosing to shade a west-facing storefront, even though energy costs were less than half of what they are today. Malone stayed on course, took an early job with Van der Ryn, and is now widely recognized for both her own con-
tributions to the profession—including AIA Research and Top 10 Green Building awards—and her instruction of a new generation of architects. She has taught resource-efficient design classes at both alma maters, where she observes today’s students “genuinely looking for careers that can favorably impact the planet.” She also considers the building to be the teacher. That happens in active ways, such as at the Yosemite Environmental Education Center where the structure’s main purpose is experiential learning, but also passively. “When people visit a green building, they might notice the benefits over time,” Malone says. “For example, natural daylighting adds to the
Yosemite Environmental Education Center When completed, this learning facility will include 17 structures strategically placed on the sunny side of a mountain in Yosemite National Park in California. Featuring photovoltaic arrays on and off roofs, the net-zero education center will engage 13,000 students and teachers each year in interactive programs run by NatureBridge, an environmental education organization with operations in five different national parks. As lead architect on the project, Malone more or less had to think like a child. “I really have to look at what I’m designing as if I’d never seen it before,” she says. The program draws an array of students, some of which come from underprivileged urban environments. A project goal was to use zero fossil fuels, despite heavy needs created by commercial cooking and showers. With solar arrays, geothermal heat, and a tight building envelope, the facility is applying for LEED Platinum certification.
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TRENDSETTERS
Greening the Greeks DIY developers Aaron Marzwell and Brandon Dedmon at DM Development pop the hood of the brand-new Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at UCLA As told to Seth Putnam
Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building The challenge presented to Siegel & Strain by the Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building at the University of California–Davis was to achieve net-zero energy and water in a hot-dry climate in California. Mini-charrettes with mechanical and civil engineers and landscape architects informed the design. The precise functions of the building will change over time, but the building will eventually house process equipment for an adjacent winery, brewery, and food science structure, which will all generate internal heat. Through smart orientation, the form, super-insulation, thermal mass, a rock bed, and radiant floor tubing, the building should adapt as needed. “All buildings evolve,” Malone says. “Architects should design for now but provide staging for future adaptations.”
comfort of a building. Or visitors start to notice things like cisterns for collecting rainwater, or dual-flush toilets, or the PV arrays on roofs. People learn from just being there.” More active features of buildings might include informational dashboards either in lobbies or online, which provide real-time data on such things as energy use and photovoltaic activity. But Malone also understands LEED’s critics, who are uncomfortable with using gizmos to enhance the LEED scorecard. “Criticism naturally makes the LEED system better,” she says. “It’s hard to devise something that works universally. “But gaming LEED most often happens when they start the process late, tacking on technology to add points. When you set your goals early, when picking the site and determining the building orientation, you can incorporate many passive strategies that are important to sustainability.” Although the technologies of 2013 are far ahead of what we had two decades ago, Malone understands that the best answers are the ones that people have been using for years. gb&d gb&d
“In a way, the new Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at UCLA is masquerading. We’ve created this building that’s LEED qualified, but it has this antique, old-world charm. It’s wrapped in a Spanish-mission aesthetic, but under the hood, it’s stunningly high-tech. At four stories tall and 23,000 square feet, it will become home to almost 100 fraternity brothers. Generations of PKPs have roamed the halls above this ground, developing character, creating lifelong friendships, and learning the skills, morals, and values that are the launchpad of successful careers. And just like the old house stood for the better part of the past century, we anticipate that this one will be around for many, many years to come. We had a joke about building the house to ‘prison specs.’ It’s designed to withstand a lot of wear and tear, and we devoted a special focus to its serviceability by investing a little extra cost up front, so the chapter won’t have to spend a lot of money on constant rehab and repair. We designed the foundation to be even more stable and secure than code required, and we carried that principle through in everything from the metal doorframes to the mechanical system. The building’s ‘brain’ is connected to the Internet, so that if there’s ever a problem, it will alert the service contractor, and they can diagnose it remotely. We’re shooting for LEED Silver, and the sustainable highlights are truly impressive. The majority of the building is designed with LED lighting, which will help offset the utility bills. The water fixtures are also ultra-efficient. There’s an up-front cost for a lot of that, but it’ll pay huge dividends in the long term. We’re also using a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) that’s essentially a more flexible method of air-conditioning and heating. When you try to cool down a space, the output is heat. So if there’s a temperature difference between two rooms, the heat created from cooling one will be distributed to the other and
vice versa. Each room is independently controlled, and the system knows to shut itself off when the windows are open. There were a couple of win-win scenarios, and the demolition is a perfect example. The old house was torn down very carefully, with each brick being chiseled out in order to be reused somewhere else. We were lucky to find these huge, rough-sawn redwood beams and sell them for salvage. We salvaged as much as we could, even down to the concrete, which was crushed and used as the gravel for drainage underneath the garage slab. All of this scored LEED points, but it also kept the cost down. We initially got demolition bids of $120,000-plus, but by allowing the contractor to salvage the materials, we were able to offset that cost. It may have taken a little extra effort to save $80,000 on demolition, but because this project is funded in large part by donations, we tried to be very conscious with the budget. Alumni have been the cornerstone: guys like Bob Rayburn, who have been exceedingly generous with their time and money. You want your donors to trust that their money is used wisely. That’s why every dollar we spent was for a good reason. Bottom line: We wanted to design a building that would be here a long time. We’ve had a long tradition with UCLA, and we have fond memories of our time with the fraternity. It’s important for kids coming here in the future to have a building that they will take pride in. Just like those of us who came before, they’ll have a home to call their own. And it’s one that will stand the test of time.” gb&d
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TRENDSETTERS
Lessons from an Alternative Lifestyle Building on its financial viability and vibrant cohousing community, the next phase of EcoVillage at Ithaca will be the largest collection of Passive House construction seen in the United States By Russ Klettke
T
he actual homes of EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI) occupy less than 10 percent of the land that constitutes the development. But this cluster of 100 residences built on just nine acres in the Finger Lakes region of New York is setting an example that reaches far beyond the property limits. EVI is a hamlet of 165 residents, after two phases of development that began in the early 1990s, but with a third phase on track to be completed and occupied by December this year, the community is about to grow by 40 units. What makes this village unique is that it’s a cohousing community. Cohousing was first conceived in Denmark to wed private housing with strong community features. Its characteristics include an orientation to central pedestrian walkways, with cars parked on the periphery, and common houses that facilitate things like community meals three times a week. This intentional style of living is currently more common in Europe than it is stateside, but the Cohousing Association of the United States lists 217 built or in-development projects in 38 states and
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TRENDSETTERS
Ithaca, NY, is also home to Cornell University and Ithaca College.
ABOVE This site rendering of EcoVillage’s third residential development shows the pedestrian paths that connect homes, relegating cars to the outer edges. UPPER RIGHT The homes in EcoVillage at Ithaca are not just green themselves but face toward one another to foster community. Seen here is EcoVillage founder Liz Walker’s home.
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Washington, DC. The community aspect reduces individual energy consumption and increases social interaction, something easily lost in more typical types of American residential neighborhoods. The homes at EVI are a dense cluster of duplexes built on a 175-acre property, the balance of which is dedicated to organic farming, recreation, and natural habitat. Residences are organized as a New York State housing cooperative, bought and sold on the open real estate market and situated within the sphere of Cornell University and Ithaca College, about a mile outside the city limits. As buildings and as a functioning, organic community of families, singles, seniors, and a whole lot of wildlife, this groundbreaking experiment provides lessons that are shared with commercial developers as well as academics and architects, a glimpse into a way of life that is sustainable for nature and for community members. “We create a lifestyle that’s appealing,” says Liz Walker, EVI’s cofounder and the executive director of the nonprofit arm, the EcoVillage at Ithaca Center for Sustainability Education.
Although everyone who lives in the community makes a conscious decision to live a sustainable life, Walker says that there are components of the village that hold a natural attraction to others from more traditional communities. Separating vehicular traffic from living areas is one such draw. “We have pedestrian streets where kids can play,” Walker says. “That is how people used to live in villages.” And it might become that way again. This component of life at EVI was studied with a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency; the team looked at distances between houses, streets, and parking to develop “floating zone” language, now used to describe Pedestrian Neighborhood Zones (PNZs) in proposed municipal zoning documents. Communal Culture The homes are a lively jumble of twostory townhouse dwellings, ranging in size from 922-square-foot one-bedroom units to 1,642-square-foot four-bedroom units. The first community, FROG, was completed in 1997. It is centered around the FROG Common House, which encourages community interaction with a july–august 2013
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TRENDSETTERS EcoVillage at Ithaca
Meet Liz Walker Imagine the bureaucracy that comes with any kind of building, then add to that the democratic convolution of nonprofit organizations. This is the world in which Liz Walker lives. Six nonprofits were created to manage different aspects of EcoVillage at Ithaca, the cohousing community Walker helped found near Ithaca, New York. Yet Walker is uniquely qualified to manage such a web. Walker earned a degree in social psychology from Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, before working as a grassroots organizer for peace and environmental groups. From these experiences, she understands how to both work and live in community (with all the conflict that comes with it) and how to manage on a nonprofit budget. Her two books, EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture (New Society Publishers, 2005) and Choosing a Sustainable Future: Ideas and Inspiration from Ithaca, NY (New Society Publishers, 2010), are essential to American cohousing devotees, and in addition to speaking engagements around the country, Walker is frequently a tour guide to a diverse set of visitors, including Japanese planners and an emissary from the president of Kazakhstan. “We have tremendous international interest in this whole project,” she says. People like Walker naturally draw interest from those who inhabit the more conscious subcultures of the United States. Very few marketing expenditures are necessary to sell the homes at EcoVillage; instead, buyers largely hear about the development through widespread media coverage. The green aspect to what Walker is doing is obvious, but her vision goes way beyond just the environment. “We aspire to live simply,” it says on the website for EcoVillage’s newest community, “reducing costs while making ecologically responsible and nontoxic choices. We hope to cultivate a sense of enoughness that allows us to focus on nonmaterial assets.” In other words, Liz Walker’s most important accomplishment lies in what’s not there.
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cooking and dining area, multipurpose play and meeting rooms, offices, a guest room, laundry, and storage. Walker believes only about a quarter of the homes have televisions; it’s rare to see a child watching TV alone—instead, children and adults gather in the Common House to watch films together. (The development has been, however, an early adopter of high-speed Internet connectivity.) Although no TV might seem crazy to the typical American child or teenager—accustomed to a personalized, on-demand entertainment paradigm— the children of EVI reportedly take it in stride. These are the offspring, after all, of parents who espouse a conscious life. An eco-friendly ethos is ever present at EVI, illustrated through the solar panels that populate the residential roofs and the nearby 50-kilowatt array, through energy-efficient buildings and sustainable construction methods, and through the woods, meadows, wetlands, streams, and ponds where children play, adjacent to community gardens and organic farms where some teenagers have jobs. Walker reports there is very little obesity among adults and children in the
phase 3 Location Ithaca, NY Size 48,980 ft2 Completed December 2013 (expected) Program 40 residences, community center Client TREE, LLC Architect Coterre, Jerry Weisburd Landscape Architect Rick Manning Energy/Passive House Consultant Steven Winter Associates General Contractor TREE, LLC with Michael Carpenter Construction Financing CFCU, Community Credit Union
The one-acre pond at EcoVillage is just one of many site features that facilitate an outdoor lifestyle, such as front porches and pedestrian paths throughout the community.
Affording a new lifestyle
community, which shouldn’t be surprising given their active lifestyle and their remove from consumer packaged-goods. Walker speaks of another benefit that she has observed in her own children, now grown, as well as in others. “Overall, these kids are very good in social groups, at problem solving,” she says. “They are confident and have a strong sense of belonging.” Design, Develop, Repeat Intentional communities are, as the term implies, full of good intentions, but fulfilling those is hardly a cakewalk. Trendsetters such as Walker circumnavigate myriad zoning, financing, and legal challenges and must be skilled sales people. She had to explain the concept and benefits to stakeholders in order to persuade the town planning board, the New York State Attorney General’s office, and EVI’s investors, grant funders, bankers, and home buyers. “Our first banker had to override his attorneys in providing a construction loan,” she says. That bank, a local savings and loan, did well in the end by financing both FROG and SONG, the second development. Twenty-four of the original 30 units were claimed in advance of construction, and all of the mortgages ended up in the lender’s portfolio. TREE, the third community, is being financed by a local credit union, and despite current market conditions, 39 of 40 units are presold with construction under way. Homeowners also have fared well in their investment. It is difficult to identify area comparables, and most homes are still in the hands of original buyers, but gb&d
Walker’s own three-bedroom house, purchased in 1996 for $130,000, is now valued at $235,000. Ithaca was, in large part, spared the price bubble and burst of the past decade, and at least one appraiser says EVI earns a 20 percent premium because of its community features. For EVI’s inaugural village, the steering committee hired Ithaca-area architect and builder Jerry Weisburd on the basis of his experience in large-scale affordable housing. “We rode his coattails,” Walker says regarding the architect’s instrumental role in the success of EVI’s first phase. Weisburd returned to design the third phase as well, and for TREE, 25 out of 40 units will meet Passive House standards, which strive to reduce heating and cooling loads by 90 percent over traditional building methods. Passive House methodology specifically pushes the envelope in the area of, well, the envelope by prioritizing features such as R-90 insulation, passive solar and strategic shading, and energy recovery ventilators. Passive House design is an extraordinary effort, but it requires a conscious homebuilder and buyer. Walker says this
EcoVillage made sure that a sustainable lifestyle would be affordable through reducing the actual footprint of the houses, standardizing design elements, and building all the homes at once to reduce costs.
is another example of how EVI, along with eco-communities elsewhere, helps traditional builders identify methods through which to hone the environmentally friendly options of their craft. “Even if other developers can’t do all this,” she says, “there is a lot that is applicable to building envelopes and ventilation systems.” Walker points to a nearby Ithaca urban infill project; the Aurora Street Pocket Neighborhood aims to meet Passive House standards when completed toward the end of 2013. Criticism and Consensus Has EcoVillage met criticism? Have there been challenges along the way? The answer to both questions, of course, is yes. Some say that because EVI is outside the city, residents are dependent on motor vehicle transportation. Walker admits this is true but responds by saying EVI provides a housing model for the type of individual who yearns to connect with nature on a daily basis. Besides, residents are quite amenable to carpooling, and a
“Even if other developers can’t do all this, there is a lot that is applicable to building envelopes and ventilation systems.” Liz Walker, Ecovillage at Ithaca
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TRENDSETTERS EcoVillage at Ithaca
“We have pedestrian streets where kids can play. That is how people used to live in villages.” Liz Walker, Ecovillage at Ithaca
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he open pedestrian T walkways of all three EcoVillage developments are meant to encourage children’s play and foster a sense of community.
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bicycle culture—even in the hilly terrain around Ithaca—has emerged as well. And though some residents commute to jobs via automobile, many work on-site as writers, consultants, craftspeople, and farmers. One EcoVillager maintains a five-acre ‘U-pick’ berry enterprise while another manages a ten-acre vegetable farm and employs scores of people during the growing season. Another question concerns economic diversity, but Walker and the community are managing this issue as well. Already many residents rent rooms in their homes to individuals, but TREE includes 15 smaller apartments with five for rent in the four-story TREE Common House. Those units will range in size from 452-square-foot studios to three-bedroom flats at 1,150 square feet. In the end, the village is run by democratic consensus. This involves disagreement, but differences are quickly ironed out. The community is creative in its solutions; when it added a $280,000 solar photovoltaic system, the residents shared the costs, government rebates, and tax credits. In addition, all residents volunteer two hours per week on one of six work teams. These are people who are thinking globally, acting locally, and living a life that many hope to replicate—at least in some form or fashion. gb&d
Questions: 931-456-3136 | CrossvilleInc.com
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List
Food + Education
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introduction
Where food, education, and design intersect
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Durham College Centre for Food
Teaching farm-to-table to future chefs
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Grow Dat youth farm
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Locust Trace Agriscience farm A vital teaching tool for Kentucky schools Capital Area food bank Fresher food for Washington, DC Ps 216 Edible Schoolyard A kitchen classroom and garden in NYC
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Urban agriculture in New Orleans
68 Savannah College of art and design
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Innovative approaches to campus dining
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Six projects at the intersection of food, education, and design
Farm t Farm to table. Farm to fork. Field to fork. However you say it, the idea is a popular mechanism for what should be a straightforward concept: you grow your food, you prepare it, and you eat it (or serve it to others). But formalizing this beyond the farm or introducing it into the heart of urbanized communities requires bypassing much of the red tape and middlemen of the modern food system, which is more convoluted (and misinformed) than ever before. There are, quite simply, far too many cooks in the kitchen. But innovative projects and programs are starting to prove that the devices of sustainable building, public interest design, and grassroots environmental responsibility can serve to circumvent the increasingly complicated political systems inhibiting access to healthy food. Bon appĂŠtit.
o Class By Benjamin van Loon
GREEN TYPOLOGIES food + education
The Kitchen Durham College Centre for Food BRING THE OUTSIDE IN. Fritted glass allows roughly 90 percent of the culinary school to be lit with natural light. The solar shading on the glass walls complements the high-efficiency envelope.
Details Location Whitby, Ontario Site 29 acres Size 36,000 ft2 Completed 2013 Cost $12 million Architect Gow Hastings Architects Client Durham College Contractor Garritano Brothers Mechanical Consultants MCW Consultants Electrical Consultants DEI and Associates Structural Consultants Stephenson Engineering
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Whitby, Ontario — As an educational institution, Durham College, founded in 1967 in Oshawa, Ontario, has recently become even more of an active participant in its community with the creation of the new Durham College Centre for Food (CFF). The college plans all its programs with advisory committee input, and these committees saw the benefit of creating a culinary school that represents field-tofork efforts. “We have about a thousand people a year that sit down with our academics,” college president Don Lovisa says, “and these people link us to the industries that match our programs to help students get jobs and ensure that our programs are relevant and current.”
The new $12 million, 36,000-squarefoot building, designed by Gow Hastings Architects, is located on nearly 30 acres of farmland in nearby Whitby and scheduled to open in September. The building, built to LEED Silver standards, externally and internally merges with the surrounding landscape because of its glass walls, green roof, two-story living wall, and open, organic floor plan that naturally connects all aspects of the building program for its 900 new users who will study horticulture, hospitality, and the culinary arts. The star of the program is the Green Restaurant Association-certified teaching restaurant, which is open to the public, gbdmagazine.com
GREEN TYPOLOGIES
The Farm Grow Dat Youth Farm
Durham College Centre for Food RESTAURANT - DAYTIME PERSPECTIVE JANUARY 30, 2013
ACT NATURAL. Defined by warm wood and indigenous stone textures, the bow-shaped building emphasizes its connection to its environment, community, and function. THE MATERIALS MATTER. Marble, Corian, stainless steel, and ceramic tiling in the labs interact with the exterior aesthetic while establishing a culinary theme throughout the center, which offers laboratories for baking, hot foods, wine pairing, large-quantity food preparation, and hotel management.
new orleans — The Grow Dat Youth Farm is a public interest design project that sprung up after the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina. Located on a four-acre plot of land in City Park near some of the areas hit hardest by the storm, the site was designed by students and architects from Tulane City Center at Tulane University’s School of Architecture. Grow Dat began in 2012 and is modeled after similar youth farm projects in Boston (Food Project) and Austin (Urban Roots). As the farm grows, it will provide up to 30 jobs for local high school students, who will be paid to participate in the 19-week revolving programs where they can work one day per week after school and earn up to $50 each week. Of the food grown on-site (40,000 pounds projected by 2014), 60 percent will be sold to local vendors, and the rest will be donated to Shared Harvest and other local food charities. gb&d
COOKING CONSERVATIVELY. With 40 ovens and other kitchen equipment that are all Energy Star certified, the CFF is the first and only school in Canada with a building certified by the Green Restaurant Association.
with meals prepared from food grown on-site. “To describe the CFF, we use the phrase ‘living lab,’” Lovisa says. “We produce a learning environment that is identical to what you’d see in the industry. It’s hands-on, it’s applied, and when the students leave, they’re ready.” The CFF allows Durham College to implement new programs in agriculture, culinary management, and hospitality, and by using food grown on-site, with a dash of honey harvested from the rooftop apiaries, the CFF simply makes good practical and academic sense. In other words, reaching outside the insular facility enhances the quality of the food and the education. gb&d gb&d
LOCATION IS KEY. The Youth Farm is sited on a four-acre plot within the 1,300acre City Park, which is home to mature oak trees aging 600 years or more. Structures on-site include an outdoor classroom, teaching kitchen, administrative offices, and a post-harvest area, all designed in the spirit of public interest design.
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES food + education
THE FARM IS THE CLASSROOM. Occupying an 82-acre farm in Lexington, KY, this agriscience program has a classroom building, horse barn and arena, veterinary clinic, aquaculture lab, greenhouse, orchards, vineyards, gardens, and wildlife Paddocks habitat.
Path of the Summer Sun
Pasture
Livestock Barn
Arena Hay Classrooms Vineyards Orchard
Constructed Wetlands
Community Garden Vegetable/ Grain
Prevailing Winds
Le e
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Native Grass/ ID/Forestry
Hay Riparian Corridor
lexington, kentucky — Although the phrase ‘Locust Trace’ sounds like it came from the lines of a sci-fi adaptation of a John Steinbeck novel, the Locust Trace AgriScience Farm is a net-zero project that is truly down-to-Earth. Designed by Tate Hill Jacobs Architects and completed in 2011, the $15.5 million project has the third largest solar array in the country, helping it get to LEED Gold. The project is driven by Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) and hosts a program for 250 students with an educational focus on green-collar career education. The project was first conceived in 2006 as an outgrowth of the horticultural and animal science programs active at FCPS in partnership with Eastside Vocational Technical School. The program called for a new greenhouse, and at the time, the Department of Education had announced it had an 82-acre piece of land available in Fayette County. “Open land in the county is scarce,” says Mary Wright, COO for FCPS. “We had already identified the land for a possible project, but as we studied the land, it became clear that it would be a natural fit for expanding our agriscience program.”
SOAKING IT ALL IN. All roads and paths are made of permeable pavement, and a rain garden and constructed wetland system also serve to manage greywater and blackwater treatment and storm-water overflow.
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Photos: Lee P. Thomas
The Ranch Locust Trace AgriScience Farm
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES food + education
The farm includes a 47,088-square-foot classroom building with a connected greenhouse. It features an exterior of stone and insulated concrete forms and is built along an east-west axis. Adjacent, and separated by an interactive outdoor classroom space, is the 19,350-square-foot arena, which features stalls and training space for equine activity. A livestock barn and accompanying composting bins line an outer path behind the arena. In total, four acres are given to vegetable and grain cultivation, 20.5 acres are for hay, and 3.5 acres are set aside for native grass and forestry. And on the south side of the classroom building are an orchard and community garden, with adjacent vineyards and constructed wetlands. “Lexington has a very active agriculture community that has been immensely supportive of this program,” Wright says. “We had an agriscience program in place, but this farm has taken it to a whole new level.” gb&d
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES. Drawing on Lexington’s strong equestrian community, the farm includes a 19,350-squarefoot teaching arena with twelve equine stalls, a wash stall, toolshed, and equipment rooms for hands-on equine training.
ERO-ENERGY CLASSROOM COMFORT. Z The AgriScience Farm is a net-zero facility powered by the third-largest photovoltaic array in the country, which uses 572 Crystalline panels to generate 175 kilowatts of power. Learning spaces are oriented to optimize sunlight and wind and use high-volume, slow-speed fans designed and manufactured by Lexington-based Big Ass Fans to regulate airflow and temperature.
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a message from big ass fans
B ig Ass Fans® employs a team of LEED® Accredited Professionals, applications engineers, project consultants and outside reps dedicated to assisting design professionals with their projects. This team offers free design support with specification recommendations, CAD files, Revit® files, layouts, technical documentation and budgeting assistance. Big Ass Fans’ industrial, commercial and residential fans contribute to LEED points by reducing ductwork, increasing the effectiveness of air distribution systems and efficiently circulating conditioned air.
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES
The Pantry Capital Area Food Bank Details
Photos: Lee P. Thomas
Location Lexington, KY Site 82 acres Completed 2011 Cost $15.5 million Architect Tate Hill Jacobs Architects Client Locust Trace AgriScience Farm Awards 2011 AGC Build Kentucky Award
AGRI-ACADEMICS. At 47,088 gross square feet, Locust Trace’s colorful Academic Classroom Building is the largest building on-site and features a detached greenhouse and store, administrative offices, a media center, veterinary clinic, and classrooms.
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WASTE NOT. During construction, 95% of waste—29.627 tons—was diverted from landfills, with 20,500 tons of old concrete already on-site crushed and reused.
washington, dc — It’s no secret that hunger is on the rise, especially in urban areas, where problems of food and health are exacerbated by struggling economies, infrastructure, and public oversight. According to Washington, DC’s Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB), which serves more than 478,100 hungry people in the DC metropolitan area, of the 700 agencies with which CAFB partners, many have seen increases in people served upwards of 200 percent since 2008. By 2009, fueled by increased need for food and other basic needs following the economic downturn, it became clear to the CAFB that its old facilities could no longer handle increased demand. It worked with Jair Lynch Development Partners to seek out a new property and targeted a site with a 26,630-square-foot office building on a nine-acre brownfield site, just a half mile from CAFB’s former location. This would be enough room to renovate the existing building Details and construct Location Washington, DC an approximateSize 26,630 ft² (renovation), ly 96,000-square96,630 ft² (addition) foot warehouse, Completed 2012 effectively douCost $37 million bling CAFB’s caArchitect Epstein and McDonald pacity, meaning Williams Banks more room for Client Capital Area Food Bank more food, and Certification LEED Silver more people get(expected) ting fed.
GIVING AWAY FOOD, NOT WATER. No potable water is used for irrigation at the food bank, which saves hundreds of thousands of gallons per year in addition to the 70,000 already saved through the center’s use of lowflow plumbing.
Epstein, a Chicago-based architecture firm, designed the $37 million project, and general contractor Turner Construction Company broke ground in early 2011, wrapping up the project by the end of 2012. The new facility is targeting LEED Silver certification under New Construction, with primary points culled from its development of a large infill property and the property’s immediate proximity to the Fort Totten Metro Station, which serves three major public transit lines. “Over the coming years, the additional room, including significant increases in freezer and cooler space, will allow the food bank to store and distribute significantly more food for high-quality, nutritious meals,” says Hilary Salmon, chief of staff for the CAFB. “The new building also allows the food bank to host on-site trainings and nutrition education classes for its nonprofit partners.” With the additional space at the distribution center and a volunteer flow upwards of 18,000 annually, increased distribution and training courses serve not only to feed the community but also to help it grow. gb&d july–august 2013
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES food + education
The Garden PS 216 Edible Schoolyard new york city — In 1995, Alice Waters, a food activist and owner of the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California, spotted a vacant lot behind Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. She thought, ‘Why not put a garden there?’ And thus, with support from the Chez Panisse Foundation, the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) project was born. Ten years later, ESY has ballooned, launching sister programs in New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Greensboro, North Carolina. And in 2010, the concept came to New York City, to the Arturo Toscanini School, or PS 216, in Brooklyn. PS 216’s Edible Schoolyard features a kitchen classroom, designed by New York-based WORKac, that offers students a food preparation and dining area and is connected to a mobile greenhouse, which can be extended from the classroom building to cover the organic plantings during the cold months, allowing for a year-round grow cycle. It’s the first ESY designed and built for a humid continental climate, serving to instruct both the students at the school and the greater educational community of the learning possibilities ennobled at the intersection of agriculture and education. gb&d
FIGHTING OBESITY. Nearly 50% of public elementary school students in New York City are obese or overweight. The Edible Schoolyard attempts to correct this while shaping additional academic programs that can integrate with the garden. LITTLE GREEN THUMBS. The Edible Schoolyard kitchen classroom allows 30 students at a time to learn about food preparation, healthy eating, gardening, plant care, and sustainability. GIFTS THAT KEEP GIVING. Construction cost $1.6 million with an additional estimated $400,000 per year in staffing costs, all of which are being covered exclusively through private funding.
GREEN TYPOLOGIES
FARM OF THE FUTURE. Connected to the kitchen are a storm-water cistern, a composting and waste-sorting area, solar batteries, dishwashing facilities, a toolshed, and a chicken coop.
CATCH THE WATER. The 1,600-square-foot Edible Schoolyard occupies a former asphalt lot adjacent to the school, helping to manage storm water. The mobile greenhouse and classroom also feature rainwater-collection systems. TILES IN TRIBUTE. The structures on-site are clad in an artistic scale pattern, where each tile of the design represents a pixel—an aesthetic compliment and homage to architect Robert Venturi.
Details Location New York City Site 0.25 acres Completed 2011 Cost $1.6 million Architect WORKac Client NYC Department of Education
Guest Editor Rachel Gutter “People tease me for suggesting that green schools are a cure-all for everything from climate change to childhood cancer. Indeed, some have rolled their eyes at my assertion that green schools are part of the solution to our childhood obesity epidemic, yet as these projects demonstrate, sustainable, highperforming schools are being utilized as playgrounds for school gardens and healthy food initiatives to teach young people that taking care of their bodies, their communities, and their Earth are inextricably connected. Add to that the growing number of schools that are employing active design principals to keep kids moving throughout the day as well as creating safe, walkable, and bikeable paths for kids to travel to and from school and building cafeterias designed for cooking real food that kids will actually eat, and I think we’ve got a kind of special sauce that will grab even the First Lady’s attention.”
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GREEN TYPOLOGIES food + education
Savannah, georgia — The phrase ‘institutional dining’ doesn’t quite have the romantic ring of ‘farm-to-fork,’ but activities at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia, are changing what it means to feed a population on an institutional level. In September 2012, SCAD hired Bon Appétit Management Company, a Menlo Park, California-based dining services group, to tender sustainable dining services at all of the college’s dining facilities. These aren’t your ordinary cafeterias. In addition to SCAD’s two on-campus dining halls, the institution brought two fully-restored retro railcar diners—The Streamliner and Bobbie’s—to campus for student dining options, a prime example of urban reclamation and a way that institutions can engage their communities (the diners are also open to the public). Institutional dining companies often favor quantity over quality. Bon Appétit uses a more sensible approach, favoring ingredients sourced within 150 miles of its restaurants, produce used within 48 hours of harvest for meals, and options for eaters of all types. At SCAD, this commitment has given local food producers new markets and offers healthier options for students and locals. gb&d
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FARM FRESH. Meals prepared by Bon Appétit Management Company are served within 48 hours of harvest, a standard the company has had in place since it instituted its farm-to-fork policy in 1999.
photos: Frazer Spowart, courtesy of SCAD (dining hall); Dennis Burnett, courtesy of Scad (Diner)
The Dining Room Savannah College of Art & Design
ADAPTED, REUSED. The 1,007-square-foot Bobbie’s Diner at 1402 Habersham Street, with its vintage stainless steel exterior, was built in 1952 and operated out of Rome, New York, before being brought to Savannah and restored by SCAD for use as a dining hall.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List
70 San Francisco Public Utilities commission A LEED Platinum example for the country 74 75 78
1990 Central Avenue
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The lighting makes all the difference
Reaching for net-plus energy production HGTV Dream Home 2013
Green never looked so good
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
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Broad Institute building
A space for expanded research
San Francisco General Hospital
Putting patient comfort at the forefront
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INNER WORKINGS
SFPUC’s wind turbine support tower features a public art installation that uses tens of thousands of five-inch polycarbonate squares that move freely in the wind.
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INNER WORKINGS
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Webcor Builders and a premier project team have created a spectacular, earthquakeproof, LEED Platinum municipal building worthy of imitation
Project
Green
LOCATION San Francisco Size 277,000 ft² Completed 2012 Program Office spaces, lobby, conference rooms
CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum Water Living machine for greywater and blackwater purification, living lobby installation (landscape that supports the living machine) Materials Exemplary use of concrete with 70 percent fly ash and slag Technology Digital building performance dashboard in café, regenerative and destinationefficient elevators Transportation Bike parking and public transportation access Energy Photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines
Team GENERAL CONTRACTOR Webcor Builders Architect KMD Architects and Stevens+Associates Landscape Architect Antonia Bava Landscape LEED Consultant Lynn Simon of Simon & Associates (now Thornton Tomasetti) Structural Engineer Tipping Mar & Associates Interior Design and Child Development Consultant Tom Eliot Fisch Landscape Jensen Landscaping MEP Design Engineers SJ Engineers, ARUP
Photos: Bruce Damonte
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The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is what other cities might refer to as the water and sewer departments. So it makes sense that the municipal unit’s new 13-story administrative structure, completed in 2012, would be exemplary in how it uses its water. Members of the project team, from the architects to the engineers and builders, were strongly driven by a client who was tenacious about exceeding the stringent San Francisco Green Building Code. The team of architects, structural engineers, contractors, subcontractors, and vendors all collaborated to find ways to make the structure LEED Platinum, earthquake resistant, and affordable—three things that don’t come easy. By Russ Klettke
Teamwork/Collaboration
Windows and Floors
In the planning stages, city leaders
San Francisco has sunny days 66 per-
were adamantly fixed on erecting a LEED Platinum structure to serve as a green icon. But the original steelframe design would overrun its budget by $40 million, so San Franciscobased Webcor Builders worked with its design and engineering partners to devise a vertical posttensioned concrete frame building that met environmental and seismic goals, enabled an additional floor, and brought the project back on budget. “Everyone worked together, with a goal to build something that honors our Hetch Hetchy Reservoir [the source of San Francisco’s drinking water] and what the Public Utilities Commission does while educating generations to come,” says Brook Mebrahtu, senior project manager for the city’s Department of Public Works. “This project is an example for municipalities across the country.”
cent of the year, so buildings have the opportunities and challenges of incorporating natural daylight into workspaces while trying to counteract the excessive solar heat gain of glazing-heavy envelopes. The architects performed a daylight modeling analysis to guide them in devising a hyper-customized system of double-glazed, fritted windows that vary by pane to account for differences in available daylight (1). Interior window shades and exterior Venetian blinds and light shelves are all coupled with automated light sensors and controls that permit optimal lighting for the building’s occupants while reducing energy demand (2). The concrete floors include an under-floor air cavity for data infrastructure and air distribution, which draw in San Francisco’s famously cool air as a more energyefficient solution to control thermal comfort (3).
The SFPUC building uses 32 percent less energy than a building of a comparable size, in part because of its daylighting; lighting sensors automatically turn off electric lighting after hours.
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INNER WORKINGS San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
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“[The glass-enclosed staircase] provides a more effective use of egress space while creating a place for interaction among employees.” Megan White, Webcor Builders
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Solar and Wind
The Living Machine
Extensive sunshine translates into
Although SFPUC is in the business
227,000 kilowatt-hours of power collected on rooftop photovoltaic arrays. More visible are the wind turbines situated along a vertical bow on the building’s northern façade, which takes advantage of prevailing north-northwest winds (4). The 5,800 kilowatt-hours generated by the turbines currently supply only a fraction of the building’s electricity needs, but the client looks forward to future opportunities with more efficient turbine technologies. The dramatic, architecturally curved glass façade was designed to increase the wind speeds and max out the efficiency of the turbines. It also makes a strong visible statement about sustainability to local passersby.
of providing water, the building demonstrates several ways that water usage can be reduced by 60 percent over comparable structures through the capture of storm water and by recycling greywater and even blackwater. No potable water is used for landscaping, instead storm water and blackwater are run through the facility’s Living Machine, an on-site wastewater treatment system that mimics the cleansing functions of wetlands. Toilets and urinals also use the water, after it has filtered through biota on the perimeter of the building’s lobby and through a series of tanks and settling chambers. All these features save 2.7 million gallons of water per year.
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The stunning view from the Public Utilities Commission building includes nearby San Francisco City Hall.
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INNER WORKINGS
Specializing in wall and ceiling construction: metal framing, drywall and plaster for commercial, institutional, restoration and residential projects · · · ·
Employee Wellness
I n all the planning around water and energy conservation and seismic resiliency, the primary function of the building—a place for people to work—was not lost. Far from it, in fact; with 30 percent more fresh air in the building, worker productivity is enhanced. Weather permitting, occupants can open windows, and the use of artificial lighting is minimized when the exterior window shelves bounce indirect light into workspaces (5). An innovative elevator system whisks workers more efficiently to their destination floors, but many skip that altogether by using the stairs (6). And why wouldn’t they? The glass-enclosed staircase features views of the four turbines and a 200foot polycarbonate art feature that responds to wind. “It’s absolutely stunning,” says Megan White, LEED Webcor Builders’ sustainability manager. “The sunlit, architecturally attractive feature draws more people to using the stairs rather than using energy-powered elevators. It provides a more effective use of egress space while creating a place for interaction among employees.” This nod to human fitness in a pleasant space seems a perfect fit for one of the country’s greenest buildings.
Light Gauge Metal Framing Metal Lath Gypsum Wallboard Systems Exterior Cement Plaster
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Interior Veneer Plaster Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems Spray Fireproofing Cement Panels / Rain Screen
FAR LEFT All of the conference rooms have controllable shading devices to minimize solar heat gain. LEFT This shot up at the SFPUC’s staircase shows its inviting use of daylight, something the project team hopes will prompt more employees to use the stairs. ABOVE The solar array on the roof, combined with the wind turbines also on the roof, can generate up to 227,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
Meiswinkel Company
930 Innes Avenue • San Francisco, CA 94124 Telephone: (415) 824-6890 • Fax: (415) 282-7868
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Bosch Net Zero Solutions Providing more energy than they consume
gb&d Bosch provides integrated solutions for both residential
Photos: Bruce Damonte
a message from Central Concrete
Central Concrete, a US concrete company, supplied its high-performing, low-CO2 concrete for the SFPUC. Original plans for the SFPUC called for a building with a steel frame, but ultimately they decided to adopt a resilient post-tension concrete structure design. During the redesign phase, team members invited Central to a charrette to find the greenest concrete mix possible. They looked to Central to suggest solutions for their aggressive goals—a set of concrete mixes that delivered up to 70% cement replacement materials, with no compromises on cost, finish, or cure time. Central, in an open public bidding process, was selected for the job and met the aggressive architectural and sustainability goals. Central delivered high, early-strength low-CO2 mixes, with 70% cement replacement materials for the mat slab, cores, and columns and 56% cement replacement for the elevated P.T. slabs. Central’s mixes delivered a net savings of 7.4 million pounds in CO2 emissions. Learn more at centralconcrete.com.
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and commercial applications up to Net Zero. Through intelligent product designs and higher efficiencies, Bosch integrated systems have the right solution for your project’s needs. bosch-climate.us
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INNER WORKINGS
1990 Central Avenue Armed with Bosch’s advanced system integration, All Florida Management’s new office building in St. Petersburg will go far beyond net-zero energy s
Builders are already saying that net zero isn’t enough, and they are now aiming for net-plus projects that generate a power surplus, turning the building into an energy producer. All Florida Management (AFM) is planning for net plus with a 5,000-square-foot office building at 1990 Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, Florida. The building will generate seven times more power than it consumes. “We are on the cusp of a great and exciting internal movement; everyone is becoming more aware of how alternative energies apply to everyday life,” says Tom Hall, a managing partner at AFM. Hall walks gb&d through the intricacies of this groundbreaking building. By Ashley T. Kjos
Solar Scheme The entire project started with construction of
the carport, which is more than a mere parking area. It is a working solar structure, a shaded parking facility, and an electric-vehicle charging station that is available for public use (2). The 42-kilowatt photovoltaic array provides a shaded common area with a pleasing flow to the building that creates a natural entrance for the tenants. The roof-mount system was integrated to the bar joist and roof decking over the main building to complete the 85-kilowatt solar array. This power is harvested through six inverters that are located in a separate electric room and then fed back into the grid. System Integration The AFM team partnered with Bosch to lead the way in integrating the
Progressive Occupants
Eco-Friendly Interior
“Our slogan is very simple: solar is
“Everything about the interior build-
the engine, the building is the vehicle, and the people are the drivers,” Hall says. “One doesn’t work without the other.” Such an idea is made possible by the energy-minded tenants of 1990 Central Avenue, which include the Sierra Club’s Florida chapter, whose reputation for being an advocate of environmental issues makes it a perfect occupant for the building and its green philosophy. Also in the building are the offices of the creative design and marketing companies, Big Sea Design and Development and Roundhouse Creative Studio. “These are two very young dynamic companies that could not wait to be represented in this environment,” Hall says. “With their personal beliefs on responsibility and being self-sustaining as individuals, they felt it would only enhance their business.”
out is designed around a low environmental impact,” Hall says. The physical office atmosphere, from the concrete floors, concrete countertops, recycled carpet, cork flooring, no-VOC paint, and much more is embraced by the building tenants (1). Lighting the interior of the office environments was also a big factor; Tom and his team decided to use high-efficiency fluorescents for the majority of the space and install LED can lights in the conference rooms that can be dimmed.
working components of the building. The new AP Aquarius two-stage, R-410A geothermal heat pumps, Tronic 3000 point-of-use tankless water heaters, and Bosch c-M60 S photovoltaic solar panels all work together to create a building so efficient it produces seven times more power than it consumes when fully occupied. The leadership of both AFM and Bosch share the common belief that renewable energies are the future and that finding ways to harness that power more efficiently is the key to energy independence. Hyper-Local Landscape
A ll of the landscape surrounding the structure is native to the St. Petersburg region and mirrors the conservation mission of the Sierra Club. “We also stayed with local companies to create the outside environment; everything is a native plant,” Hall says. “Working with the Florida Native Nursery organization, we landscaped to enhance the building’s commitment to the environment.” All the mulch that was used is made from recycled and composted material, and each plant in the landscape was designed to be somewhat selfsustaining and not require heavy watering, chemical fertilization, or treatment for pest management (3). Advanced Envelope
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J ust as important as responsible energy generation is creating a building envelope that will maximize that energy. “You have to be responsible with the power you harvest, and one of the key elements in that is the building envelope,” Hall says. The building uses advanced insulation, four-inch EnergyGuard PolyIso with a Techshield radiant barrier on the roof, Dow blue board Styrofoam extruded polystyrene rigid insulation along the perimeter interior walls, and double-insulated windows treated with glare-reducing thermal barrier tint that minimizes solar heat gain. These features add long-term R-value and maximize the building’s renewable energy production. gb&d
a message from bosch
Bosch Thermotechnology is a leading manufacturer of sustainable and energy-efficient HVAC solutions for residential, commercial, and net-zero applications. The company’s portfolio includes water source and geothermal heat pumps, floor-standing and wall-hung boilers, water heaters, solar thermal systems, control systems, tankless water heaters, and heating accessories.
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INNER WORKINGS
HGTV Dream Home 2013
photos: scripps network, LLC (HGTV)
The lucky winner of this year’s HGTV giveaway gets a brand new South Carolinian residence and one of the greenest homes in the country
An enlightened developer and an engaged architect. Together. On an island. Braving the elements that could be their undoing or their redemption. The setup sounds more like a reality show than the recipe for HGTV’s 2013 Dream Home. The only thing dramatic about the LEED Platinum model home is the million-dollar marsh view. Inspired by Asian and traditional South Carolina low-country architecture, Christopher Rose Architects married clean and clutter-free design with Dyal Compass’s low-maintenance, high-efficiency ideals to become HGTV’s well-known Dream Home pick for 2013. Eschewing bell-and-whistle technology, one of the home’s greatest achievements lies in its minimalist, or Zen, construction. With a floor plan defined by flex rooms and a façade that bares all for elegance and ease of living, this year’s pick redefines coastal living. By Michelle Markelz
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Candace Dyal and Christopher Rose designed the LEED Platinum HGTV Dream Home 2013 as a departure from huge vacation houses. Dyal says that people aren’t looking for the same extravagances they once wanted.
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INNER WORKINGS HGTV Dream Home 2013
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PROJECT Location Kiawah Island, SC Size 3,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Single-family residence
TEAM Developer Dyal Compass Architect Christopher Rose Architects General Contractor Royal Indigo Construction
GREEN Certification LEED Platinum HVAC Geothermal heating and air conditioning Materials Zip roof and walls, locally sourced heavy timber, enhanced permeable concrete driveway, bamboo floors, recycled content PVC siding and trim Envelope Panelized wall construction Transportation Electric-vehicle charging station
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Built to Outlast “If Hurricane Sandy came to Indigo Park, it would be no big deal,” says local resident and the home’s developer, Candace Dyal. The 2013 HGTV Dream Home is prepared for anything coastal South Carolina might throw at it, including floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Set on scenic Kiawah Island, the Dyal Compass development is a lush parcel, dense with palms and pines that give the residence and its similarly stylish siblings a sense of retrospective permanence, but the steelreinforced roof and Southern yellow pine supports ensure it’s not going anywhere—come seismic shocks or high water. More generally, the architecture firm chose to combat the humid climate with a zip wall system, which is composed of wood sheathing impregnated with a coating for maximum water-tightness. Topped off by recycled PVC imitation shake shingle siding, the home stays dry without losing its low-country charm.
Maximizing Space
T he house puts to bed the notion that bigger is better. “We pride ourselves on very efficient floor plans that maximize function and minimize cost,” says Christopher Rose, owner of an eponymous architecture firm in John’s Island, South Carolina. Maximizing its 3,000-square-foot footprint, the layout uses an open floor plan for increased functionality and illumination (1). The original design included an elevator, but at HGTV’s request, that space was converted to a seating alcove on the first floor and a flex space in the loft big enough to serve as a fourth bedroom, TV room, office, or art studio (2). “We wanted to emphasize the downsizing of people’s lives,” Dyal says. “That’s the trend right now because of the recession and second-time home buyers not needing 7,000-squarefoot houses anymore. We were able to demonstrate that if you have the right floor plan, you can live quite comfortably.”
“We were able to demonstrate that if you have the right floor plan, you can live quite comfortably.” Candace Dyal, Dyal Compass
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PHOTO © 2012 SCRIPPS NETWORKS, LLC.
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photos: scripps network, LLC (HGTV)
First Floor
IMAGE USED WITH PERMISSION, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
INNER WORKINGS
Second Floor
Unique Materials, Smart Siting
Combining Aesthetics
Windows and French doors that line
Although the natural landscape
the walls of the first floor are integral to the home’s passive solar design, which lets in the sun’s warmth and harnesses it in heat-trapping materials such as the JM Spider foam insulation sprayed in-between the walls (3). The home’s strategic positioning also maximizes the cooling benefits of crosswinds, reducing the strain on the admittedly super-efficient geothermal heating and cooling system. Adding to the home’s carbon-cutting measures are panelized walls, which were constructed off-site to minimize waste. Top it off with Energy Star appliances, and the HGTV Dream Home boasts a carbon footprint close to zero. “We wanted to raise the bar,” Rose says of the home’s LEED Platinum certification. “In my 30 years of practice, I’ve been using many of the standards set by the USGBC. LEED certification is calling attention to them and making people more aware of these practices.”
of Indigo Park’s marsh and three acres of preserved park space are stunning in their own right, the home combines beauty with brawn to make the weather-tough house an artistic achievement as well. Exposed fasteners that secure the piers and supports contribute to the home’s structural stability and add a stripped-down aesthetic that harkens Zen influences, Rose says. Wooden trusses complement the pine timbers and add a visual element to high ceilings and represent the strength of South Carolina. In the master bathroom, frosted glass partitions and a stone wet column mounted with the rain showerhead create a blissful experience that brings the beach and the spa into the home. gb&d
ARCHITECT OF THE HGTV DREAM HOME 2013 INDIGO PARK COTTAGES • KIAWAH ISLAND, SC Kiawah’s Only LEED Platinum Certified Homes Environmentally Responsible & Resource Efficient for Life
CHARLESTON, SC 843•559•7670 PH
www.christopherrosearchitects.com
ASHEVILLE, NC 843•559•7670 PH
Slot 4 LED
OPPOSITE The living room of the home has bamboo flooring and energy-efficient, dual-pane, tilt-and-turn windows. LEFT The ceiling trusses, which were carefully placed to not block the outdoor views, are made of Southern yellow pine.
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INNER WORKINGS
David and Lucile Packard Foundation JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design plays a pivotal role in helping the nonprofit achieve net-zero energy in its new headquarters
The Packard Foundation building is lit with washes that highlight its natural materials. Supplying the energy are roof-mounted PV panels that completely offset energy costs.
Lighting is one of the biggest energy eaters in any corporate office, but for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, whose mission is improving the lives of children, families, and communities—all while restoring the planet—building green was always part of the plan, especially when the plan called for achieving net-zero energy and LEED Platinum certification. In addition to rainwater and storm-water collection, daylighting, roof-mounted photovoltaic panels, and conference rooms outfitted for maximum remote collaboration, lighting experts at JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design brought their knowledge of efficiency and function to the project. JS Nolan president Janet Nolan walks us through the project one challenge at a time. By Lynn Russo Whylly
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Warm and Welcoming
Beating Code
The nonprofit organization’s headquarters is a two-story building with private and open-plan offices, small two- to four-person conference rooms around the perimeter, and a private boardroom. At the front of the building, a multipurpose conference room opens into a pre-function space that holds 250 people and can be configured to meet a variety of needs. The rectangular property includes a full catering kitchen, employee break stations, and has a landscaped courtyard in the center, which brings extensive daylight into the space. The architects incorporated wood, natural stone, and copper, and the lighting was chosen to match the warm and welcoming feel of the building (1).
The architectural requirements called for achieving a lighting power density of 35 percent below California’s Title 24 requirements. The property was mostly daylit, and electric lighting was used to complement that while a daylightharvesting control system was installed throughout the building. To help achieve its power density goal, JS Nolan used both direct and indirect illumination, which created the illusion of more light. “If you took two identical rooms and lit one with all direct lighting coming from the ceiling and the other with a combination of direct and indirect lighting and both had the same foot-candle level on the desk,” Nolan says, “the one that includes both direct and indirect lighting is going to feel like a brighter space.”
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INNER WORKINGS
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Los Altos, CA Size 49,000 ft2 Completed July 2012 Program Private offices, open office spaces, conference and meeting rooms
CERTIFICATION LEED-NC Platinum (expected) Power Density 35% below California Title 24 Lighting Management Integrated daylight harvesting, dimming, and building-automation systems Behavioral Efforts Employee training to ensure goals are met
TEAM LIGHTING DESIGN CONSULTANT JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design Client David and Lucile Packard Foundation Architect EHDD Engineer Ideas Electrical Contractor Redwood Electric Group (formerly Redwood City Electric) General Contractor DPR Construction
Lit with elegant bollards, the building’s pathways are surrounded by native Californian plantings and rain gardens, which help manage storm water.
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INNER WORKINGS David and Lucile Packard Foundation
“The multiple types of control systems—dimming, daylight harvesting, and building energy-management systems— all have to talk to each other and integrate seamlessly.” Janet Nolan, JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design
Training for Net Zero
Chilly Challenges
Achieving the ultimate green goal
A wide variety of ceiling heights, both flat and sloped, added to the challenge of finding the perfect lighting treatments (2). Some ceilings were acoustical tile, while others were a combination of tile and other materials. Large chilled beams ran across the ceiling, but lighting couldn’t be incorporated into them because, in 2008, when JS Nolan was researching manufacturers that incorporated lighting into chilled beams, there weren’t any good options. Today, there are some lighting-integrated, chilled-beam options available, but they still have a long way to go, Nolan says.
of net-zero energy took time and a team effort. “There’s a lot involved,” Nolan says. “The multiple types of control systems—dimming, daylight harvesting, and building energymanagement systems—all have to talk to each other and integrate seamlessly.” A project like this, she says, can really fall apart once the client moves in if strategies are not put into place to properly manage the central systems. To ensure success, staff members from the Packard Foundation were heavily involved throughout the project. Also, representatives from the architectural firm are monitoring the project and metrics for a full year after completion to ensure that the employees are properly trained and all systems are calibrated correctly.
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In the Offices
ABOVE A view from the interior courtyard shows the warmth of the lighting. Numerous fixtures were tested before making final selections. BELOW Skylights provide ample office lighting. When electric lights are needed, employees can track energy use via a public dashboard.
In the private offices around the
perimeter, there are no visible light fixtures. Concealed, indirect luminaires were mounted in the tops of the millwork of the workstations to provide general illumination of 30 foot-candles with supplemental task lighting if needed. “There was a lot of concealed cove lighting and wallgrazing where you could see the effect of uplighting, but luminaires and light sources were concealed from view, allowing the architecture to take precedence,” Nolan says. Depending on the amount of daylight available, the electric lighting automatically dims up or down to a preset level. In the open offices and workstations, partitions were low and the ceilings were sloped and very detailed (3). Suspended linear pendant luminaires provided a 70 percent direct and 30 percent indirect light distribution to highlight the high, sloped ceilings and provide adequate light levels on the desks. Since there were no overhead cabinets in which to conceal them, accent and visible light fixtures became part of the design (4).
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INNER WORKINGS
Finding the Fixtures
To find the perfect lighting treatment for each location, JS Nolan looked at performance for high efficiency, good photometrics, and good glare control. Dozens of manufacturers were narrowed down by reviewing photometric test data from the Illuminating Engineering Society, then culled by who could provide the best distribution and efficiency. After that, Nolan says, it came down to extensive experience with the brands. Samples of almost every fixture on the project were ordered. Those that first met JS Nolan’s criteria were then presented to the client in a series of meetings, and a collective decision was made based on the preferred style and aesthetics. Eleven lamp types in all were chosen, including Ledalite for the offices and cove lighting, Peerless for the suspended linear pendant fixtures in the open plan offices, and A-light for the second-floor private offices.
f
Lot Lighting Two parking lots across the streets
to the north and east of the building also had some carefully considered light fixtures. Nothing off the shelf worked with the family of materials used in the building, so the parking lot lighting was customized to keep within the look and feel of the property. Local California manufacturer BK Lighting/Teka Illumination provided the low-level path lighting and decorative wall sconces on the exterior of the building. Shaper custom-built the bronze and copper wedge-shaped parking luminaires and bollards, which were used along the public sidewalk. gb&d
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“There was a lot of concealed cove lighting and wallgrazing where you could see the effect of uplighting, but luminaires and light sources were concealed from view, allowing the architecture to take precedence.” Janet Nolan, JS Nolan + Associates Lighting Design
ABOVE For the seating cove in the stairwell, pendant lights supply what the sun does not. JS Nolan selected the fixtures based on energy efficiency and performance.
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Broad Institute Building
Boston Properties helps create a stateof-the-art yet flexible space for expanded science research
As the scientists of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Broad Institute continue the battle of scientific revolution, Boston Properties is providing them with a powerful new battleground: the new, 250,000-square-foot Broad Institute Building, due for completion in early 2014, at 75 Ames Street. Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of development at Boston Properties, says the much-needed consolidation of employees and flexibility are the main drivers in the building’s design. By Suchi Rudra
Creating Connections
Thinking Ahead
Structural Circumstances
Sustainable Touches
The Broad Institute currently leases
One of
The project has had its challenges.
The building has a 30 percent water reduction through the reuse of wastewater from the labs’ RODI water treatment system, which is a reverse osmosis lab system that circulates water. For each gallon of water, a small amount of wastewater is produced. Instead of being discarded, the wastewater is stored in a tank and then reused in cooling towers on the building’s roof. The new building also will be equipped with water-efficient plumbing fixtures, including faucets in the lab and water-efficient toilets in the restrooms. Low-VOC materials were chosen for carpeting, adhesives, paints, and some furniture. By installing this broad range of green elements, which also includes punched windows, energy-efficient condensing boilers, compressors that generate compressed air, and LED exterior lighting, the building will see an estimated 20 percent energy reduction as compared to the strict energy building code required by the City of Cambridge. gb&d
space in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, and Broad employees work in four different buildings. “[The new building] will quite literally bring the Broad community together,” Lowenberg says. “This is a unifying project for the institute.” Once completed, the new building will be joined with the Broad Institute’s 7 Cambridge Center location via a connector that will extend from floors two through seven. Aesthetically, the new building will use finishes and lab casework similar to that of the 7 Cambridge Center location. “Our goal is that if you walk from one building to the other, you will find the same look and feel,” says David Erlandson, director of facilities planning and operations at the Broad Institute. “We wanted a design where it appears to be two buildings side by side, and yet, when you walk through the connector from one building to the next, the transition is seamless, and it’s clear that both buildings are Broad buildings.”
the project’s key design goals was to maintain a high level of flexibility. “We made sure that we had a significant amount of infrastructure to support lab operations and the ability to adapt and act nimbly as our scientific efforts grow,” Erlandson says, highlighting the team, which included Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston and BR+A Engineers, which provided mechanical engineering, telecom/ data, and energy modeling services. The building features a built-in mechanical expansion space to accommodate the potential need for additional mechanical support. This space added an extra floor to this stage of the design, but it will make the building flexible for the years to come. “Ultimately, we want the building’s innate flexibility to distinguish it from other institutions,” Erlandson says.
“[The new building] will quite literally bring the Broad community together. This is a unifying project for the institute.” Jeff Lowenberg, Boston Properties 82
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The building already contains 5,474 tons of steel; this is before adding other materials to the exterior and interior. Also, a large portion of the new building has been constructed above the adjacent public parking garage but will be structurally independent from the garage, which Lowenberg says makes things quite complicated. To resolve these issues, 62 mini-piles were drilled beneath the existing garage to support twelve 80-foot supercolumns that support the lab floors above the garage. Months of planning and careful execution of the garage work was necessary to maintain the lab building schedule while keeping the garage open during construction. Site Safety A major challenge for the project
was an extremely small site. “It’s about 16,000 square feet of land for a building that will include 250,000 square feet of research and office space, creating a gross square footage of about 375,000 square feet.” To reconfigure the traffic flow around the construction site on busy Ames Street, the team spent a great deal of time setting up jersey barriers, rerouting sidewalks and bike lanes, and creating a work zone in front of the building.
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Founded in 1975, BR+A has been providing integrated and coordinated MEP/FP consulting engineering, technology systems design, and building commissioning services to a variety of science and technology clients. In the last five years alone, our projects have included over 20 million square feet of research, life science, laboratory, and vivaria facilities nationwide.
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INNER WORKINGS
San Francisco General Hospital The state-of-the-art, LEED Gold trauma center by Fong & Chan Architects can survive an earthquake. It may also help revolutionize health care.
When selecting an architect for the new San Francisco General Hospital, the city looked no further than its local Fong & Chan Architects, which has more than 30 years of experience designing hospitals and other health-care facilities. “We put together a highly qualified hospital design team,” says Chiu Lin Tse-Chan, cofounder of Fong & Chan. Developed on a brownfield site, the hospital is a next-generation trauma center, improving patient comfort and safety and nurse efficiency while reducing risk of error, injury, and disease. “We were able to accommodate a very ambitious program in a tight site and come up with a design that fit the existing campus fabric and blended well with historic buildings,” says David G. Fong, Fong & Chan’s design principal. Here, the architects take us inside their design. By Lynn Russo Whylly
PROJECT LOCATION San Francisco Size 540,000 ft2 Beds 284 Cost $850 million Completed April 2015 (expected) Program Patient rooms, waiting areas, lobbies
TEAM ARCHITECT Fong & Chan Architects Client City of San Francisco General Contractor Webcor Builders Structural Engineer Arup Mechanical Engineer Gayner Engineers Electrical Engineers FW Engineers / SCE Civil Engineer Brio Engineering Associates Landscape Architect Robert LaRocca & Associates Lighting Engineer Arup Lighting
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Gold (expected) Lighting Occupancy sensors, daylighting HVAC Energy efficient HVAC systems, tight building envelope Materials Low-VOC materials, recycled content
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Standardized Rooms
Exceeding LEED
Patient safety was a pivotal factor in room design. “Ordinarily, rooms back-to-back are mirror images rather than identical, meaning that in every other room, equipment is on the opposite side, which confuses doctors and staff,” says Fong & Chan principal Nuno Lopes. “We standardized the rooms, so the controls would become second nature to them.” Private medication rooms allow nurses to give their undivided attention to dispersing medicine while increased lighting ensures they can clearly see the labels.
“ The goal for the project is to exceed the requirements of LEED,” Tse-Chan says. “We feel confident that, in aggregate, the building materials will contain at least 30 percent recycled content, including steel, ceiling tiles, porcelain tiles, terrazzo, and resilient flooring.” Indeed, all wood is FSC-certified, and portions of the concrete aggregate were sourced locally. Low-flow fixtures are used throughout, with dual-flush toilets in private patient rooms. The droughtresistant plants in the landscaping are watered with reclaimed water, and the hospital has committed to an extensive composting system, resulting in maximum LEED credits for this category.
Drawing on Hospitality
Unlike other hospitals, 92 percent of San Francisco General’s 284 rooms are single occupancy, and each is designed with a hospitality style, using vibrant yet soothing colors to evoke a climate of nature, vitality, and well-being. Because patients are often confined to their beds, a floor-to-ceiling curtainwall system maximizes daylight while a single bedside remote allows patients to adjust the lights, window shades, and TV. Ensuring Comfort All window glass is low-E and
insulated to repel heat. Photovoltaic sensors in each room and on the roof automatically adjust the window shades based on the level of incoming sunlight and turns fixtures off at set levels (there is also an override switch that allows the light to be individually adjusted). A variable air-volume system provides individualized temperature control and recovers up to 60 percent of waste energy.
Unequaled Amenities
Handrails and hand-washing stations will be put into every room, and the architects specified that rubber hallway flooring be used to help prevent and cushion falls. Patients who are on the road to recovery can get fresh air and exercise walking around the 25,000-square-foot rooftop healing garden. The newest change in hospital procedures is the hybrid operating room. “The hybrid OR and IR rooms permit surgery with real-time imaging in the same room,” Tse-Chan says. “Also, larger ICU rooms allow space for minor surgeries and in-room X-rays. These designs and technologies all lead to faster, better patient care.”
Earthquake Proof The most notable part of
the building’s design is the base isolation system, which decelerates the stress that the ground motion puts on the structure by 30 percent, minimizing the effects of a potential earthquake in the region. “The overall damage to the building will be very minimal,” Lopes says. “And the hospital will continue its operations without having to stop or move any patients.” This was a critical green feature, he says, because it required 10 percent less steel or 3,000 fewer tons, than alternative solutions. gb&d
The hospital is ringed with sunshades around its façade, placed according to the path of the sun.
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green building & design
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 86
The promise of the community college
Why these underrated institutions may hold the key to more green-collar jobs
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Discussion Board
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Zero-energy schools in New York and Kentucky, designing for autism, and more How does the physical environment affect student performance?
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The Promise of the Community
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lego photos: samantha simmons
When the Center for Green Schools realized the nation’s two-year technical schools and trade-focused institutions were gobbling up a greater and greater slice of the green-collar pie, it launched an initiative to help. What the organization saw in its crystal ball and four colleges building that vision. By Tina Vasquez gb&d
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FEATURES the promise of the community college
“So many community colleges are technology-driven and focused on skilled trades, so creating an opportunity for community college students to become LEED accredited made perfect sense.” Vanessa Santos, Center for Green Schools
Anne Arundel Community College Arnold, Maryland Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) takes great pride in addressing the social, economic, and ecological facets of sustainability. According to Jim Taylor, the school’s director of facilities, planning, and construction, this is because the school’s faculty, staff, and students demand it. AACC had been actively pursuing sustainability for many years but hadn’t been documenting its efforts. In 2008, several faculty and staff members attended a conference geared toward greening community colleges. When they returned, the school’s administration created the Sustainability Learning Design Team to investigate, assess, and recommend initiatives that promote and support sustainability within the learning environment. AACC is also a member of the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the organization that created STARS, a voluntary self-assessment tool that provides colleges with sustainability benchmarks and the ability to set goals for the future. Some of the school’s current green initiatives and projects include the renovation of the campus’ existing Ludlum Hall Administration Building and the replacement of existing exterior lighting fixtures with energy-efficient LED lighting fixtures. One of AACC’s most impressive endeavors is the renovation of the 40-year-old Andrew G. Truxal Library. According to Joyce Dawson, AACC’s assistant director of facilities planning and construction, rather than call for a new freestanding building, AACC sought to build a major addition that would strengthen all of the positive elements of the building while correcting weaknesses and modernizing the facility. “We sought to create a fresh and stimulating new image while recognizing the significance of the library as the symbolic heart of the campus,” Dawson says.
LEFT These lights aren’t always on. AACC’s new library uses lighting sensors to analyze the amount of natural light coming into the building and adjust accordingly.
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photos: Barry Halkin Photography
N
inety percent of the US population lives within 25 miles of a community college. There are nearly 1,200 of them scattered across the nation, and they serve 46 percent of all undergrads in the United States, providing an affordable, accessible path to higher education, no matter their socioeconomic status, educational background, or citizenship. Community colleges also are the fastest-growing sector of US higher education, which is why the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools came to the conclusion that to forge a partnership with these institutions and their students was the way to truly make all schools sustainable and healthy places to live, learn, work, and play. Vanessa Santos, the community colleges specialist at the Center for Green Schools, says this effort has the potential to lead to true market transformation. A green school, as defined by Center for Green Schools director Rachel Gutter, is one that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources, and money. By May 2011, the center already had a successful K-12 program established, which provided hands-on opportunities for students to learn about sustainability in their classrooms while also giving schools the resources to renovate their buildings. Around this time, the center began considering
BALANCING NEEDS. Serving 53,000 students each year, the Andrew G. Truxal Library offers an expanded information and technology home for AACC students. With input from students, faculty, and staff, EwingCole designed the facility to meet a diverse set of needs. Abundant natural light, flexible seating, and additional technology for student support are balanced with water- and energy-reduction strategies, automatic lighting adjustment, and effective glazing for a rating of LEED Silver.
Above the library’s bold typographical signage, the façade has a glass glazing system with sunshades that minimize solar heat gain within the building.
In the library addition, AACC made sure to use as much daylighting as possible, and green roof helps mitigate urban heat island effect, further reducing energy costs.
ACC’s Truxal Library was an original campus building and A hadn’t been significantly updated since it was built in 1967. With its new LEED Silver addition, the building is 40 percent more energy efficient, uses 30 percent less water through water-efficient landscaping, and has carpeting and plastics with high recycled content.
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photos: barry halkin photography
“Community colleges are truly an untapped resource for green-building design and sustainability. [They] have the opportunity to mold our future leaders.” Ron Garbowski, Camden County College
how to make the biggest impact on higher education, and after much research, Santos says the organization realized the missing link seemed to be community colleges. “So many community colleges are technology-driven and focused on skilled trades, so creating an opportunity for community college students to become LEED accredited made perfect sense,” Santos says. This is how the Center for Green Schools’ Community Green initiative emerged, with the aim of increasing accessibility to LEED for community college educational facilities and campus development, supporting student leadership and advocacy efforts, and promoting sustainability in curriculum and career objectives. Over the years, the center has developed many relationships with universities, but the Community Green initiative is its only formalized program. It took nearly a year to get off the ground because the organization wanted to offer a unique package that would result in the biggest impact. The end result was offering community colleges free membership to the USGBC for a year and all the benefits associated with the membership. The Community Green initiative officially launched in August 2012, and already, 115 community colleges are participating in the program. But getting community colleges to sign on, despite the absence of any associated costs, still wasn’t an easy sell. As “sustainability” and “green” became buzzwords, educational institutions have been inundated with requests to participate in various programs, some legitimate, many not. As a result, competition is fierce, and the Center for Green Schools has had to work extra hard to differentiate itself from the many organizations promising to affect change. “We’ve had to think carefully about the unique value proposition we bring to the table,” Santos says. ”We’ve been successful by directly engaging faculty and students. Many of the students have full-time jobs and they don’t live on campus, so generally speaking, this is a much harder population to reach, gb&d
but when given the right resources and the right educational tools, it’s also the population that can stand to gain the most from the program and have the biggest impact. The community colleges we’ve worked with have really taken what we’ve provided them and run with it.” Both companies and four-year universities have a lot to gain by hitching themselves to the green bandwagon; it’s a smart PR move that will make them appear progressive and result in an upswing in public perception. But all too often it’s just that—a PR move. With community colleges, however, it’s different. Santos says the desire to be sustainable and to train students in green collar jobs seems more genuine in the community college sphere. “There’s really no benefit to promoting yourself as a green college if you’re not doing anything to actually make it happen or banging your head against the wall trying to make it happen,” Santos says. “What’s happening with sustainability on community college campuses isn’t the sexiest thing ever, but it’s a lot of passionate people getting their hands dirty.” One such college is Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Washington, where the school’s sustainable movement is being led in large part by Dan Smith. Smith began teaching a residential construction class at Clover Park in 2007. After a few years, interest began to build for a sustainable building science program, and Smith was one of the earliest advocates. After taking a few building science classes, he began working on obtaining the grant that would eventually bring the Community Green program to Clover Park. “My interest in the subject was a pretty quick progression,” says Smith, who is now a certified Sustainable Building Advisor, BPI Building Analyst, HERS Rater, Level 2 Thermographer, and Green Advantage Certified Practitioner. “Sustainability wasn’t on my radar for the longest time. As a contractor and member of the Master Builders Association, I knew about green building, but I had no concept of what it really entailed. Now I’m fully invested, and I’ve gotten a foothold on green-building design and sustainability. It takes a while to wrap your head around, but once you get it, it changes how you see the world.” When Smith was contacted by the Center for Green Schools about joining its Community Green initiative, he jumped at the chance despite having no idea what he was getting himself into. “I have a habit of jumping in the deep end without a life preserver,” he says. Clover Park is now well on its way to a greener future, providing students with hands-on learning opportunities and the ability to obtain their LEED Green Associate credential. Smith is one of just five of the country’s USGBC Community Green Chairs, and he also leads an on-campus USGBC student group. Of all his recent green-related achievements, however, Smith is most proud of Clover Park’s Zero Energy House, an idea he had to enable students to conduct air-leakage tests. As time progressed, the Continued on p. 95 july–august 2013
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FEATURES the promise of the community college
“What’s happening with sustainability on community college campuses isn’t the sexiest thing ever, but it’s a lot of passionate people getting their hands dirty.” Vanessa Santos, Center for Green Schools
Camden County College has a relationship with sustainability going back a dozen years when the community college first joined the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability in 2001. The school’s approach to sustainability hinges on a six-point plan: education, energy-efficiency and conservation measures, high-performance green designs, sustainable material use, student activism, and media outreach.
The school’s Blackwood campus built a new science building (pictured above) in November 2012, which features water-efficient landscaping, recycled building materials, and highly reflective Energy Star-certified roof surface, among many other features. The college incorporated USGBC design standards into the project with the goal of obtaining a minimum of LEED Silver certification. According to the school’s senior director of construction, Ron Garbowski, the Blackwood campus as a whole is in the midst of a transformation. There are numerous sustainable building upgrades and energy-efficient additions in the works, such as high-efficiency LED lighting for parking lots and roadways, which could result in energy savings of up to 70 percent. “Community colleges are truly an untapped resource for greenbuilding design and sustainability, and community colleges have the opportunity to mold our future leaders to accept [these] as the norm,” Garbowski says. “It’s our responsibility to instill these values as the only possible course of action that we all must follow, and our time under the Center for Green Schools program has been rewarding. We have developed a series of standards and programs that are now commonplace at Camden County College, and these programs touch everyone.”
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Clover Park Technical College Lakewood, Washington Clover Park Technical College is currently experiencing a sustainable revolution, which is, in large part, thanks to Dan Smith, an instructor at the school. Smith began teaching the school’s residential construction class in 2007, and he was introduced to green building practices a few years later. Within a matter of months, the school was participating in the Center for Green Schools’ Community Green initiative, Smith launched the campus’s USGBC student group, and work began on what would eventually become the Zero Energy House (pictured below). The Zero Energy House is the first educational zero-energy structure in Washington to have a totally transparent systems approach to green building. It was conceived with the mission of developing a location on campus where the sustainable building science and construction program students could immerse themselves in a well-designed environment and experience the benefits of green building. The house, which took the students three years to complete, uses a wide range of cutting-edge technologies, displays green building practices, and incorporates a system integrated approach to building, but it’s also well on its way to serving a much larger purpose. Since its grand opening in May, the Zero Energy House has become a working laboratory for students and a venue for an upcoming lecture series surrounding green building concepts and sustainability issues. The content of the series is being developed in partnership with the USGBC Cascadia Branch steering committee. The building-science classes will also use the house for energy audit training and real-time monitoring and tracking of the systems.
photo: tawny m. dotson (clover park)
Camden County College Blackwood, New Jersey
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Wayne County Community College district Detroit
TOP Hamilton Anderson Associates designed the Academic Building, which is targeting LEED Platinum, for Wayne County Community College in Detroit. MIDDLE Classrooms are state-ofthe-art, and so is the structure, using geothermal heating and cooling and a photovoltaic array on the roof to generate its own energy and then use as little of it as possible. BOTTOM Contributing to its LEED certification, the new 90,000-squarefoot building primarily uses daylighting to light its classrooms and corridors.
Wayne County Community College District (WCCCD) is the second largest community college in Michigan, spanning six campuses and serving more than 70,000 students. Hamilton Anderson Associates is the pioneering sustainable design firm responsible for the mesmerizing Detroit School of Arts, a performing-arts high school and the first LEED-certified building in the Detroit area. When you put the two together, you get one powerful partnership. When Wayne County set out to elevate its northwest campus to flagship status, it needed a team to set a new precedent for a 21st-century community college learning environment, and the school turned to Hamilton Anderson to reach beyond traditional boundaries and expand the progressive learning opportunities for the citizens of Wayne County. Hamilton Anderson has worked on a number of projects for WCCCD over the years as part of the $42 million Northwest Campus Replacement project, which involves a new 90,000-square-foot academic building, a 10,000-square-foot addition to the existing main academic building, a new central power plant for the campus and associated infrastructure, and 10 acres of site design. The new central power plant uses geothermal heat pumps, thermal storage, dual-stage boilers, and heat-pump chillers to maximize energy efficiency. Although the rest of campus currently runs off the original 1940s central plant, once the remaining five buildings are connected to this new plant, the efficiency of the entire campus will improve dramatically. According to Mike Decoster, an architect at Hamilton Anderson, the northwest campus academic building incorporates various sustainable design elements in a visible manner, allowing the college to use the facility as a teaching tool. When completed, WCCCD is submitting the building for LEED Platinum certification. a message from boston valley terra cotta
B oston Valley Terra Cotta was pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Hamilton Anderson Associates on the Wayne County Community College project. Boston Valley is always looking for progressive partners to use our ceramic products in new and exciting ways. With partners like Hamilton Anderson Associates creating such inspired building designs, terra-cotta has been brought into the modern age of architecture.
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“Sustainability wasn’t on my radar for the longest time. Now I’m fully invested, and I’ve really gotten a foothold on green-building design and sustainability.” Dan Smith, Clover Park Technical College structure grew and began to take on a life of its own as the first educational, zero-energy structure in Washington to have a totally transparent systems approach to green building. Smith estimates that more than 300 students have put their hands on the project, with participating departments ranging from sustainable building science and interior design to HVAC and welding. Students have hung siding, assembled a rooftop solar photovoltaic system, and installed a solar hot-water system to ensure the house produces as much energy as it uses. One of the students who has worked on the Zero Energy House is 29-year-old Christopher Saucedo, who is vice president of Smith’s USGBC student group and nearing completion of Clover Park’s two-year sustainable building science program. Saucedo will graduate the program as a LEED Green Associate, and he hopes to enter the green building sector of a construction company or become an energy auditor. Saucedo says the time he spent working on the Zero Energy House gave him an educational experience unlike any other in his life. “I’ve never had the opportunity to take such a hands-on approach to learning,” Saucedo says. “It’s one thing to learn from a book, but it’s another to immerse yourself in your learning and apply the principals in a real world way. The Community Green initiative is a great opportunity for community colleges. My generation has a real interest in sustainability, but sometimes it’s difficult figuring out where to start.” The success of the Community Green initiative isn’t going to be measured only by the number of schools that participate in the program, but rather by the impact each school is able to make. Eventually, Santos would like to build on the resources available to community colleges so that renovating old buildings into more sustainable structures becomes a bigger part of the puzzle. But for now, the goal is job placement for students and, more broadly, for students taking part in the initiative to transfer their knowledge to their local communities. “We’d really like to see a grassroots movement happening in community colleges,” Santos says. “I absolutely believe that these students are an untapped resource, and it’s not even about obtaining a green job degree. The end goal is to transform communities. The initiative is like planting a seed, and the students will grow the movement. We want to see them advocating for sustainability on behalf of their communities because every community deserves a healthy, safe environment.” gb&d gb&d
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20 13 Education Portfolio
NYC Department of Education PS 62 Wrapped in photovoltaics, Staten Island’s newest elementary will be New York City’s first net-zeroenergy school By Jeff Link
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renderings: skidmore, owings, & merrill
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t’s doubtful that anyone would liken unveiling a new school model to unveiling a new Corvette at a car show, but the showing of the first net-zero-energy school in New York City to a group of administrators in Vermont and New Hampshire at a sustainable schools conference had the group erupting in audible gasps. “I don’t think anybody has ever seen a school like this,” says Bruce Barrett, the vice president for architecture and engineering at the New York City School Construction Authority, an agency of the New York City Department of Education. The thing everyone was so excited about was the school’s photovoltaic skin. The sleek, 68,000-square-foot building designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) will be the first net-zero elementary school of its kind in the Northeast, thanks to all those panels. The project broke ground on the 3.5-acre Staten Island site in October 2012, and the building is scheduled to open its doors to 444 pre-kindergarten to fifth grade students in fall 2015. Known as PS 62, the school building is designed to use 50 percent less energy than a typical New York City public school, at cost premium (excluding the on-site energy generation system) of roughly 10 percent above that of a typical new New York City public school building. The total contract award, including demolition, environmental consultation, extensive site work, and the building with all its systems, was approximately $70 million. Early SOM concept designs reveal a school that bears little resemblance to the large, multistory brick buildings found in New York City, Chicago, and other densely populated urban districts. Outside, a glossy, deep-blue array of 2,000 threefoot by five-foot photovoltaic panels blankets the roof of the building, the low-sloping southern façade, and a canopy above the parking lot. Inside the school is bright, open, and airy. Natural light coming in through large glass skylights filters into the offset first- and second-floor corridors and spills into individual classrooms through transoms in the corridor walls, adding to the daylight provided by expansive
PS 62 will be the first net-zero-energy school in New York City. It broke ground on a 3.5-acre site in Staten Island in October 2012 and is scheduled to open its doors to 444 pre-kindergarten to fifth-grade students in fall 2015.
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FEATURES
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Staten Island, NY Size 68,000 ft2 Completed 2015 (expected) Program 444-seat primary school
CERTIFICATIONS New York City Green Schools Certified, Net Zero Energy Building (expected) Lighting Daylight, occupancy sensors and dimming capabilities Water Solar thermal hot-water system, low-flow fixtures Energy Ultra-tight envelope, energy dashboards, photovoltaics, demandcontrol ventilation, geothermal Landscape Greenhouse, vegetable garden, green roof
TEAM ARCHITECT Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Client New York City School Construction Authority for the New York City Department of Education
Unlike any school before it, PS 62’s roof, low-sloping southern façade, and parking-lot canopy will be blanketed in 2,000 SunPower photovoltaic panels.
Guest Editor Rachel Gutter “The concept for this school is definitely leading-edge innovation. I love the idea of students striving to meet their daily energy budgets and utilizing the school as a living laboratory. When do we think New York City will apply this kind of creativity to the naming of their schools?”
classroom windows. Open staircases connect the building’s two floors and allow for additional light infiltration. The end result is 90 percent daylight autonomy in the classrooms, Barrett says. Responsibility for achieving the goal of net-zero energy will fall, in part, on the conservation efforts of students and staff, but they will have tools to help them. Wall-mounted digital dashboards will graphically report the amount of energy being used in each classroom, and students will be given a daily energy budget they will be encouraged to stay under. “We anticipate a kind of contest going on where at the end of the day, week, or month, you find out whether you have met your energy budget or not,” Barrett says. Although the New York City school system is immense—1,300 buildings serve 1.1 million students—the Department of Education is not shying away from efforts at energy conservation. Plans for the design and construction of PS 62 were a natural outgrowth of PlaNYC 2030, a New York City green infrastructure initiative unveiled on Earth Day 2007 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. New York City’s Local Law 86, which requires new publicly funded school projects budgeted for greater than $2 million to be LEED certified, was another key impetus. Prior to the project’s start, the School Construction Authority published a 2007 document known as the New York City Green Schools Guide that adapted LEED rating systems and certification standards originally intended for commercial buildings to the urban school setting. Environmentally friendly retrofits at other New York City schools have placed emphasis on indoor air quality, daylighting, room-specific temperature controls, and natural gas-fired HVAC components. As of February 2013, every school, Barrett says, has a sustainability coordinator appointed by the building principal and charged with championing energy conservation and environmental education. gb&d In PS 62’s next-gen classrooms, Trox floor-mounted displacement/ induction units will provide fresh, conditioned air for occupants.
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How New York’s first LEED for Schools Gold institution has given students on the autism spectrum a place to put down roots By Michelle Markelz
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pend a day at almost any school across the country, and you probably won’t see teachers encouraging students to congregate in the hallways, and passing notes in class will not earn children brownie points. But the LearningSpring School in Manhattan is not just any school. It’s the first LEED for Schools Gold-certified institution in the state, yes, but what really sets it apart is its students, who are all on the autism spectrum. The LearningSpring School stands on the bustling corner of Twentieth Street and Second Avenue, where its eight floors make up Manhattan’s version of the “little red schoolhouse.” Clay-colored terra-cotta panels line the first floor and reach for the rooftop play yard on the north and west corners, replicating the look of red brick. Two silver circumscribed trees, the school’s logo, are emblazoned on the exterior walls. Cool-green glass and a steel canopy of strategically positioned shades climb from the second floor up, giving the building a distinctly modern feel. But on the other side of those windows, the world is quieter. Kids ranging from kindergarteners to seventh-graders complete their lessons just as their peers across the city do, but they also study social interaction and relationship development. Having a conversation with another student is encouraged—in fact, it’s built into the design of the hallways with strategically placed
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benches in cozy alcoves. Although posters with fluorescent colors and designs may adorn the walls of the middle school across the street, clean, uncluttered spaces decorated with earth tones and horizontal patterns provide a calming effect at LearningSpring. These subtle touches contribute to a better learning environment for the unique needs of LearningSpring students, and in this way, the school has responded to the way they learn. However, it wasn’t always this way. Nearly eight years before the doors to the new school opened, a group of parents who were unsatisfied with the way their public schools were addressing the needs of their highfunctioning children who have autism spectrum disorders took matters into their own hands by starting the first LearningSpring School in two floors of commercially zoned office space on Manhattan’s west side. “They made the best of a space that was not designed to house a school, let alone one for students with special needs,” says Erica Gaswirth, project architect for Platt Byard Dovell White Architects (PBDW), who designed the new school. “You walked through, and it was obvious how limiting the space was to their potential.” In 2007, the decision was made to expand. LearningSpring’s board of directors began shopping for an architect that could deliver on a short timeline, had experience working on the school year schedule, and would be sensitive to the amenities necessary to create a uniquely responsive school for this population. Which is where Gaswirth and the team at PBDW came in. The firm fit the bill with a résumé stacked with private and special needs schools, and PBDW had a reputation for innovative, green design. Once the partnership was finalized in November 2007, PBDW wasted no time breaking ground, or rather breaking down the existing 19th-century tenement buildings that stood in the school’s future plot. In order to meet the accelerated fall 2009 deadline, demolition and design had to be done simultaneously. gbdmagazine.com
photo: jonathan wallen photography
Platt Byard Dovell White Architects LearningSpring School
To protect the southern-facing faรงade of the LearningSpring School, the architects installed an aluminum and stainless-steel sunscreen, behind which is an aluminum, glass, and zinc curtainwall.
Because the human eye follows them more naturally and so are less distracting for students with autism, horizontal patterns are featured prominently. Foliage and tree motifs also appear regularly, such as in this library and in stairwells (opposite).
Dialogue Erica Gaswirth What did you and the PBDW team learn about autism while working on this project? There are several approaches to educating children on the autism spectrum. LearningSpring’s program focuses on book learning but also heavily on social interaction. In addition to its standard teaching classrooms, there are therapy and relationship development components. Our challenge was to create classrooms specific for these uses, but they needed to be functional as other spaces such as a music or drama room. Will you be taking away any experiences that affected you personally or professionally? We found that it was very rewarding to design a school that specifically addressed these students’ needs and to see the pride they take in their school. We have a better understanding of this student population now, and I know we wouldn’t hesitate for a second if another school came to us for a similar project. What other work have you done that might be similar to this project in the way that this school helps underserved youth in Manhattan? We worked on a charter school in Queens that served a low-income population. Budget and time were minimal. Delivering a great school for children and a healthy place for them to learn and spend their days is always our goal, but there’s an extra level of gratification when you can do that for students lacking educational opportunities.
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Project
Green
LOCATION New York City Size 34,500 ft2 Completed 2010 Program Classrooms, meeting rooms, offices
CERTIFICATION LEED for Schools Gold Facade Energy-saving exterior sunscreen Materials Greenguard-certified furniture, cork for 95% of flooring, low-VOC materials Water Low-flow fixtures
Team ARCHITECT Platt Byard Dovell White Architects Client LearningSpring School Structural Engineer Leslie E. Robertson Associates MEP Engineer AKF Group Landscape Architect Billie Cohen Lighting Designer One Lux Studio
Guest Editor Rachel Gutter “Last year, I took the Center for Green Schools advisory board to visit the LearningSpring School, and we were treated to one of the best student-led tours I’ve ever experienced. It struck me that at a school like LearningSpring, the focus that LEED for Schools places on acoustics, lighting, and thermal comfort really makes a world of difference.”
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FEATURES
photos: Frederick Charles Photography
“Delivering a great school for children … is always our goal, but there’s an extra level of gratification when you can do that for students lacking educational opportunities.” Erica Gaswirth, Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
As always, the build was not without complications. Zoning laws conflicted with restrictions imposed by neighboring buildings, and although it is now a funny coincidence, the spring that excavators discovered beneath the building’s footprint was less charming when it threatened the integrity of the foundation and posed serious delays to the project schedule. Once the logistics were handled, however, designing LearningSpring was something of a meeting of the minds. On the educational side, LearningSpring’s board brought in autism spectrum disorder expert Dr. Catherine Lord, and where the school was unclear on its sustainability goals, Gaswirth provided insight from PBDW. “We received general information on what things would cause distraction for students visually and acoustically,” Gaswirth says. “They came to us saying, ‘Green is a nice idea,’ but we pushed them to embrace sustainable opportunities. They haven’t just been receptive; they’re taking measures on their own.” The cork floors aren’t just sustainable; they cut down on reverberation and help contain sound between the levels. The horizontal patterns that line the walls and fabrics—they’re preferred over their vertical equivalents because the human eye follows them more naturally, like reading a book. And you won’t see vibrant reds or striking yellows at the school because, as Gaswirth and her team learned, they can cause anxiety, but a natural palette can produce a more calming effect. LearningSpring’s student accommodations are impressive, but the building didn’t achieve LEED for Schools Gold status without a comprehensive green design. Although the building still has the laundry list of usual energy efficiencies and eco-conscious efforts—low-flow fixtures, high recycled content, automated lighting, low- or no-VOC products—Gaswirth is particularly proud of the school’s biggest and most visible feature: the exterior sunscreen. gb&d
Constructed from aluminum and cold-formed, light-gauge stainless steel, the canopy extends from the second floor to the eighth and is composed of a series of fixed, shutter-like fins calibrated to maximize daylight, minimize solar flare, and, based on the sun’s angle throughout the year, optimize heat gain for indoor conditioning. Two years into operation, LearningSpring is not yet at full capacity, but its inaugural eighth grade class will soon take its place on the top floor. Whether making strides in the therapy rooms or striking up conversation while walking down the hall, the students at LearningSpring have many things to be proud of. With a facility that accommodates them and gives them the conventions of a traditional school, students can learn and grow like every other kid in Manhattan, eventually achieving LearningSpring’s mission of independent, healthy, fulfilling lives. gb&d
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AKF Congratulates Platt Byard Dovell White Architects for this Groundbreaking School. Consulting Engineering l Commissioning l Critical Systems l Analysis and Testing l Central Utilities l Lighting
Energy and Sustainability l IT/AV/Security l Code Consulting l Special Inspections l Building Automation
The Learning Spring School is designed to appeal to the Sensory Perceptions of Autistic Children.
AKF is proud to have provided engineering services for this LEED for Schools Gold facility.
Arlington l Boston l Mexico City l Minneapolis l New York l Philadelphia l Princeton l Rochester l Stamford www.akfgroup.com
Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance is proud to have supported Richardsville Elementary School and Turkey Foot Middle School on their electrifying projects. To learn how we can help you obtain the highest quality, watertight, sustainable roofing systems, call 800.628.7501.
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20 13 Education Portfolio
Warren County Public Schools Richardsville Elementary School
photo: Joshua White, courtesy of Sherman Carter Barnhart
It’s the first net-zero-energy school in the country, and Kentucky is intent on cloning its success By Julie Schaeffer
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n 2012, the Tennessee Valley Authority cut Warren County Public Schools a check for $37,227.31 because of its energy-producing, net-zero school, Richardsville Elementary School in Bowling Green, Kentucky. As the first net-zero-energy school in the country, the 550-student, 77,466-square-foot Richardsville Elementary pays for itself and then some as a result of numerous sustainable features, including a high-performance building envelope, daylighting, geothermal heating and cooling, and solar power, says Jay Wilson, energy manager for Warren County Public Schools. As a result, the $12.1 million project, completed in 2011, operates on an energy use of 18.2 kilo British Thermal Units (kBTUs) per square foot per year. That’s much lower than the 25 kBTUs the federal government requires for a school to be deemed net-zero, says the school’s design architect, Kenny Stanfield of Sherman Carter Barnhart.
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Clerestory windows at Richardsville Elementary provide active daylighting throughout the net-zero school.
But Richardsville Elemen Richardsville Elementary’s $2.4 million solar energy project, tary isn’t the only school in consisting of 2,000 panels on the the district with big energy roof of the school and another 700 goals. The 133,000-square-foot on the roof of the parking structure, Turkey Foot Middle School helps the school draw 75 percent in Edgewood, Kentucky, was less energy from the grid than also designed to be net zero. traditionally powered schools. The $25 million project completed in 2010 uses similar strategies as Richardsville, including solar panels that will offset a significant portion of the school’s energy use with the goal of achieving 100 percent net-zero energy in the future. Both of the schools’ efforts are part of a statewide initiative to manage energy use called the School Energy Managers Project, a partnership between the Kentucky School Boards Association and the Department for Energy Development and Independence. Funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped these efforts by giving $1.3 million to Richardsville and $2 million to Turkey Foot for their projects. “By reducing the amount of energy we use, we can really cut back on spending, which means there’s more money to spend on the classroom—teachers, equipment, and programs,” says Ron Willhite, director of the School Energy Managers Project, although he notes net zero is about much more than building green. “No matter how good we make the buildings, without the support of occupants, they wouldn’t be a success.” gb&d july–august 2013
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Oakland University Human Health Building Native wetlands outside the new Human Health Building have been restored and have walkways and benches to play host to birdwatching, studying outdoors, or a stroll between classes.
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FEATURES
A LEED Platinum addition to the Michigan campus sets a technological precedent for colleges in the United States By Lindsey Howald Patton
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he motto on the seal of southeast Michigan’s Oakland University is a line from Dante’s Inferno. It says, in the original Italian, Seguir virtute e canoscenza—seek virtue and knowledge. This happens at a moment in the story when Ulysses is soliloquizing to his sailors, extolling the pursuit of these values in the wide world, and it was adopted at Oakland in order to encourage its students to do the same after graduation. But the motto also relates to the direction in which the institution itself, from the inside out, is committed to growing. In the realm of architecture, what is more virtuous than the highest LEED certification the USGBC offers? And how do you seek knowledge without the optimal environment, both design and technology-wise, in which to do it?
Oakland University’s new LEED Platinum Human Health Building represents those values, as well as the dawning of a new era of building for its mid-20th-century campus. The facilities management team members, who are all passionate about sustainability and supported by upper management, hoped to achieve LEED Gold with the building, which would house the School of Nursing and School of Health Sciences. But midway through development and design with the architectural firm, SmithGroupJJR, they received word that their project had received a grant from the Department of Energy. That money, $2.7 million in all, would bridge the gap between Gold and Platinum. A majority of that money was invested in two particular components of the construction: a desiccant dehumidification system and a variable refrigerant pump system. Both are already being used in Europe—and, in the case of the variable refrigerant system, Asia—but the Human Health Building is the first project of its type and size to use both in the United States. The large variable refrigerant flow system, coupled with 256 geothermal wells, allows the building “to do heating and cooling simultaneously and do much more on the high-efficiency side,” says Siraj Khan, director of engineering for facilities management at Oakland University. For example, if Terry Stollsteimer, vice president of facilities management, wants his office at a cool 68 degrees while his colleague next door is more comfortable—and, importantly, productive—with warmer temperatures, the system can do this and eliminate the use of energy-draining space heaters. ➤
photos: smithgroupjjr (Jason Robinson)
Dessicant dehumidification and variable refrigerant flow systems are already being used in Europe, but the Human Health Building is the first project of its type and size to use both in the United States. gb&d
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RIGHT The exterior of the building is tiled in terra-cotta that was pre-cut to form as tight an envelope for the structure as possible. BELOW The interior borrows the panelized pattern of the façade and maximizes open space and daylight to conserve energy.
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Rochester, MI Size 173,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Administrative and classroom space
CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum Transportation Access to public transit, bike racks, showers, EVcharging stations Site Restored wetlands, rainwater drainage system Materials 95% of construction waste recycled, regional and recycled materials, low-VOC materials, FSCcertified woods Water Solar-heated water storage, low-flow plumbing fixtures Energy Geothermal system, variable refrigerant flow, photovoltaics, solar desiccant air system, occupancy sensors Landscape Water-efficient and native plants, rainwater cisterns, water-use reduction
TEAM CLIENT Oakland University Architect SmithGroupJJR Construction Manager The Christman Company
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photos: smithgroupjjr (Jason Robinson)
The second unique feature combines solar panels with the desiccant dehumidification system. The 117 solar panels are interspersed with photovoltaics on the roof, and 3,000 glass solar tubes lighten the load on the HVAC system by storing hot water collected in underground tanks. Being an educational institution, Oakland University hopes students will make permanent the habits they can learn on campus, from recycling to bicycling, encouraged at the Human Health Building with bike racks, lockers, and showers and a campus-wide bike-sharing program. The school also brings local middle-school students to campus for an educational program about its sustainable systems. And a future LEED Gold Engineering Building, which will have nearly all LED lighting and a tri-generator system, allowing it to funnel electricity back into the campus grid, will provide a concrete, first-hand training ground for engineering students who plan to make their way forward—seeking virtue and knowledge, as Ulysses would say— as professionals in an increasingly green industry. gb&d
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rachel gutter asks “How does the physical environment affect student performance?” “At Richardsville Elementary, daylighting strategies have contributed to student performance. When students are getting more sunlight and less artificial light, they tend to feel better and perform better academically. Also, the building’s energy-efficient design is itself a learning tool. Everywhere you go in the building there is a learning opportunity.” Manesha Ford, Warren County Public Schools, p.103
“Whether the students are children or adults, the same principles apply. Provide a warm, clean, comfortable classroom with biophilic influence and learning materials, and teaching is easy. Speaking of the Clover Park Zero Energy House, students just won’t go home. If you build it, they will learn. Dream big!” Dan Smith, Clover Park Technical College, p.91
"Extensive renovations to NAU’s engineering building have fostered booming enrollments. Collaborative study areas and informal seating areas reinforce a curriculum focused on group design work and encourage interactions outside class. And internal ‘windows’ enhance instruction by providing a clear view of the building’s infrastructure—from energy monitoring to HVAC systems and structural elements.”
“Our Halpern Hall’s design incorporated a high level of natural lighting, providing pleasant, energysaving instructional space. From move-in on, indoor air quality has been great due to use of low-VOC materials and green cleaning supplies. As a result, many distractions to concentration, and therefore learning, have been eliminated.”
Laura Huenneke, Northern
“Research at community colleges has indicated that the longer a student remains in the campus environment, the more likely they are to be successful in their academic endeavors. Anne Arundel Community College’s newly renovated Andrew G. Truxal Library appears to have made major impacts in keeping students engaged as they continue to be drawn to and remain longer in this modern and energyefficient facility.“
Arizona University, p.142
Jim Taylor, Anne Arundel
Susan Choi, Camden County College, p.92
Community College, p.88
At the Center for Green Schools, Rachel Gutter strives to convince people that the environment in which students learn truly matters. She chose to ask this Discussion Board question to demonstrate that the physical space of a classroom is just as important as the teacher in front of it.
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 110
Learn
Douglas Park Elementary School
A new building for a new kind of education
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Sarah E. Goode STEM academy
How a green roof can transform a building
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Chesapeake Child development center
Incorporating learning into architecture
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live
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Bernier residence / milne triplex
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the whitley
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the Ruby house
Écologia montréal
A city residence in healthful isolation
One architect helps redefine Montréal living
Bringing the people to downtown Austin Passive House meets style in Salt Lake City
Play
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st. elizabeths east gateway Pavilion
A temporary space worth exploring
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Whitney museum of American art
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New york palace hotel
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Wild turkey bourbon visitors center
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Renzo Piano’s addition has big benefits
Operating on 100 percent renewable energy Representing Kentucky and bourbon
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spa c e S l e a r n
Rewriting the Book on EducatioN Six-year-old boys and girls will no longer be ‘first-graders’ if the ideas behind Douglas Park Elementary School in Saskatchewan catch on. What Regina’s provocative approach to learning means for 21st-century school design. By Alan Oakes
A
new kind of learning is happening in Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan in Canada. The public school district is dramatically changing the educational landscape by separating children at Douglas Park Elementary School, which serves students who are normally in pre-K through eighth grade, into three-year age groups. In other words, children of different ages are clustered together in what the district calls Learning Communities (LCs). “To tailor students’ instruction, teachers need to be able to group and regroup students in accordance with their abilities and interests, not just their chronological age,” says Julie MacRae, director of education for Regina Public Schools (RPS). It’s an interesting new take on education, and with a different type of teaching, a school needs a different type of building.
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To separate learning communities, designers chose to use glazing instead of walls so that students and teachers still feel a part of the community while inhabiting separate learning areas.
SPACES
ouglas Park Elementary School, in Regina, D Saskatchewan, has a beautiful, green building, but inside something equally innovative is happening: students are no longer grouped solely by age but also by interests and learning strategies.
SPACES LEARN LIVE PLAY
“Teachers need to be able to group and regroup students in accordance with their abilities and interests, not just their chronological age.” Julie MacRae, Regina Public Schools
For more than half a century, North American schools have been designed around the concept of students attending class in homogenous 32-foot by 32-foot spaces connected by long, windowless corridors. At chosen times throughout the day, bells ring and young students move on demand through the hallways to a different yet identical classroom to continue their education. Little thought has been given to the design of the classrooms besides their function or how they affect the learning process.
With every passing year, this cellsand-bells approach to school design is proving to be inadequate to the educational needs of our children. Dropout rates continue to climb, and employers report students are woefully unprepared to enter the workforce. Faced with these facts as well as a need to modernize, RPS opted to radically rethink the way it approaches education. With the opening of Douglas Park last fall, the district is attempting to deliver an educational facility that
The two-story windows on Douglas Park’s façade let in natural light to the southfacing commons area, which connects to each ‘learning studio.’
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will support rather than hinder today’s young learners. “There is no precedent for Douglas Park School in Canada,” says Greg Hasiuk of Number TEN Architectural Group, the partner in charge of the building design. “Due to the unique and forward-looking nature of the program, the project team often could not rely on traditional school-design rules of thumb.” Macrae says that the students came first when they set out to design the elementary school. “Our departure from traditional school design had its roots in our desire to do our best to accommodate the learning needs of our students,” she says. With this in mind, RPS engaged Fielding Nair International, an architecture firm with a global reputation for innovative school design, to conduct a series of workshops with students, teachers, community members, and educational leaders about the future of education and the potential for sustainable, community-connected learning. “All stakeholders were inspired and energized,” says Randy Fielding, principal in charge at Fielding Nair. Community feedback complemented RPS’s vision. There was a desire for flexible teaching arrangements and instructional grouping. Teachers sought improved collaboration amongst peers. And it was decided that the model for learning would be interdisciplinary, project-based, and inquiry-based, and inclusive practices would be featured in safe and secure learning communities. The school needed to be a stimulating and technology-rich environment as it integrated environmental design and curriculum. Fielding Nair sees tremendous educational value in discarding older methods of teaching and moving to more real-world approaches to learning. “Problem-based, inquiry-based, and project-based learning engages students more fully, and the results are stunning,” Fielding says. “The Douglas Park design gbdmagazine.com
Because of the many open, high-ceiling spaces in the building, the architecture team chose to have irregular ceiling heights to help reduce noise.
Project Location Regina, Saskatchewan Size 60,000 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Elementary school for 400 students in three multiage learning communities
Team Client Regina Public Schools Architect Number TEN Architectural Group Executive Architect Fielding Nair International Interior Architect P3A Engineering & Construction Westridge Construction
Green Certification LEED Gold (expected) Energy Daylight harvesting southern orientation, heat recovery system, radiant in-floor heating, efficient building envelope systems Landscaping Set as a school inside a park, newly planted trees Materials Cut away portions of wall and floor show how insulation works
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was developed specifically to accommodate these varied and hands-on learning modalities.” As the plan took shape, Number TEN created 3-D modeling and walk-throughs of the fledging design. “The majority of the innovative design features were entirely new ideas that needed to be reviewed, analyzed, and thought about many times over before the best solution was determined,” Hasiuk says. Each LC has instructional spaces, which are called “studios” instead of “classrooms,” and its own open learning commons, washrooms, a kitchen, a professional teachercollaboration space, and smaller breakout rooms. Some of the studios even have garage-style doors that can be opened and closed to permit greater instructional flexibility. Douglas Park’s central design feature is a stunning, two-story, atrium-like space
Guest Editor Rachel Gutter “Reading about Douglas Park made me want to pack my bags and start a family in Saskatchewan. Every school should be designed with direct input from teachers and students. I hope that Regina Public Schools has a great research partner to gauge the impact that this out-of-the-box design has on student learning and achievement.”
at the center of the school. Each LC connects to this central all-school commons, which functions as a multipurpose space, equally suited for community events, formal presentations, and general gathering. Regina is one of Canada’s sunniest cities, so the use of natural light was an obvious choice for the commons, which is U-shaped and has a southern orientation that permits wintertime sun to penetrate into the adjacent interior spaces. “In winter, Regina can be bitterly cold [minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit] but is blessed with an abundance of winter sunlight,” Fielding says. “The school is oriented around a south-facing gathering space—the heart of the school—that drinks in the light.” Such daylight harvesting is an essential feature throughout the school; to bring in as much natural light as possible, the school has tall windows and roof monitors (raised roof sections with side windows to let natural light into the middle of the school). Throughout the day, light sensors detect if there is enough daylight in the room and automatically turn off portions of the artificial fluorescent lighting while interior light shelves, colored glass, and semi-translucent glass reduce glare. In addition to maximizing natural daylight, the building design incorporates a heat-recovery system, radiant floor heating, and an efficient building july–august 2013
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SPACES LEARN LIVE PLAY
“There is no precedent for Douglas Park School in Canada.” Greg Hasiuk, Number TEN Architectural Group
When Kids Teach Themselves...
Alan Oakes gets a glimpse into the future of education When I’m not writing, I work in a Texas high school as a graduation coach and counselor. I create individualized plans for at-risk students and have to think outside the box to try to get the student across the graduation finish line. Every day, I am exposed to the shortcomings of an educational system that is designed for the masses. When I asked Randy Fielding what he hopes education will look like in 20 years, I was surprised by his answer because it looked almost exactly like what I do. —Alan Oakes Randy Fielding: “Each student will personalize his or her own learning path that will be oriented around projects that change the world. The role of the teacher will evolve from directing learning to coaching students to construct their own curriculum. Students will be made familiar with district and province learning objectives and coached on how to integrate these standards into their own plans, which are driven by passion rather than obligation. Learning will be multigenerational. Students in multiaged groups will support each other in small groups, often without a teacher. An increasing aging population will mentor students, share work skills, and assist in personalized instruction in numeracy and literacy. Seniors will gain as much as they give, gaining a sense of purpose and reducing isolation. Students, teachers, and community members will garden and cook together. The heart of each school will also be the heart of its neighborhood, providing a place for performances, gatherings, and celebrations.”
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envelope, and a ‘solar wall’ is used to preheat incoming cold winter air through perforations in a passively solar-heated metal skin. Using a school building as a teaching tool isn’t a new idea, but Douglas Park’s design team took an innovative approach. It peeled back a portion of the wall and floor to let students see how the insulation works. Fielding says its like a three-dimensional textbook for the students. Similarly, a portion of the floor is covered with see-through flooring, and a window in the school’s elevator shaft helps educate students about the structure and inner workings of the building. “We encourage every opportunity for learning,” MacRae says. The school sits adjacent to one of the city’s most picturesque natural settings, Douglas Park, the inspiration for not just the school’s name but also its design. “The community asked the architects to bring the ‘park’ back to Douglas Park, and they did a brilliant job,” says Dixie Nelson, principal of Douglas Park Elementary School. The central commons, with its southern exposure and broad glass walls, opens out onto a stylized grove of newly planted trees. Hasiuk likens the exterior design to being at a forest’s edge. “The exterior windows have a variety of widths and heights that dance along the façade like a stand of trees in a forest,” he says. “Exterior columns, canopies, and trellises made of glulam wood and timbers provide protected outdoor
spaces for learning and a connection to natural elements.” “Sustainability has always been an important concept for the Regina Board of Education in fiscal matters and in educational and environmental ones,” MacRae says. “The board is acutely aware of its responsibility to model the kinds of decisions and practices that it expects of students and employees.” The district has also retrofitted some existing schools with the innovative designs to complement the new learning philosophy, and it opened a second innovative school, Arcola Community School, in November 2012, and construction is already underway for a third, Seven Stones Community School. As the original, Douglas Park offers an alternative to the traditional school design by connecting students with nature, using sustainable design practices, and, most importantly, teaching the students differently. Thankfully for the students of Douglas Park, their school division, school administration, and the community wanted something different. The design had to be innovative, just like the learning that would happen inside. gb&d a message from P3A
P 3A – Architecture, Interior Design and Planning has made integrated green strategies a cornerstone of our educational facility design for the 21st century. We are proud to partner with Regina Public Schools to jointly create innovative and enriching environments that showcase sustainable design in support of educational goals. www.p3arch.com
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Rooting Another Chicago Roof American Hydrotech adds an exemplary 34,000-squarefoot vegetated roof to a South Side STEM Academy By Julie Schaeffer
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he Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, in Chicago’s Ashburn neighborhood on the city’s South Side, offers a six-year program focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to foster college and career readiness. Furthering students’ education and building efficiency are the school’s green features, including a 34,000-square-foot vegetated roof with a plaza and walkways. STR Partners, the lead architect in the joint venture, designed the three-story, 207,600-square-foot facility, and when its plans called for a green or vegetated roof, American Hydrotech was the natural choice. The Chicago-based waterproofing and roofing product supplier has a long history of supplying projects throughout the city with green roofs. Over the years, American Hydrotech has completed dozens of projects for the Public Building Commission of Chicago, which controls Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Public Libraries, Police and Fire Departments, and other city buildings. Many projects were watertight roofs and plazas, completed before vegetated roofs even came to the United States, but when Chicago mayor Richard Daley determined to make the city’s roofs greener in the 1990s, it was a natural progression for American Hydrotech
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PROJECT
GREEN
Location Chicago Size 207,600 ft² Cost $62 million Green roof 34,000 ft² Completed 2012
Certification LEED Gold (expected) Water Storm-water management through rain gardens and native vegetation, rainwater-collection cistern Energy Ground-source heat exchange for building climate control, green-screen shading at the west-facing three-story curtainwall, daylight harvesting with sensors and dimming features Materials Use of regional and local materials
TEAM VEGETATIVE ROOF ASSEMBLY American Hydrotech Client Public Building Commission of Chicago Architects STR+Nia Collaborative, led by STR Partners Landscape Architect Jacobs/Ryan Associates Roofer Anderson & Shaw Roofing General Contractor F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates Landscaper Atrium Landscape Pavers Hanover Architectural Products
The green roof at the STEM Academy is constructed of eight layers starting with a rubberized asphalt membrane base and ending with pre-grown vegetation.
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photos: hanover architectural products
“Someone looking for a green roof comes to a company like American Hydrotech because they’re looking for peace of mind and our ability to offer a single-source warranty.” Dennis Yanez, American Hydrotech
to expand its product offerings. “We were already providing the roofing and waterproofing membrane, and adding the vegetated roof components was the logical next step,” says Ron Rediger, a manufacturer’s representative at American Hydrotech. “When this project was announced, we made contact with STR Partners and explained our assembly,” Rediger says. “When it went out for bid, our authorized roofer, Anderson & Shaw Roofing, won the bid with the general contractor, F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates. The three of us together secured the whole project—waterproofing, the green roof, and a plaza.” Hydrotech began the project with two things in mind. “We like to say there are two absolutes when you’re doing vegetated roofs,” he says. “One is to keep the structure watertight because you don’t want to be chasing leaks when there’s soil and plants on top of the waterproofing. The second is to make sure that your vegetation thrives despite a rooftop being a harsher environment.” To ensure the structure is watertight, American Hydrotech uses an initial layer of hot rubberized asphalt called Monolithic Membrane 6125, the same product it’s been using for the past 50 years. “Some of our competitors have experimented, coming to the marketplace with one product only to introduce another product to replace it with, or change their formulation a few years later,” says
How It Works American Hydrotech’s Green Roof Sedum Tile, pre-grown vegetation in a coconut fiber base LiteTop Extensive Growing Media, a lightweight engineered soil System Filter, a heavy-duty geotextile filter fabric Gardendrain GR15, three-dimensional panel with cups and domes that retains moisture while facilitating drainage STYROFOAM closed-cell extruded polystyrene insulation Root Stop, a root barrier Hydroflex 30, a protection layer Monolithic Membrane 6125, a hot rubberized asphalt membrane
Dennis Yanez, national marketing manager for American Hydrotech. “I think we’re one of only companies that can say we have a product with such a lasting track record. We’ve installed Monolithic Membrane 6125 on more than 2 billion square feet of roof decks, plazas, and other structures worldwide.” American Hydrotech adds Gardendrain GR15, a panel with cups and domes that retain moisture while facilitating drainage. “It’s a bit of a balancing act; you want to hold enough moisture to make sure the plants thrive but move the water from heavy rains off,” Rediger says. The engineered soil for this project is LiteTop Extensive Growing Media, designed to be low in organic content and high in mineral content. On top of the soil is a Sedum Tile, a pregrown vegetation tile in a coconut fiber base. After planting, a vegetated roof still requires some maintenance. “There’s always a challenge in that you have to be sure that the landscaper does proper irrigation to ensure that the plants get fully established,” says Rediger, who notes that Atrium Landscape did exactly that, installing gravel walkways and open-joint pavers along the perimeter of the roof. Also, notably, every element of the vegetated roof—from the membrane to the vegetation and the Glacier White pavers provided by Hanover Architectural Products—came with a single-source warranty, which Yanez says is unique in the industry. “Someone looking for a
vegetated roof comes to a company like American Hydrotech because they’re looking for peace of mind and our ability to offer a single-source warranty,” he says. “People are living and working in these structures for the long term, so clients are interested in more than making sure the building is green, which is nice. Waterproofing is paramount.” Jennifer Costanzo, an architect at STR Partners who oversaw the STEM Academy project, says the school’s sustainable design elements were included to attain LEED Gold status and for the education of the students and the community. The green roof—whose design, product selection, and construction was executed by STR in collaboration with American Hydrotech—is visible from the main communicating stair and several classrooms, and STR together with Jacobs/Ryan Associates decided to design this area to be a bird habitat. “There is an undulation to the planting surface to provide a change in topography,” Costanzo says. “Birdhouses were installed, and trees that were removed from the site during construction were saved and anchored to the roof to provide other nesting opportunities.” Rediger is looking forward to visiting the STEM Academy when completed and the roof is in full bloom. “We completed the job last September,” he says. “Our installers have been out to check on it, but I’ll certainly be out to take a look at it in the spring.” gb&d july–august 2013
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Chesapeake Child Development Center ElliotT + Associates Architects Oklahoma City
For an on-campus nursery and child-care center for a big Oklahoma business, the Chesapeake Child Development Center in Oklahoma City is a place that any parent would want to bring their children. Elliott + Associates Architects spent a full year doing research to create an inspired place for the children of Chesapeake Energy Corporation employees to learn and grow. The architect wanted to create a space where kids wanted to be, and the firm was able to accomplish that by making the architecture an extension of the children’s education. The building is full of interactive learning experiences from the geometric shapes on the façade to the pumpkin orangelabeled floors, making the building a step in educational development. gb&d
photos: scott mcdonald, hendrich blessing
This private child development center uses primary colors, basic shapes, and giant letters on the walls to help young children become familiar with the alphabet, colors, and shapes.
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spa c e S liv e
Montréal! Oasis, Uplugged.
Écologia Montréal has recycled hardwood floors throughout, and the interior courtyard is set apart with high efficiency windows, all contributing to its expected LEED Platinum certification.
Écologia Montréal gets its owner as close to natural living as possible in the heart of the city By Julie Schaeffer
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hen Sabine Karsenti and her husband were having their first child, they became particularly aware of the harmful effects the built environment can have on people—especially kids. “I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to build an ecological house without sacrificing the contemporary design,” Karsenti says. “Having just had our first child, and knowing children are more vulnerable to environmental toxins, we were particularly sensitive, so we decided to build an eco-friendly home to the best of our abilities.”
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Now the house, called Écologia Montréal, is the first single-dwelling home in Montréal seeking LEED Platinum certification. Initially, the couple thought mostly about typical sustainable technologies. Behind the imposing limestone façade, which was harvested from a local quarry, is a stunningly energy-efficient home: the house is structured from partially recycled insulating concrete forms, has eco-friendly glass windows with an R-value of 9, and has a fiberglass green roof, which serves as the couple’s vegetable garden and has a life cycle of more than 100 years. Inside, hemp and limestone walls are free of gypsum
or paint, upping the air quality of the indoor spaces. But as Karsenti and her husband began the design process and investigated new building systems, the couple decided that LEED simply wasn’t enough. “We realized the project wasn’t just about building green,” Karsenti says. “We wanted to know, ‘Can you go one step ahead and have a habitat that is actually rejuvenating?’” Ultimately, the couple decided to use the house as a laboratory for green and healthful building practices and explore previously unmapped territories of urban life. Electromagnetic fields were a major concern for the couple. “We’re downtown, so we have around 500 cell-phone antennae within a mile radius, and they emit invisible waves that studies have shown can be damaging,” Karsenti says. To block them, the couple put black carbon fiber paint on all of the interior walls, behind the hemp wall coverings, and avoided the use of wi-fi in the house. Écologia Montréal is also the first house in Québec to integrate biogeometry, an environmental science that addresses the relationship between shapes and energy. Founded by Egyptian architect and scientist Ibrahim Karim after more than 30 years of research, it seeks to provide balance within a space using what Karim believes are the energy-qualities of different shapes. july–august 2013
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“We realized the project wasn’t just about building green. We wanted to know, ‘Can you go one step ahead and have a habitat that is actually rejuvenating?’” Sabine Karsenti, Owner of Écologia Montréal
PROJECT LOCATION Montréal, Québec Size 2,500 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Private residence
TEAM Client Sabine Karsenti, F Architect RAK & RAK Designer Gervais Fortin General Contractor F Landscape Architect Creation Natur Eden Solar Specialists DVC
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Platinum (expected) Water Rainwater captured for irrigation, water filtration system Materials Concrete insulating forms, highperformance glass Energy Rooftop solar panels, radiant floors and showers, geothermal HVAC Landscape Populated with native plants Envelope Sealed to block electromagnetic fields
ECO Insulating Glass Inc.
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Karsenti’s husband, who goes by just the letter F, did the bulk of the initial design work, after which the couple hired Montréal designer Gervais Fortin to add the finishing touches. “It’s quite an innovative project in that it’s both eco-friendly and modern in design,” Karsenti says. “That’s been done in the United States, but here in Québec, people associate eco-friendly with hippie living and consider it aesthetically displeasing. Fortin’s work was stunning.” The resulting showcase is, in fact, stunning, but it was not without its challenges, namely the habits of contractors who were used to doing things a certain way. She remembers the project’s electricians not taking electromagnetic fields into consideration because they never had. “We wanted all wiring to be captured in BX piping to minimize electromagnetic fields,” Karsenti says, “but when we tried to explain that to people who’d been doing electricity for 30 years, they questioned our knowledge; they assumed they were doing it the right way.” What isn’t questioned is that the home’s innovative green design harmonizes the space. “When people come in here, they say they feel good, but they don’t know why,” Karsenti says. “It’s hard to know. Is it the hemp on the walls? Is it the blocked EMFs? Is it the biogeometry? But there’s just something about the house that makes people feel relaxed.” gb&d
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Montréal! Artist Architect Rogue.
Paul Bernier is a lover of birchwood, Peter Zumthor, and breaking the rules
By Suchi Rudra
B
efore he discovered architecture, Montréal’s Paul Bernier considered engineering until he realized that he would miss the artistic aspect of building design. “[It’s] the best encounter of art and science,” Bernier says. “That’s what really drew me. You have to resolve technical problems but in an artistic way.” Bernier, who has operated Paul Bernier Architecte for the past 13 years, confesses a deep admiration for Peter Zumthor, who, according to Bernier, has a very sensual approach to architecture. He says that Zumthor thinks about how it feels to open a door, to touch a material, to enter a space. “And it works,” Bernier says. “I’ve been in his buildings. It’s not just nice to look at—it’s an experience.” gb&d
Bernier is the kind of architect who, like Zumthor, doesn’t mind dirtying his hands. Aside from getting involved at the jobsite each day to understand how materials are put together, Bernier designs integrated furniture, so the client has very little furniture to purchase when the home is complete. It is this simplicity of using few materials that creates a calm working environment for the client and for Bernier—and that is the key to his style of sustainable design. ➤
aul Bernier is a proponent of DIY P work, conceptualizing integrated furniture into the homes he designs (and sometimes builds). The owner of his own firm in Montréal, Bernier focuses on the sustainability of the materials he chooses.
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This office was not originally part of the home but added to the roof during a renovation. It is completely clad in birchwood, which Bernier says is calming.
When Bernier renovated his modern, minimalist three-story family home, which is located in a dense neighborhood block of Montréal, he found a way around the city’s various zoning laws by adding two simple wood-and-glass box structures that completely transform and extend the home. One volume was placed in the courtyard garden area and serves as a playroom for the two children while the other sits atop the building and serves as the master bedroom and light-well for the house, creating a completely glazed western corner. The aim was to connect the space and allow natural light to enter into the usually darkened ground floor by creating a semitransparent wooden trellis bridge on the second floor. Birchwood, which Bernier says is calming because it lacks visual noise, was the only wood used on the surfaces, and the extensive use of it ties the renovation together. The kitchen enjoys a 270-degree view over the rest of the home, and sliding doors and semitransparent screens give Bernier and his family the option of having the separate spaces open to one another or closed off at night for a more intimate feel.
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Montréal, Québec Size 1,925 ft2 Completed 2007 Program Private residence Awards “Marcel Parizeau’’ Prize, Ordre des Architectes du Québec 2009
CERTIFICATION Not applicable Site Dense urban neighborhood Materials Local birchwood Energy Smart solar orientation, green roof Landscape Green roof, planted without grass, pervious paving materials
TEAM ARCHITECT Paul Bernier Architecte Client Paul Bernier family General Contractor Paul Bernier
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PHOTOS: MARC CRAMER (BERNIER RESIDENCE); James Brittain (MILNE TRIPLEX)
Bernier Family Residence
Paul Bernier Architecte SPACES
Milne Triplex Transforming this two-story, four-unit building originally built in 1880 into the LEED Gold-certified Milne Triplex required a gut rehab. The client was entirely open-minded about the approach—Bernier’s favorite way to work. “I find inspiration in the client,” he says. “I go further than what the client asks for, but I want him to recognize himself in the project.” Bernier renovated the 3,400-square-foot building from top to bottom and removed the ceiling but kept the sloping roof structure to create more height. He also demolished the sagging foundation to make way for a new one and reused the removed wood for walls. “In old buildings, partitions are [load]-bearing, so it’s the structure that leads the concept,” he says. “I really like to think, ‘How are we going to hold this up?’ So very often that’s going to be the starting point.” With some architectural gymnastics, Bernier removed the bearings in the second floor to create a large open space with rooms, an office, and a bathroom divided by partitions of steel and frosted glass, like screens, that do not completely reach the ceiling. “This gives a sense of openness, and most of the sun comes from the front façade, so the light is not stopped in those rooms and flows into the big open space,” Bernier says. The project also features rainwater harvesting, a geothermal heating and cooling system, hot-water recirculation, Energy Star-rated appliances, and enhanced insulation. gb&d
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Montréal, Québec Size 3,400 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Three-unit housing complex
CERTIFICATION LEED Gold Site Dense urban neighborhood Materials Recycled-wood walls, concrete-slab floor Water Rainwater harvesting, hot-water recirculation, low-flow appliances Energy Geothermal heating and cooling, high insulation, concrete floor heating Landscape Planted without grass, pervious paving materials
TEAM ARCHITECT Paul Bernier Architecte Client Private General Contractor Gilbert Dumas MEP Engineer Pierre Guilbault
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THIS PAGE The triplex is mostly composed of wood and steel with a concrete floor. The different areas are separated with steel and glass partitions, hiding the office and the bathroom.
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Austin’s Urban Paradise A new mixed-use tower in Texas makes use of an old historic printing site and elevates the standard of green luxury living
Downtown Austin, Texas, is experiencing a residential architecture renaissance, and at the center of the new building boom is the Whitley, a 16-story, mixed-use tower managed and developed by Riverside Resources and Principal Real Estate Investors, which manages or sub-advises $44.8 billon in commercial real estate assets as the real estate group of Principal Global Investors. The Whitley caters to Austin’s young, progressive demographic of technology workers by combining luxury accommodations, sustainability innovations, and the ideal downtown locale. Riverside began working on the building in 2010 after realizing the potential inherent in its site, which is the former home of The Whitley Printing Company. “Austinites have embraced former mayor Will Wynn’s initiative to bring 25,000 residents downtown by 2015,” says Barrett Lepore, a Riverside associate who has overseen the Whitley’s progress. The Whitley is crucial to this initiative because it is located at the corner of East Third and Brazos Streets just a block off Congress Avenue, a main thoroughfare of downtown Austin. The location is also two blocks from the miles of hiking and biking trails along Lady Bird Lake and within walking distance of Austin’s growing number of technology headquarters and the city’s famous nightlife. “The neighborhood has a Walkscore.com rating of 98, a walker’s paradise,” Lepore says. “It’s a site that supports the livework-play lifestyle that Austin’s young professionals want. It’s just right in the heart of it all.” From the very beginning, Riverside knew that it wanted the Whitley to set a new standard for high-end, sustainable downtown living. “We want the Whitley to achieve a Silver LEED rating and three stars out of five on the Austin Energy Green Building [AEGB] scale while not compromising on fit and finish,” Lepore says. Achieving such ratings without sacrificing style isn’t easy, so Riverside
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Project
Green
Location Austin, TX Size 450,000 ft2 Completed 2013 Program Mixed-use, high-rise residential
Certification LEED Silver, 3 out of 5 AEGB stars Materials American-made cabinetry, engineered hardwood floors, American-made porcelain and glass mosaic tile, Texas-fired brick, Texas-quarried limestone Water Low-flow plumbing fixtures Energy Low-E glass, brick cavity wall façade, compact fluorescent and LED lighting fixtures, 15–SEER split direct exchange cooling and heating systems, rooftop energy recovery wheel Landscape Drip irrigation systems, native central Texas plantings
Team Developer Riverside Resources Architect Gromatzky Dupree & Associates General Contractor Rogers-O’Brien Construction Mechanical Engineer Bury & Partners Engineering
teamed up with Dallas architecture firm Gromatzky Dupree & Associates (GDA) to devise an encompassing design and construction plan. “GDA has a lot of high-rise luxury experience, and its 1900 McKinney project in Dallas is a great example of a LEED building,” Lepore says. GDA proposed a project plan that scores coveted sustainability points at all its stages. It started with the clearance of the printing company’s dilapidated warehouse. “The old building was mainly a one-story warehouse with a two-story office attached,” Lepore says. “Building line
to building line, it sat on half of a block that’s 0.81 in acreage.” In other words, the old building covered a large area, but its simple structure didn’t require a complicated teardown. This enabled Riverside and GDA to locally recycle most of its materials. “The demo materials, when possible, were sent to locations around Austin—gypsum recycling facilities, masonry recycling facilities, etc., so a very high percentage of the materials were recycled,” says Joel Efrussy, a senior associate at GDA who worked on the Whitley project. The aggressive demoligbdmagazine.com
RENDERINGS: RAMY HANNA
By Kathryn Freeman Rathbone
SPACES
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A MESSAGE FROM MEIDH
Meidh’s energy management, sustainability analysis, and LEED services deliver unparalleled returns for building owners because we focus on helping property managers, building engineers, and vendors decrease the cost of tenant comfort. Our thorough understanding of green operations means we routinely deliver profitable sustainability.
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tion and recycling program set the tone for the rest of the building’s design and construction. The finished building comes in at right around 450,000 square feet. A brick cavity wall with continuous rigid insulation and a liquid-applied air barrier composes the majority of the Whitley’s envelope, which greatly reduces its energy footprint by naturally insulating the structure. Inside, 12,000 square feet of retail space occupy the first floor, parking spans levels two through five, and 266 high-end rental units extend from level 6 to level 16. All floors are finished in a sleek, modern aesthetic aimed at being sustainable. “We approached the building with a holistic strategy to use responsible materials,” Efrussy says. “The plumbing fixtures are low-flow, the lighting is a combination of compact fluorescent and LED fixtures, and the prefinished engineered hardwood floors, all the adhesives, and coatings comply with AEGB’s stringent VOC requirements.” Even the beautiful landscaping on the common space sixth floor pushes the green threshold by using drip irrigation, which reduces the amount of water lost to evaporation when compared to typical spray irrigation systems. “We are thrilled to deliver such a high-quality asset that will perform well financially and environmentally,” says Joe Wanninger, assistant managing director of asset management with Principal Real Estate Investors. The Whitley opened February 2013, and just as the development team planned, the building has set a new standard in sustainable luxury living, bringing downtown Austin 16 stories closer to that ambitious 25,000-resident goal. gb&d
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Eighty percent of the lighting in the Ruby House is fluorescent or LED, providing a significant amount of lumens but low kilowatt-hours. A combination of smart building techniques makes the home hyper-efficient.
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Salt Lake’s Precious Gem
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The hyper-efficient Ruby House has quickly become essential to the fight for greener architecture in Utah’s capital city By Julie Schaeffer
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photo: paul richer
Ruby House’s triple-paned windows, which are German imports, are filled with argon gas for insulation and shaded with exterior overhangs. High-solar-gain glass on southern exposures and low-solar-gain glass on western ones keep the home warm in winter and cool in summer.
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ith a degree in anthropology and no inclination to enter academia, Dave Brach faced the momentous question: what to do with his life? Five years working as a framing carpenter, cabinet-maker, and furnituremaker eventually gave him his answer, and Brach began a journey that would lead him to becoming the founder and principal of Brach Design, a Salt Lake City architecture firm known for its focus on passive strategies. “Everyone is picky about the things they can see—the form and colors and textures and light—but my idea of highquality design and building includes the things you can’t see as well,” Brach says. “You can’t see the energy leaking into and out of the house, but that’s important.” After working at several well-known architecture firms in Chicago, San Francisco, and Minneapolis, Brach followed his calling to nature and settled in Utah and began offering homes that are certified by the Passive House Institute US, a nonprofit organization that oversees a certification process so rigorous that it exceeds the requirements of LEED Platinum. In 2011, Brach Design, which is Utah’s first certified Passive House consultant, completed the Ruby House in the historic district of Salt Lake City. “The owners wanted something that respected the Victorian neighborhood while meeting their vision of a modern home and, of course, saving energy,” Brach says. A significant portion of the home’s passive design is in its envelope. Twelve inches of insulation under the basement slab prevent heat loss into the ground, and 12-inch-thick Logix ICF foundation walls have an R-value of 23. Brach also added an insulated interior two-by-four wall in the basement to bring the total basement wall R-value to 35. Brach says that windows are the weak point in any home when it comes to energy loss, so
Dave Brach
he made sure to install triple-paned glass windows with an argon gas fill for insulation. The benefits of his efforts were clear when Brach did a blower door. “We pressurized the house to see how many air changes we could blow out per hour, and it was 0.3 air changes per hour—half the 0.6 requirement of a passive house,” he says. Because the home’s envelope is so tight, Brach had to design a ventilation system to bring in fresh air. It does double duty in terms of efficiency because heat is taken from the exhausted air and kept inside the house in winter for 93 percent efficient heat recovery.
The Ruby House is 12 times more efficient than the turnof-the-century Victorian house next-door. When tested against the house next door, a turn-of-the-century Victorian, the Ruby House proved itself 12 times more efficient. The heating load—how much heat is needed to keep the house warm on the coldest night of the year—was 110,000 Btus per hour for the Victorian and only 9,000 Btus per hour for the Ruby House. “It’s the tightest house I’ve ever designed,” Brach says of the home, which, when certified by the Passive House Institute, will be the first certified passive house located within city limits. gb&d july–august 2013
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p u pop pavilion
spa c e S P L A Y
Davis Brody Bond’s temporary pavilion will feature a planted roof rising seamlessly from the site and is expected to meet Living Building Challenge standards when completed.
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SPACES
In Washington, DC, Davis Brody Bond’s net-zero pavilion caters to food trucks and farmer’s markets while trying out some innovative high-performance materials Interview by Murrye Bernard
PROJECT
GREEN
LOCATION Washington, DC Size 225,000 ft² (covered), 7,500 ft² (enclosed) Completed Summer 2013 (expected) Program Open green space, flexible shelter, enclosed restaurant space
CERTIFICATION Living Building Challenge (expected) Materials Ductal high-performance panels, reclaimed wood, salvaged concrete and masonry, recyclable fabric ceilings Water Rainwater capture and cisterns, low-flow urinals, self-composting toilets Energy Cogeneration plant that processes spent food oil Site Existing site with preserved open and green space
TEAM ARCHITECT Davis Brody Bond Client District of Columbia Department of General Services on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development General Contractor KADCON Corporation Structural Engineer Robert Silman Associates MEP Engineer, Sustainability, A/V, IT Consultant WSP Flack & Kurtz Landscape Architect Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Lighting Designer APV Architectural Lighting Civil Engineer/Surveyor Wiles Mensch Corporation
D
ivided into east and west campuses, St. Elizabeths Hospital opened in 1855 and had been been in operation for more than 100 years when it was closed in 1987 due to disrepair, despite its status as a National Historic Landmark. As part of the master plan to transform the former mental hospital into an inhabitable headquarters for the US Coast Guard and reconnect the site to the surrounding Congress Heights neighborhood, the District of Columbia Department of General Services held a design competition for an interim pavilion. Davis Brody Bond won, and here architect Cody McNeal explains how the St. Elizabeths East Gateway Pavilion will create new space for food trucks and open-air markets and still use no more energy than it makes.
gb&d: The planned pathways and sloping green roof planes of the pavilion encourage movement through the site. What was the idea behind this? Cody McNeal: The hospital was closed off to the public for so many years, and when DC finally opened the gates, people immediately began circulating through the site to take shortcuts to the metro station. We asked ourselves, ‘Where are people coming from, where are they going, and how can we best facilitate that?’ With the relatively straightforward program in hand, we decided early on that the pavilion should retain a light footprint, keeping as much existing open and green space accessible to the public as possible. By lifting the land, we created an occupiable roofscape that shelters an outdoor marketplace, enclosed restaurant space, a farmer’s market, and food truck parking beneath. gb&d: The pavilion incorporates a few out-of-the-box approaches in reducing energy and water use. Tell us about those.
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Ground Level Site Plan
“By lifting the land, we created an occupiable roofscape that shelters an outdoor marketplace, ... a farmer’s market, and food truck parking beneath.” Cody McNeal, Davis Brody Bond
Roof Level Site Plan
McNeal: With the client embracing our net-zero strategy, this project provided opportunities to implement some sustainable measures that we’ve only toyed with on other projects. The net-zero energy story starts with a cogeneration plant that runs on spent food oil from the enclosed restaurant space in addition to the food trucks that also serve the pavilion. Many kinds of food cooking oils, once filtered and used as biofuel, often contain more energy than petroleum-based gasoline. The cogeneration plant will provide enough energy to run the entire site and possibly excess. Waste heat from the cogeneration plant will allow for radiant slab heating for all enclosed spaces, providing a significant savings over installing a traditional HVAC system. Rainwater will be captured on the roofscape, filtered, and stored in cisterns that sit below the market level. The cisterns will slowly release water throughout the year to avoid inundating the local ecosystem. We also plan on installing low- or no-flow urinals and self-composting toilets, eliminating the need to tie into the sewer system. Greywater and excess rainwater will be filtered naturally through a series of bioretention terraces at the north end of the site. gb&d: The pavilion is temporary. How did that affect material selection? McNeal: We chose to maintain modularity in our materials so that they can later be disassembled and repurposed elsewhere. Durability is also a must in a public environment, but shouldn’t come at the expense of one’s sensory experience. Ultra high-performance concrete panels provide us with a very modular, incredibly durable material but still offers an inviting texture. We’re working with Lafarge North America to incorporate their product, Ductal, a unique material that is extremely strong in compression because of its fiberglass reinforcement.
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The panels are only about an inch thick but allow us to span greater distances without using secondary framing, making them an economic choice. We are also incorporating a lot of wood in the design of the pavilion. The master plan involves enlarging an avenue at the expense of several large, old trees, and we intend to upcycle the fallen trees to fabricate planking and sheet materials for use as both interior and exterior finishes. Finally, we are considering the use of salvaged materials such as concrete and brick from the demolition of historically non-contributing buildings on-site. These materials could be crushed up and repurposed as aggregate in the structure’s concrete or as loose gravel on the pavilion’s pathways. gb&d: How do you imagine that the pavilion will impact the community over its lifespan? McNeal: Historically, the Congress Heights community has been underserved with an unemployment rate that is higher than most other neighborhoods in the city. We hope to instill them with a sense of optimism in the form of dynamic public space that promotes their community activities and economic inclusion. To that end, the pavilion will include a 4,000-square-foot farm-to-table restaurant space that will allow local entrepreneurs, with the help of the pavilion’s operations team, to temporarily open their own sustainably sourced restaurant on a rotating basis. gb&d a message from lafarge
Lafarge is the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in North America. The company’s products, including cement and cement-related materials, ready-mixed concrete, and aggregates, are used for residential, commercial, institutional, and public works construction throughout the United States. Lafarge is active in local environment, education, and sustainable construction partnerships such as the Wildlife Habitat Council, Habitat for Humanity, and the National Building Museum. Many of our products contribute to attainment of LEED credits.
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Sustainability by Lafarge
As a world leader in building materials, Lafarge has promoted sustainable construction and energy efficiency for years. We devote more than 50 percent of our R&D investments to sustainable construction. Our research center - the world’s first laboratory for building materials - works to improve existing products and develop new products that are even more effective and environment friendly. In collaboration with leading universities, research centers, and industry and environmental organizations, Lafarge people are striving to make sustainable construction a reality. Together, we can make a difference. To learn more about Lafarge products, including cement, concrete and aggregates, visit us at
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MEETING TOMORROW’S NEEDS WITH S U S TA I N A B L E S T R AT E G I E S AKRF offers a full range of services to tackle the many facets of sustainability. • Green Engineering Design • Water Resources • Remediation & Construction Oversight • Infrastructure & Capacity Enhancement • Waterfront Revitalization • Economic Feasibility • Brownfield Redevelopment & BOAs
Rendering of the future Whitney Museum of American Art courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Cooper, Robertson & Partners
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• Public Outreach
Call AKRF to find our how our experts can assist with your consulting needs. (Tel) 212.696.0670
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PROJECT LOCATION New York City Site Area 35,000 ft2 Completed 2014 (expected) Program Museum and gallery space, performance theater, multiuse black box theater, classrooms, indoor and outdoor spaces
TEAM CLIENT Whitney Museum of American Art Design Architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop Executive Architect Cooper, Robertson & Partners Owner’s Rep Gardiner & Theobald MEP Engineer Jaros, Baum & Bolles Lighting Engineer Arup Structural Engineer Robert Silman Associates Construction Manager Turner Construction
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Renzo Piano’s design for the new Whitney Museum of American Art reflects changes in the institution’s exhibits and trends in sustainability By Ashley T. Kjos
A
merican art is an evolutionary term; it has applied to many different ideas and styles in the last two centuries while always maintaining a certain core definition. The art has changed, but the spirit is the same. In this regard, the new design for the Whitney Museum of American Art is analogous of its exhibits. The museum is building a new location, a larger, more flexible, and more diverse space that mirrors the progress and evolution of American art while
keeping intact its mission: to display and celebrate the work of artists who identify themselves as American. In addition to creating a museum that would accommodate new art and media, the Whitney sought to make a splash with an environmentally responsible building and a noteworthy design. To accomplish the feat, only one architect would suffice. “We wanted an architect that would make a statement, and after looking at the all the greats with museum experience, there was only one person for the job, and it was Renzo Piano,” says Bill Maloney, the project director for the new museum. Piano’s unique artistic design was a perfect match for the museum’s sustainable objectives. This year, it will be 47 years since the Whitney moved to its current space. “Artists are constantly doing new and exciting projects, and as art changes, the work requires new, more flexible and often bigger spaces,” Maloney says. It’s a necessity that is echoed by gbdmagazine.com
photo: renzo piano building workshop
AMERICAN EVOLUTION
The new Whitney Museum building, designed by Renzo Piano, sits at the southern end of the High Line and should meet LEED Gold standards thanks to reclaimed pine flooring, LED lighting, and its chosen site.
SPACES
“Artists are no longer working with a single medium; they’re doing things that cross all boundaries. That can be a challenge from a physical standpoint.” Larissa Gentile, Whitney Museum of American Art Renzo Piano chose to make the entrance a large, cantilevered shelter so that it would become a public space for the community.
the museum’s project manager Larissa Gentile. “The type of work we exhibit has changed over the years,” Gentile says. “Artists are no longer working with a single medium; they’re doing things that cross all boundaries. Our art takes many forms, and that can be a challenge from a physical standpoint.” The volume of the Whitney’s collection also has grown significantly. When the doors opened at the current museum site in 1966, the Whitney had about 2,000 total objects in its collection. Today, that number exceeds 19,000 and is continuing to grow. The new space will have more than 50,000 square feet of indoor galleries, including an 18,000-square-foot temporary exhibit gallery on the fifth floor whose open design will make it the largest gallery space of its kind in New York City. Along with adding square footage, the new Whitney will have two designated performance venues: one will be a formal theatre with retractable seating, and the other is a multiuse, black box theater for film and video. There also will be an education center, a first for the Whitney, complete with seminar rooms and classrooms. In the new museum, reclaimed old growth pine will cover the 60,000 square feet of flooring, a departure from the white oak favored by galleries. “The Whitney strives to do things in a different way than its sister institutions,” Gentile says. “Pine is represented in a lot of old artist’s lofts, and we needed the harder surface you find with reclaimed old growth pine.” An advanced building-management system will control the specific climate requirements in the galleries at all times (a temperature of 72 degrees and a relative humidity level of 50 percent plus or minus a very tight tolerance). Until recently, there have been few lighting options for art museums despite its importance, but advances in LED technology have made it possible to use the more efficient and longer-lasting lighting throughout all the galleries and public gb&d
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Gold (expected) Materials Reclaimed old growth pine flooring Energy Advanced BMS and chillers, curtainwall system, independent convection system Lighting LED lighting, three-level shade system
spaces, enabling the museum to accrue significant savings. The Whitney also will employ a sophisticated shade system with three levels of shading to control the light amount coming through its windows and skylights. The most visible aspects of the project is its location and how it relates to its surroundings. Located in the Meat Packing District, which is currently seeing a large amount of commercial and cultural growth, the site is situated with the Hudson River Park to the west and the High Line to the east. Piano took the location between the two into consideration
and designed the museum in a way that he hopes will make the Whitney a natural link between the two public areas and be a part of the integrated neighborhood culture for many years to come. gb&d a message from AKRF
AKRF is proud to have worked with the Whitney Museum and Larissa Gentile over the years from earlier expansion plans on Madison Avenue to the environmental review, BSA approval, and environmental construction monitoring for the Gansevoort site. AKRF combines the breadth and resources of larger firms with the specialized know-how and attentiveness offered by smaller ones, enabling us to offer our clients a single source to meet their regulatory, engineering, and planning needs.
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Chris R. Stroupe, PE, LEED AP President 811 West 5th Street, Suite 101 Winston Salem, NC 27101 p (336) 724-0139 • f (336) 724-1812 www.ceseng.net
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LEARN LIVE PLAY SPACES
luxereDUX
Paul Savarino details the New York Palace Hotel’s diverse energy savings plan Interview by Gary N. Bowen
If you were to say that a commitment to renewable energy must be a Spartan endeavor, Paul Savarino would beg to differ. Savarino is the director of property operations at New York’s luxury New York Palace Hotel in midtown Manhattan, and the hotel is in the midst of an ambitious plan to have the hotel operate on 100 percent renewable energy. The plan will reduce energy costs for the hotel and give it a greener footprint, which is important to the current owner, Northwood Hospitality. Savarino shares how these plans will transform the luxury hotel industry for the better.
be all that sexy, but the savings and energy efficiencies are upgraded, not to mention the comfort of our guests. gb&d: How does the cogeneration plant factor into your energy savings?
gb&d: Luxury hotels aren’t known for their green efforts, so what’s involved when a high-end hotel decides to go green?
Interior Photos: Bruce Buck
Paul Savarino: It’s definitely more challenging for luxury hotels to implement green changes, as you never want them to impact the guests in a negative way. So most of our efforts take place behind the scenes, just so it will minimize guest impact. This includes running our building the past two years using 100 percent green power through purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, recycling, composting, green purchasing practices, and, of course, our cogeneration system— it makes a huge impact in reducing our emissions. However, our guests are entirely unaware of its existence. But that doesn’t stop guests from asking us, with greater frequency, how we help protect the planet. When we explain our programs to them, they’re usually pleased. gb&d: What other behind-the-scenes efforts do you do? Savarino: Our ‘Green Meetings’ initiatives involve turning off unneeded lighting, use of all electronic sales materials, nonplastic water containers, and special paper recycling programs. As we began to renovate the towers area of the property, gb&d
we began replacing incandescent lighting wherever possible with LED units, first in the behind-the-scenes employee areas and the banquet and meeting area. We’re now doing that as we renovate the hotel’s 900 guest rooms and suites as well as replacing all the windows with thermal-pane, energy-efficient windows and implementing automated shades. The retrofits should save the hotel about $150,000 in electric bills annually. gb&d: Building retrofits definitely add to monetary savings, but what about energy savings at the hotel? Savarino: There’s also real opportunity there, primarily in the environmental air-handling mechanics. Building controls are being changed and upgraded that impact energy use. This involves tasks such as replacing and recalibrating the facility’s automation controls, air-handling units, and pump mechanisms. We’ve also recently replaced the building’s main cooling tower and utilized variable frequency drives on all motors and full automation. It may not
Savarino: It was a very ambitious, energy-saving project and quite exciting. With the assistance of our installation partner, RSP Systems, we finally finished installing our energy-efficient cogeneration plant. It’s the largest of its kind installed in a New York hotel. The project took two years, and the plant provides heating, water, and power for the hotel. What this system does is direct the hotel’s waste heat through sophisticated heat exchangers and supplements our normal heating load for the seven fall and winter months. [During] the other five months this same waste heat is directed through an absorption chiller to produce about 200 tons of chilled water. The big impact comes in the winter months when this recycled heat significantly lowers our electric bills. We also anticipate moderate summer electrical savings in creating chilled water for less. The total cost was a little over $6 million. But a $2 million award from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, an anticipated $650,000 federal tax credit, plus the recurring savings helps us quickly recover the entire cost of the project. gb&d a message from RSP Systems
RSP Systems designed the Capstone cogeneration solution at the New York Palace Hotel, comprising 12 Capstone C65 Dual Mode Microturbines for optimum environmental and economical benefits while also providing back up power. The system saves the hotel 30 percent on its annual electrical and thermal energy expenses by providing cooling in the summer and heating in the winter from the recovered exhaust energy. The hotel’s carbon footprint will also be reduced by 481 tons per year.
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Featuring charred wood to reference the distilling process, Wild Turkey’s new tasting room and visitor center will have panoramic views of the Kentucky River just east of the structure.
S P O T L I G H T PLAY
Wild Turkey Bourbon Visitors Center De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
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Renderings: De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Bourbon is a part of Kentucky culture, so Wild Turkey Bourbon commissioned a new visitors center for its facilities that would reflect the Kentucky countryside and the craft of making bourbon. Louisville-based De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop designed a simple form for the building and wrapped it in stained cedar siding that is arranged in a chevron pattern, creating a unique texture on the exterior. On the eastern end of the building, the pattern becomes exposed, revealing the interior and making a covered outdoor space. The reception area will have reclaimed, oak barn wood panels that are either stained or charred as a reference to the bourbon-making process. The entire building will be 9,500 square feet, and it will be completed in the fall for all the bourbon enthusiasts. gb&d
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GREEN BUILDING & DESIGN
Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List Join the conversation! @gbd_mag
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Washington University in St. Louis
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Renewing a neighborhood for students Northern Arizona University
A carbon neutral health complex Parkland Hospital
State-of-the-art sustainability in Dallas Union City Station District
A new Bay Area transit hub
Cottle Zero Net Energy Home
The smartest home in San Jose
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TOUGH BUILDS
on the boards Wash U completes thE delmar loop Who Washington University in St. Louis What Delmar Loop Redevelopment Where St. Louis By Erin Brereton
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TOUGH BUILDS
RIGHT WashU’s Nancy Marshall stands at Delmar Boulevard and Eastgate Avenue, where several old housing complexes will be torn down to make way for student residences and an underground parking garage. BELOW The completed redevelopment will reinvigorate this particular section of the Delmar Loop, bringing people and businesses along with it.
Growing
images: dongik lee; Joe Angeles (portrait)
When it decided to increase enrollment five years ago, Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) experienced another type of growth: an escalated need for student housing. Nancy Marshall, project manager of capital projects at WashU, says that the school had already maximized the areas on campus that had the most on-campus housing, so the school had to look elsewhere to accommodate the demand. The university conducted a study, which lasted more than six months, to determine the best location for new student residences that would be geared toward undergraduate juniors and seniors. The university-owned land in the Delmar Loop area, just northeast of campus, emerged as the best option to attract the right student demographic. “We then worked with an architect on a feasibility study to verify that this site could accommodate the number of units we wanted to construct,” Marshall says.
Planning
A key factor was the character of the existing neighborhood. Delmar Loop is a funky, trendy area of St. Louis, which is perfect for near-graduating students. The only problem is that not all of Delmar Loop is funky or trendy. Delmar Boulevard is filled with local shops, restaurants, and bars, but just before Eastgate
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$80m
Total cost of Washington University’s Delmar Loop redevelopment Avenue, the vibrancy starts to wane. The vibe becomes choppy, less consistent, and eventually fizzles out toward Skinker Boulevard. This section of Delmar has great potential—it just needs more people and businesses. In fact, what it needs is entities like WashU to invest in it and spur development. WashU won’t be dealing with a clean slate. Several 1970s townhomes and a number of additional multifamily apartment buildings will be demolished to make room for an underground parking garage and five new residential buildings, the construction of which will happen in two phases. In phase one, which started in February and will be complete in July 2014, a total of 166 two- and threebedroom apartments will be built in four buildings, in addition to roughly 22,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Phase two, with a still-to-be-determined start date, will involve construction of the fifth building and extra garage space. The mixed-use space will include various retail tenants and serve as competition for off-campus housing that is july–august 2013
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TOUGH BUILDS Delmar Loop Redevelopment
The 4.4-acre mixed-use development will give students more modern and sustainable housing options. The entire project is expected to receive LEED Gold certification.
efficient. “These units will be loft-like— funky and fun,” Marshall says. “That played into some of the sustainable aspects too; students who want to live here will know they are signing up for a sustainable lifestyle.” In a project of this size, information is critical. The university worked with local LEED consultants, architects, and engineers who had worked on previous LEED-certified projects for the university to determine which sustainable elements would be best for the new buildings. “The consultant gathered everybody’s information, digested it, and spit it back to us in a report that said, ‘Here’s where we need to push harder,’” Marshall says. “It’s a very collaborative effort.” The Delmar Loop project includes five new residential buildings, which will also create 22,000 square feet of retail space for local businesses.
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rented by external companies, and it will be managed by the same residential life department that handles all of WashU’s on-campus housing. But the project is a departure from the university’s other residential options, which were designed to reflect a traditional collegiate Gothic architectural style. “In addition to meeting housing demands for additional students, the product is not like any other we have,” Marshall says. The new residences will feature a more urban look and feel with solid surface countertops and creative lighting, which will also be energy
Greening
Green elements in the new buildings include a wall system with high-performance glazing that will offer strong insulation and solar heat gain properties to the east, south, and west sides of the building. The south-facing wall will have external angled fins to prevent solar heat gain in the summer yet let direct sunlight in during winter months for ‘free’ heat. Each apartment unit will also have demand-based ventilation controls using a mix of keycard relays that will gbdmagazine.com
TOUGH BUILDS
“Students who want to live here will know they are signing up for a sustainable lifestyle.” Nancy Marshall, Washington University
enable and deactivate cooling and heating mechanisms when a resident slides an access card into a lock to enter the unit. To further conserve energy, occupancy sensors will help reduce lighting use. “When the last person leaves, the temperature is set back automatically,” Marshall says. “When the room is empty, the lights go off.” The site will have rain gardens to slow down water runoff and hold hydration until it can be absorbed into the ground. Three 25-kilowatt photovoltaic solar arrays with a total of 44 solar thermal panels are also scheduled for installation during phase one of the project. Each rooftop will have approximately 102 photovoltaic solar modules. “The maximum number of solar PV panels that will physically fit will be on the roof,” Marshall says. WashU has a standard, introduced in 2010, that all new large building projects will seek a minimum of LEED Silver certification. Thanks to careful pre-planning, the university anticipates the Delmar Loop project will earn at least Silver status; in fact, as of January 2013, it is targeting LEED Gold. “The entire team collaborated early on, and because we have completed a lot of sustainable projects, we were very familiar with the LEED scorecard and were able to identify many of the points we would be likely to achieve,” Marshall says. “By challenging ourselves further, we came to include more items that were above what we typically would do.” The additional sustainable elements assist in reducing energy use and fulfilling the university’s green building standard. But most importantly, they help satisfy students’ desire to live in an environmentally friendly apartment. “They want to see sustainability in our products, our building, and what we’re doing,” Marshall says. “It is something that the students want, and also something that the university feels very strongly is the right thing to do.” gb&d gb&d
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Carbon Neutral High Desert Health and Rec
Who Northern Arizona University What Health & Learning Center Where Flagstaff, AZ By Kathryn Freeman Rathbone
PROJECT LOCATION Flagstaff, AZ Size 272,000 ft2 Completed 2011 Program Mixed-use, university health and wellness center
TEAM CLIENT Northern Arizona University Architect Cannon Design, Northern Arizona University
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED Gold Materials Cast-in-place concrete structure; recycled, local and lowVOC materials Water Waterless urinals, solarpowered hot water system Energy Low-E glass, glazed skylights and window walls, daytime sensors, downcast exterior lighting Landscape Greywater for irrigation
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Northern Arizona University’s new Health and Learning Center houses an expanded recreation facility, on-campus health services, sports team facilities, and an academic space.
Goals
The main campus of Northern Arizona University (NAU) sits in picturesque Flagstaff, situated in the mountainous Colorado Plateau. The surrounding San Francisco peaks, ponderosa pines, and four seasons weather make it an ideal setting for NAU’s community, and with all that natural beauty, it’s hard to not take special care to protect the environment. And that’s exactly what NAU has done. In 2007, university president John Haeger pledged that NAU’s campus would be carbon neutral by 2020. The plan extends to all aspects of university life, but it most directly applies to the construction of new campus facilities. NAU has been building to LEED standards since 2003, but the 2020 action plan puts forth a much more rigorous challenge for further campus development. “It’s an enormous challenge to build 100 percent carbon-neutral buildings,” says Agnes Drogi, NAU’s director of planning, design, and construction, who adds that the 2020 plan only mandates the goal—it doesn’t specify exactly how to achieve it. “There’s no specific language for how we have to build new buildings. It leaves us the freedom to reach carbon neutrality in very innovative ways.”
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TOUGH BUILDS
3,240
Number of evacuated solar tubes in the HLC’s solar thermal system, which is so efficient that hot water accounts for only six percent of energy use
Plans
Photos: Charlie McCallie
The NAU planning, design, and construction team put its freedom to good use with its brand new Health & Learning Center (HLC), which opened to the NAU community in fall 2011. They brought on Cannon Design early in the project to help plan and construct the building. Initially, NAU wanted to only upgrade its previous recreation center. The old building dated back to 1989 and, at 40,000 square feet, could not serve today’s campus population. However, once NAU and Cannon began exploring options, the HLC’s ambitions rapidly expanded. “We quickly discovered that the health center needed a new building, too,” she says. “Health and sports activities go well together, so we put the two programs together.” Pushing the programmatic boundaries even further, they decided to incorporate athletic training and competition facilities, disability resources, and general classrooms into the HLC’s plans as well. Size wasn’t too much of a concern, but performance absolutely was. The entire complex would have to adhere to the campus-wide 2020 carbonneutrality plan.
“The building sits 7,000 feet above sea level. Since LEED [doesn’t account for] elevation, it’s often quite challenging to incorporate specific credits due to our natural environment.” Paul Dufek, Northern Arizona University gb&d
Credits
NAU and Cannon immediately began working on how to balance the HLC’s programmatic needs with its sustainability goals. The architecture team knew a sprawling footprint would be necessary to comfortably integrate the five distinct programs, but key challenges arose in the attempt to achieve LEED Gold certification due to the city’s elevation and climate. “The building sits 7,000 feet above sea level, and Flagstaff also is only second to Anchorage, Alaska, when it comes to the freeze/thaw cycles of US cities of similar or larger size—we have about 200 a year,” says Paul Dufek, senior project manager with NAU Facility Services. “The LEED credits are designed for buildings at much lower elevations. Since LEED criteria do not allow us to differentiate requirements due to elevation, it’s often quite challenging to incorporate specific credits due to our natural environment.” The Cannon and NAU design team ultimately mitigated the elevation and climate by prioritizing efficient materials and building-operations systems. The HLC is 272,000 square feet spread over two floors and incorporates the original 40,000-square-foot recreation center. It includes 34,000 square feet of athletic facilities, 58,000 square feet of healthrelated spaces, 72,000 square feet for classrooms, and a 108,000-square-foot recreation center. Structurally, a steel frame supports the building’s long gym, and cast-in-place concrete composes the rest of the facility’s frame. “This structure and construction typology permits the utilization of a significantly higher recycled content percentile,” says Mark Piatt, one of the Cannon architects on the project. High-albedo roofing, efficient steel panels and glazings, and a sophisticated system of skylights and window walls also help cut both the building’s energy consumption and excess heat output.
Systems
The design move that saved the most energy involved the building’s thermal energy water-heating system. Instead of taking the power from a traditional grid, it harnesses the energy generated by the sun. “It’s a solar thermal system with 3,240 evacuated tube solar collectors,” Piatt says. “It heats 70 percent of the hot water for the building, and because it’s so efficient, the hot water system only accounts for six percent of the building’s total energy usage.” All these numbers are tracked through the building automated system (BAS), an overarching monitoring system that tracks all the HLC’s mechanical systems and consistently reports their performance. “We can actually track and log exactly how each system is performing, and if anything goes outside of its set parameters, we can immediately analyze the situation and make adjustments,” Dufek says of the BAS. This goes a long way in ensuring that the building meets its lofty energy-efficient target. And so far, so good. The HLC has already reduced its carbon footprint by 50 percent, and thanks to its smart design, the university is marching steadily toward that 2020 carbon neutral goal. gb&d
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In Progress Health Care’s Green Giant
Who Parkland Hospital What New Parkland Hospital Campus Where Dallas By Julie Edwards
7.6m
Gallons of irrigation water saved in the hospital’s Wellness Garden area due to drought-tolerant landscaping and weather-based controls
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Place
When the new Parkland Hospital campus team looked around for a site, it found the answer right in its own backyard. Situated literally across the street from the current campus, the new location allows Parkland to continue to take advantage of its close proximity to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s medical school and the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “The site was previously industrial usage with numerous large warehouses, which has allowed us to repurpose and revitalize a rundown area into a thriving medical community,” says Kathy Harper, vice president of clinical coordination for the new Parkland campus. The City of Dallas made the location even more desirable by extending Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) to the new campus. “It’s fast becoming a multiuse part of the city with a healthy live-work environment as well as a model of what health care will look like in the future,” Harper says.
Priorities
Parkland’s budget was $1.27 billion, which includes a two-million-square-foot hospital, a utilities plant, an outpatient services building, and a parking garage. Constructing a new health-care facility is enough of a challenge without the additional burden of sustainability, but for Parkland, the choice was an easy one. “As a county hospital funded in part by tax dollars, we are stewards of the community’s resources,” Harper says. “The original hospital was completed in 1954, and after several surveys, we determined it was more cost efficient to build rather than renovate, and our sustainability initiatives will save the system a significant amount in operational expenses.” Harper admits, however, that sustainability initiatives could not take prior-
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With 862 private patient rooms, 166 emergency department rooms, 96 NICU rooms, and a parking garage (top left) Parkland Hospital’s new campus is one of the largest healthcare projects currently in progress. The planners worked to ensure they were setting an example for future hospital construction by going for LEED Gold with the new location.
ity over a healing, supportive environment for patients. As a result, the new Parkland campus team sought ways to promote sustainability throughout the system without it being overly visible or distracting from an operations standpoint. The hospital wanted the project to attain at least LEED Silver certification but is reaching for LEED Gold by coupling a campus-wide recycling program with the leading-edge technologies for energy efficiency. Being the largest health-care project currently in progress in the world, Parkland is setting an example for other hospitals. “A hospital is in use 24/7, so reducing the amount of energy used for lighting and other needs was one chief issue to address,” Harper says.
“[The location] is fast becoming a multiuse part of the city ... as well as a model of what health care will look like in the future.” Kathy Harper, Parkland Hospital
Progress
Although the new campus will not be completed until 2014, the buildings already in place are having an impact. The parking garage was one of the first structures completed, and it is topped with photovoltaic panels that provide the garage with constant electricity. The utilities plant boasts a highly efficient York heat-pump chiller that produces chilled water for the hospital and recycles excess heat back into the hospital. “The utility plant features pumps, chillers, boilers, and air handlers all equipped with Toshiba and Yaskawa variable speed drives that adjust and adapt to the capacity needed,” says Maria Dierking, senior program manager for the new Parkland Central Utility Plant and MEP. Water usage throughout the campus will be controlled with low-flow sinks, toilets and, showers; in total, they are predicted to reduce water use by as much as 60 percent, or 6.8 million gallons a year. Also saving water is the drought-tolerant native landscaping of the hospital’s planned 24,000-square-foot Wellness Park, whose design and weather-based control system will reduce irrigation water use by as much as 60 percent, or 7.6 million gallons. The new buildings are addressing energy efficiency through several different avenues. Windows have been designed to reduce heat gain as have the facility’s advanced lighting systems. A low-voltage control system by WattStopper allows computerized lighting control, so wattage can be lowered in areas such as patient rooms or hallways during off-peak times. Multiple lighting zones in patient rooms allow staff to use the proper wattage efficiently and with fewer disturbances to the patient. The new lighting systems alone are projected to save at least 30 percent of the energy used in the building. gb&d july–august 2013
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Union City offers excellent green economic development opportunities.
Located at the very heart of the San Francisco Bay Area and at the north end of Silicon Valley, Union City provides easy access to international trade channels, as well as local amenities that make doing business a pleasure. The City of Union City is well known as an exceptional place to live and work, with a history of sustained economic growth and strategic long-term planning. It has a diverse, well-developed economy and is home to a highly-skilled labor force. Start-up companies choose Union City for its growth opportunities and supportive business climate. Established businesses stay for the city's dedication to quality service and partner-oriented dedication to their success.
www.UnionCity.org facebook.com/CityofUnionCity
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City Planning Bay Area Transit Village Who City of Union City what Union City Station District where Union City, CA By Tina Vasquez
The BART station is completely powered by the 800 feet of photovoltaic panels that shade the bus shelter.
City
At just less than 18 square miles, Union City, California, is quite small as far as cities go, but it packs a powerful punch. Several years ago the City of Union City began laying the groundwork for its Climate Action Plan, which required participation from every corner of the community to implement land use, transportation, building energy, waste, water, and green infrastructure with the goal of reducing citywide emissions by 2020. “Alameda County has been very aggressive in terms of sustainability,” says city manager Larry Cheeves. “We’re not just looking to be leaders in this region, but on a national level. It’s important to make the most of the resources you have.” gb&d
Site
As far back as the 1990s, the city discussed the development of the Pacific States Steel Corporation plant site and the acquisition of the former site of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), located on the East Side of Union City’s BART station. Together, both plots of land cover more than 100 acres, and in 2000, Union City facilitated a joint planning effort with nine public agencies for a massive, game-changing project that would make use of this vacant, underutilized, polluted land. The Union City BART Station would be at the center of it all.
ScopE
In 2007, Union City broke ground on the Union City Station District, a master-planned, transit-orientated neighborhood that has been in the making for more than 20 years. Joan Malloy, Union City’s director of economic and community development, says that during the district’s initial planning phases, the main goals were using the land wisely and focusing on transportation, but the next logical step was focusing on green building. The project has affordable housing of different types, including the city’s first LEED Platinum housing complex: Station Center Family Housing, developed by MidPen Housing Coalition and designed by july–august 2013
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TOUGH BUILDS Union City Station District
PhasE 1 LOCATION Union City, CA Size 299,944 ft2 Completed 2012 Program Affordable housing, community gardens, meeting areas, classrooms
TEAM ARCHITECT David Baker + Partners Architects Client Mid-Pen Housing General Contractor Barry Swenson Builder Landscape Architect Fletcher Studio Lighting Designer Horton Lees Brogden Structural Engineers Tipping Mar + Associates, FBA Structural Engineers Mechanical Engineer Timmons Design Engineers Civil Engineer Mark Thomas & Company Muralist Mona Caron
GREEN CERTIFICATION LEED for Homes (Mid-Rise) Platinum Site Located near 14 basic services, preserved wetlands, wildlife habitat, public parks, unique/prime soils Materials 90% of construction waste diverted, 45% of cement replaced by slag or fly ash, wood-framed walls built off-site Air Quality Low- or no-VOC materials, carpets certified CRI Green Label Plus Water Bay Friendly Certified landscaping, advanced irrigation control, on-site rainwater capture and treatment Energy Added insulation, solar hotwater panels, high-efficiency, gaspowered boiler, sensors on outdoor lighting, sunshades
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David Baker + Partners Architects. The 105-acre plan also includes commercial space, new streets, walkways, bike paths, a pedestrian plaza and playground, and a remodeled, more energy-efficient BART station complete with an 800-foot-long bus shelter roofed with photovoltaic panels that will generate the electricity needed to provide the station’s lighting. Cheeves says that the greenest aspect of the project is the simple fact that it will get more people out of their cars and walking and using public transportation. Moving forward, the station itself will also undergo major changes. Currently, there are no connections to other regional trains at the Union City BART Station, but in the next several years, the station will become a regional intermodal rail station, serving BART trains, Capitol Corridor intercity trains, and the Caltrains commuter rail service. Phase one of the project was completed in November 2010, and it made the area more walkable for pedestrian traffic. According to Union City redevelopment manager Mark Evanoff, much of the first phase required removing physical barriers. “Previously, if you wanted to walk to the BART station, it would have been a mile-long walk,” he says. “Now, the same walk is about a fourth of a mile.”
Stalled
Despite the countless benefits of the project, members of the city are facing an uphill battle to complete phase two of this walkable, mixed-use development. Difficulties often arise when dealing with any bureaucracy, yet the challenges faced by Evanoff, Cheeves, and Malloy seem especially demanding given the circumstances. “Only in the State of California can you have the money, resources, and planning in place, yet have a project get stalled,” Evanoff says. “The state chose to cut redevelopment, and it’s had a huge impact on sustainability and transportation projects.” The Union City Station District has
“We’re not just looking to be leaders in this region, but on a national level. It’s important to make the most of the resources you have.” Larry Cheeves, Union City
had the support of the local city council and mayor from day one, and though completing the enormous project on its scheduled deadline will be challenging, the director of economic and community development, the city manager, and the redevelopment manager don’t plan on giving up without a fight.
Success
Readying the land for the Union City Station District cost the city $83 million in redevelopment funds, but it has generated $375 million in private investment. And if the completion of phase one has proven anything, it’s that phase two of the transit village will be worth the wait. What once was contaminated land is now LEED Platinum-certified low-income housing that offers community gardens, a pool, children’s playgrounds, a community center, and 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. And when complete, the Intermodal BART station will have the potential to take thousands of cars off the road each year. “All of this is possible because of our city council and mayor,” Malloy says. “We’re only as effective as our community allows us to be. We do believe that projects such as the Union City Station District are the wave of the future, and we hope our success inspires other cities to pursue similar projects.” gb&d gbdmagazine.com
Net Zero The Smartest Home in San Jose
ABOVE One Sky Homes’ Cottle Zero Net Energy Home is in compliance with a law that requires all new construction in California to be net-zero energy by 2020.
Who One Sky Homes What Cottle Zero Net Energy Home Where San Jose, CA
By Jeff Link
Basics
On a shady, tree-lined street in Willow Glen—a small, progressive community within San Jose, California—sits a home that looks fairly innocuous from the outside. Stone pavers lead to the front porch of the two-story, 3,200-square-foot new build that rests on a solid bass rock foundation and is dressed with cut veneer stone and a sage green façade. It has attractive architectural features, such as a gable roof, bamboo flooring, and timber front porch columns made of century-old Douglas fir salvaged from San Jose’s recently deconstructed Del Monte cannery, but it may not necessarily stop passersby. However, the house was recently purchased for $1.8 million, which is about 10 percent more than area homes of similar size and style. What distinguishes the home at 1820 Cottle Avenue is what can’t be seen from the street, or even physically seen inside. This is a net-zero house. At roughly 10,000 gb&d
kilowatt-hours each year, it generates enough energy to power itself for free, offload 2,000 kilowatt-hours of surplus electricity to the local utility company at 28 cents per hour during peak daytime hours, and recover 6,000 net kilowatthours of electricity to power the Nissan Leaf parked in its garage for up to 20,000 miles per year. The homeowners’ utility bill is about $15 a month—roughly 3 percent of what its neighbors might expect to pay. Designed and built by Allen Gilliland, founder and owner of One Sky Homes, the home is LEED Platinum, Passive House certified, HERS certified, EPA Indoor Air Quality certified and is also the first home recognized by the California Energy Commission for achieving the zero net energy standard, which will be required for all homes in California by 2020, thanks to a bill signed into law by former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. july–august 2013
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TOUGH BUILDS Cottle Zero Net Energy Home
Cost per day to operate the home’s HVAC
Thermal
Although the voltaic solar panels capable of generatroof design, sun ing 10,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable orientation, solar electricity each year. While the panels paneling system, window glazing, and are generating electricity, a three-panel wall insulation are each important to the solar thermal system heats water that home’s efficiency, nothing about the mais circulated from a storage tank in the terials or building assembly here is pargarage to produce 70 to 75 percent of the ticularly new or jaw-dropping. Gilliland energy needed for the home’s showers says the project’s real and laundry. Recycled challenge—aside from wastewater from these convincing prospechot-water systems is Energy Use tive home buyers that then treated and filtered in the Cottle Home the $100,000 in hard by a Flotender system Cooking 600-700 kWh, 6-7% Lighting 800 kWh, 8% upgrades would pay before being used to Hot water 1,500 kWh, 15% long-term dividends in irrigate the trees and Electronics 2,000 kWh, 20% energy savings, comfort, shrubs in the backyard. and air quality—was to With its narrower HVAC 2,000 kWh, 20% Appliances 3,000 kWh, 30% develop accurate models façades facing east and for predicting and meawest, the home’s oriensuring thermal flow. tation takes advantage Gilliland found an early partner in of the seasonal sun angle variation that Davis Energy Group, an engineering occurs along the northern and southern team affiliated with the U.S. Department exposure. At the winter equinox, when of Energy’s Building American program, the sun’s angle is approximately 30 deand recruited the support of electricians grees at 37 degrees latitude, more light from Pacific Gas and Electric Company streams through the windows to provide (PG&E) to wire the house in a way that heat for the home. In the summer, when would measure 48 unique data logthe sun’s angle is 76 degrees, little sunin points and aggregate energy usage light reaches the windows. The eave and types—HVAC, cooking, hot water heating, projection of the roofline, along with the electronics, lighting—into clearly quantiglazing features of eight-foot-tall triplefiable units. paned German patio doors and windows, “Nobody had written a book about also help regulate light entry. The net it; I didn’t have a recipe,” Gilliland says. result, Gilliland says, is 25 million BTUs “One of the things we discovered right of energy production. away was the Passive House standard. We If optimizing enthought immediately, ‘That’s the answer ergy production right there.’ I love the concept. The esis important to sence is thermal energy power—planning achieve the net-zero energy standard, so for natural or passive thermal energy too is keeping that energy contained. A flows through a building.” thin layer of densely packed cellulose in The home is a marvelthe wall assembly improves the insulaously fluid system of tion of the wooden frame. Behind twoheat, water, and air foot by six-foot wooden studs—the weak exchange. On the energy-production point in the building envelope where side, harnessing the power of the insulation is limited—a one-inch-thick sun is important. Mounted on top of skin of polystyrene eliminates thermal the southern-facing gable roof are 28 bridging. To keep the home dry and wellthree-foot by five-foot Evergreen photodrained, Keene Building Systems was
Envelope
contracted to install stucco cladding, a Tyvec weather barrier, and a quarter-inch air gap adapted to the coastal climate. In all of the home’s systems, efficiency is the watchword. A passive heat exchange core, similar to a radiator, keeps the temperature consistent throughout the home while ensuring an 85 percent thermal recovery rate. The home can be heated for 45 cents a day with roughly the same amount of power used for a 1,600-watt hairdryer. But with the exception of a specialized market of Silicon Valley technology professionals, the real estate market has yet to catch on. “A typical profile of our customer is a technology guy, an engineer at Apple or Skype or something,” Gilliland says. “I can’t imagine any of our customers who aren’t involved in technology in some way. This is for early adopters, people who understand the technology and have a value set.” gb&d a message from keene building products
Keene Building Products is the premier innovator and manufacturer of 3-D filament products for the building envelope and noise control markets. Our noise products are designed for construction projects such as multifamily apartments and condominiums to stop impact and airborne noise while our building envelopes products can be utilized in wall, masonry, roofing, and foundation applications to eliminate moisture issues. Product lines include: QUIET QURL®, Acoustical Assurance™, and DRIWALL™. Our products are 40–90 percent recycled content. Visit our website to learn more: www.keenebuilding.com.
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Up Front Approach Trendsetters Green Typologies Inner Workings Features Spaces Tough Builds Punch List 152
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Developer to watch
LocalConstruct is reshaping Los Angeles
A holistic energy management system Stepping farther into sustainability With guest editor Rachel Gutter
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Developer to Watch LocalConstruct
“Retrofitting the urban core for a sustainable future” is the mission of Los Angeles-based LocalConstruct, and the young development firm is well on its way. It built or renovated more than 350 apartments in four years, every single one located in an urban environment and constructed with sustainability in mind. The brains behind the operation, cofounders Mike Brown and Casey Lynch, discuss their humble beginnings, their unique work in LA’s submarkets, and what a generation’s interest in authenticity will mean for the future of housing. Interview by Michelle Markelz gb&d: Where did LocalConstruct come from? How did you get your start? LocalConstruct: We started the business in the library at UCLA–Anderson. When we graduated from school, we moved to Casey’s dining room, which was our office for a year and a half. Casey’s wife was very happy when we moved out, along with the copy machine. gb&d: What was your first development, and what was that experience like? LC: The very first development was a small condo retrofit that we renovated on our own. Mike comes from a construction background, so we painted it and remodeled. That was the last one we did the work on. Ever since, we’ve managed all the design and bid processes internally and contracted the work out. We had a grand vision at the time—we had the idea of buying a large portfolio of distressed properties in the economic downturn and adding a layer of green retrofit in submarkets around Southern California. But we had a hard time selling the idea to people and ended up scaling back our original plans. We raised enough money to buy about 10 properties initially and focused more on up-and-coming, urban submarkets in LA. As we started to get
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some traction and demonstrate that our idea was reasonably sound, we were able to find new investors to finance an expansion into larger, multifamily projects and new construction. gb&d: Why did you decide on sustainable
design and infill as your niche development market? LC: Mike and I were in grad school during the economic and housing crisis that occurred from 2008 to 2009. We both were studying real estate and had an interest in sustainability and green design and building. We recognized opportunity during that period to buy distressed housing in core, infill markets in urban areas like LA, where we were living at the time. People were reevaluating their decisions to live further from work and the cities. Our vision from the very beginning was to build a business for the long haul. We always had a vision to become city-builders and agreed very early to do things differently. Real estate can be a very staid industry; there hasn’t been a lot of innovation with the exception of building materials and construction technology. We wanted to be developers who further the conversation on infill urban-
on the boards Blackbirds, Los Angeles Set in historic Echo Park, this 18-home development makes use of the original stairway network that connects the neighborhood, as well as a woonerf, a Dutch term for a multipurpose courtyard area, to foster community living and social interaction. The site was chosen because of its crumbling state, but it also had the potential for transformation. Blackbirds comprises single-family homes that are located less than three miles from LA’s downtown core, making shopping, dining, working, and playing accessible. Designed by Barbara Bestor, the homes include resourcereducing systems such as tankless water heaters, dual-flush toilets, high-efficiency, low-E windows, drought-tolerant landscaping, semi-permeable driveways, and recycled and no-VOC materials.
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“Our vision from the very beginning was to build a business for the long haul. We always had a vision to become city-builders and agreed very early to do things differently.” Casey Lynch, LocalConstruct
of modernist architecture is a great inspiration to us, and many of the best examples of Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others are right in our backyard. gb&d: Although you’re branching out in Idaho, what makes California the primary market for your work?
housing. Starting at the smallest place we could start, we wanted to be a force in housing and how we build and rebuild our cities in the western United States. gb&d: And what is it you’d like to say in that conversation? LC: A lot of the focus on green building to date has been on technical aspects of individual projects: How well-insulated is the building envelope? What kind of solar panels are used? Expensive products drive technology in our buildings. While we do get involved in those specifics, we think the more important questions lie on the macro side of sustainable development. More important than technicalities is where we house our populations and whether we build housing close to jobs. Do we build where people are dependent on automobiles or where they can walk to amenities and take public transportation? It’s our philosophy to ask those questions first, rather than to be focused just on the technology within a given building. Our challenge is to create sustainable housing that competes at gb&d
market value with standard homes and apartments. Building at economic parity with traditional methodologies is critical in the evolution of sustainable development, so we think a lot about the triple bottom line. We try to use the economic bottom line in service of the environmental bottom line, and both of those serve the aesthetic and functional bottom line. That’s where we begin to make a broad change in development instead of just building showpieces. gb&d: Taking all those things into account, what influences do you bring to your projects? Art? Architecture? LC: We are mainly interested in design that is contextual and complements its surroundings. For that reason, we tend to gravitate toward markets with historical context and often seek out areas that have a strong relationship to nature. Even in urban areas, such as LA, we have been able to work in nature-rich neighborhoods like Echo Park, Frogtown along the LA River, and Atwater Village. LA’s history
LC: California is still one of the most rapidly growing and diverse economies in the world, which puts constant pressure on our housing stock. From the standpoint of technical sustainability, California is the national leader. Our green code here requires all retrofits to achieve the equivalent of LEED Silver status, which is way ahead of the other states. And our business focus responds to the increased demand in the urban centers, which is a reverse of the flight to the suburbs in the ’50s and ’60s. LA has a huge, antiquated infrastructure, and we have to try to reimagine it to accommodate increasing urbanization. Other cities in the West like Portland and Austin have been very successful in developing new infrastructure that properly houses people based on current needs. The question for our peers and us is how we transform LA and its infrastructure to recapture a friendlier urban dynamic. gb&d: How do you see your work as part of a broader movement? LC: In the last five years or so, there’s been a lot of consumer desire for authenticity. Our hope is that a desire for authenticity in the way we build our communities will impact the demand for high-density, infill housing. We hope that younger generations will revert to a level of civic and community participation that has escaped us over the past several decades in the US. One of the great things about being a developer is that if you’re careful and thoughtful in what you do, you can influence communities for the better. gb&d july–august 2013
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Material World Sun-Control Solutions 3M’s Prestige line is used by everyone from homeowners to high-rise developers. “We try to work with customers to understand their major goals and select the product that meets their needs,” says Tim Thornton, business director for 3M’s renewable energy division.
3M’s Prestige series window films keep building tenants cool and protected from the damaging rays of the sun without sacrificing views By Julie Schaeffer Eco-minded designers and builders know that providing abundant natural daylight is a great way to conserve energy, but daylight can create computer screen glare and lead to excessive heat. Additionally, it contains harmful UV rays. Which is why, explains Tim Thorton, business director of 3M’s renewable energy division, 3M created its Prestige series of sun-controlling window films. Window films address the solar heat that comes from two primary sources: the visible light you can see and the infrared light you can feel. “Window films were actually developed in the 1960s, and since then, the technology has continually improved,” Thornton says. That advanced technology has been employed by 3M to great effect. Using nonmetallized, multilayer optical film and nanotechnology, 3M’s Prestige line, which is available through suppliers such as the Window Film Depot, rejects up to 99.9 percent of the damaging UV rays, up to 97 percent of the infrared light, and up to 60 percent of the heat that penetrates windows—all without affecting occupants’ views and still letting in the daylight. gb&d
“We also do trials in different climate zones to show the kilowatt savings you can expect to achieve per square foot of glass,” Thornton says. “That allows any of our customers, whatever climate zone they’re in, to see what results they can expect.” In addition to helping architects and builders create more sustainable buildings, 3M’s Prestige line is sustainably produced. “We’re a very environmentally conscious company, and back in 1975, we started our Pollution Prevention Pays, or 3P, program,” Thornton says. “With this product, as with all of our products, we look at our entire supply chain to identify areas where waste is created, and we redesign the process to eliminate it.” In fact, Prestige series window films become carbon negative in as short a period as six months from installation. gb&d
Pros + Rejects up to 99.9% of UV rays, 97% of infrared light, and 60% of heat + Preserves natural daylight and views + Reduces energy costs + Offers broad network of authorized dealers and installers Cons — Film must be matched to glass type — Professional installation highly recommend — Cost must be considered an investment, particularly with large projects
a message from WINDOW FILM DEPOT
I t’s often the little things that make all the difference between a winning project and a painful one. Choosing the right installation partner is the key to successful window film projects. There are no certifications or licensing requirements specific to the window film trade. You need to rely on past customer experience to help qualify the right installation company to ensure your complex project goes smoothly. Make sure to check project references thoroughly. Communication is key. Your window film contractor needs to have an installation plan that respects building occupants, an on-site project manager and an experienced installation team committed to executing that plan. Confirm that the project manager has a ‘check-in’ schedule with project timelines and achievable goals identified before mobilization. Hire a window film contractor who understands your need to be kept in the loop when adjustments are considered. Your jobsite is no place for surprises—or rookies.
One of the major drawbacks of traditional window films is that they tended to act like mirrors, but the Prestige series actually reduces the reflectivity of glass. Until recently, most window films used metals, making them susceptible to corrosion; 3M’s Prestige series doesn’t contain any metal.
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Groundwork Automating Energy Savings
In Part Three of our Groundwork series on the Green Leaf Inn, owner and energy expert Fritz Kreiss discusses the benefits— environmental and financial— of a holistically designed energy management system Interview by Suchi Rudra
DETAILS Location Delavan, WI Completed Winter 2013/2014 (expected) Size 16,000 ft² Program 19 suites with a conference meeting venue Client Green Leaf Inn Architect Anderson-Ashton Design Build General Contractor AndersonAshton Design Build MEP Engineers Matrix
gb&d: How has holistic design guided your creation of Green Leaf Inn’s energymanagement system?
gb&d: What is especially unique about the Green Leaf Inn’s energy management system?
Fritz Kreiss: Through advancements in technology, today’s systems can integrate individual improvements, such as lighting retrofits, variable frequency drives, and HVAC systems, into one system through a holistic energy approach. A holistic energy management system (EMS) will turn the Green Leaf Inn into a power plant, earning income through demand response, a system that pays customers to reduce or curtail their energy usage at certain times of the day when the demand from everyone else is straining the electric grid. The holistic EMS can automate our demand response opportunity and interface with the curtailment specialist. As society’s need for energy continues to increase, demand response is being seen as a crucial component of a balanced power grid.
Kreiss: Hotels are very unique compared to residential or office buildings. Season, business versus consumer guest, conferences, and hotel location all factor into occupancy rates, which changes the equipment and the holistic control strategy. For the Green Leaf Inn, the first step is a system that can determine if a room is occupied or empty. If a room is vacant, the temperatures can be adjusted to use less energy since no one is in the room. There are multiple manufacturers of stand-alone systems that are perfect for retrofits to existing hotels. For the inn, however, we will have a more holistic system that connects what is happening in a room back to a central control that can manage the facility as a whole. Standalone systems for a room are done with occupancy sensors or the room key-card put into a slot to activate the room when someone is there. They can even be set up to de-energize TV sets, etc., so noncritical outlets cut the power when the guest leaves. The Green Leaf Inn will not only manage the guest rooms but also inteHow the EMS Works
Fritz Kreiss
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+ Coordinates all incoming data and manages the building + Monitors lighting and adjusts according to occupancy, outdoor daylighting harvested, and general lighting energy consumption + Controls indoor temperature levels to reduce energy consumption while optimizing guest comfort + Starts hot-water boilers each morning to prepare for hot water demand + Uses free cooling opportunity by flowing 50-degree water through the plate and frame heat exchanger and reducing speed of fans and energy being consumed at cooling tower and compressors + Increases chiller output to keep building cool when temperature rises, and system reduces energy consumption of building’s lighting as free daylighting is harvested
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“A holistic energy management system will turn the Green Leaf Inn into a power plant, earning income through demand response.”
Benefits of Demand Response Contracting with a “demand response” company like AUS allows hotels and commercial buildings to earn money three ways:
a Emergency Curtailment. Building owners typically have 1.5 hours advance warning of a high-energy usage event. The number of events per year is limited, and each event could last up to eight hours. Once per year, buildings are tested to verify the amount of the load that the building can reduce. The owner then gets paid for providing the capacity to help if called, even if no event happens, and it rarely happens.
Fritz Kreiss, Green Leaf Inn
grate the seven different energy systems to optimize energy generation to increase the least cost energy option. gb&d: Your company, Alternative Utility Services (AUS), has played a role in the design of this EMS. What else does the company do? Kreiss: AUS is a nationwide energy consulting company that includes energy procurement, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and cogeneration. We are a licensed broker and private aggregator
for companies to procure their natural gas and electricity in deregulated markets and for demand response and RECs nationwide. We get suppliers to compete for our customer’s energy, thus driving down the costs and price. AUS is able to aggregate customer loads for demand response, which then allows them to negotiate the best options across the country. We can also develop a comprehensive energy strategy for buildings and hotels that includes energy reduction and energy commodity savings on natural gas and electricity in deregulated states. gb&d
s Bidding the Load Drop. PJM, the transmission grid operator that covers 13 states, considers dropping 100 kilowatts in load to be the same as turning on a 100-kilowatt generator. This means the building owner can bid the load drop as a supply resource and make money when the real-time price of electricity is high. d Ancillary or Spinning Reserves. Spinning reserve is the reserve capacity that is ready to meet electric frequency stabilization within minutes of a dispatch instruction by PJM. The generators are spinning at a slow speed wasting energy but already synchronized with the grid to be able to react in an emergency within 10 minutes.
maximized building income potential aggregation for higher volume and greater savings competitive energy bidding customized energy efficiency plan reduced impact on the grid Let your building work for YOU.
Electric & Gas (deregulated markets) gb&d
Rate & Tariff Analysis
Benchmarking
Onsite Solar & Virtual Solar PPAs july–august 2013
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A Community-Owned Solar Cooperative (CO Solar Co-op) Creating a Sustainable Clean Energy Plan for YOU and Your Community By Community Green Energy Staff A building is not an empty structure without life. It is part of a living organism called “community.” A building is a hive of activity by consuming energy, generating waste, and maintaining temperature control on behalf of its inhabitants. There is another element of a building’s activity: its economic influence on the community. The more synergy there is between the ecology and the economic part of its buildings, the more sustainable the community becomes. An EcoVision future for a community maximizes both parts of this equation, and does it locally.
shading, or ownership issues of the building. A CO Solar Co-op expands the solar market to renters, eliminating the roadblocks of shaded roofs and other issues that otherwise stopped solar participation. A CO Solar Co-op also reduces the cost of participation due to economies of scale in the equipment procurement and installation. A CO Solar
Co-op can create a “buy-in” by more of the community, resulting in a sustainable economy for their future. Hosting a CO Solar Co-op on your building offers you an opportunity for positive PR as well as integration into the community. Although a community-owned project seems simple on the surface, it is a complex undertaking involving site procurement, selling the electricity, structuring the ownership, set up and ongoing billing and accounting, engineering, procurement, and installation of technology, maintenance and the legal documents and filing required to keep the state, federal, SEC, and IRS happy. The easiest solution is to Partner with CGE and AUS so we can help to implement our
Solar Demographics in 2008
The “buy local” and “local food” movements are part of this sustainable economic future. Alternative Utility Services Inc. (AUS) and Community Green Energy, LLC (CGE) have partnered to offer local clean energy, and also to provide a turnkey program for local ownership of the clean energy system. A Community-Owned (CO) Solar Co-op keeps the revenue of the electricity within the community instead of being spent outside the local economy, as is the normal transaction. The “Buy Local Clean Energy” movement not only provides the local economy with the 3 to 4 multiplier of the local turnover, but the project is a job creator for construction and operation. Instead of outside investors or a utility company owning the energy project, the Community-Owned Solar Co-op keeps the investment and the income within the local community. A 2008 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that only 22 to 27 percent of residential rooftop areas are suitable for hosting an on-site photovoltaic (PV) system once you adjust for structural,
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sources for infographic: NREL, DOE, IRED, HUD
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Community-Owned Solar Co-op Turnkey Program for your community! As the local partner, you will market to your customers, residents, and fellow companies to join the community’s locally owned Solar Co-op. By joining the CO Solar Co-op, the members actually own part of the local clean energy power plant, and save money by selling that electricity to the host site. The Solar Co-op can continue to grow allowing members to buy as little or as much solar energy equipment as they choose. Our CO Partner Program is open to your city, a host building, environmental groups, schools, property managers or any organization interested gb&d
in creating a locally owned clean energy project for their community. Even better, our CO Partner Program gives back a share of the project’s revenue to the sponsoring organization. Having a locally owned CO Solar Co-op means everyone can participate even if they rent or have solar shading issues at their home. Purchasing your own solar panels as part of a local Solar Co-op means you have a long term hedge against rising electric prices for the next 20 to 30 years. Depending on how the Solar Co-op is structured for your city and state, you might also enjoy an Investment Tax Credit and depreciation as
well as being able to participate in the sale of the electricity (or lease payments generated) generated on the host’s site. And our combined purchasing power provides savings up to 50 percent over the cost of installing solar on your own home. Contact Community Green Energy to get a Community-Owned Solar Co-op built in your community for a sustainable new economy. 262-248-0927 www.communitygreenenergy.com support@communitygreenenergy.com
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Toolbox Advancing Efficiency From a website that will track all your utilities to an enclosed vertical bike rack, these products will make any house, building, or city more efficient
Lumio It looks like a book, but it’s really a light. The portable Lumio lamp fans out like the pages of a novel, and upon opening, it lights up to be a lantern. It can be mounted on walls as decorative accent lighting, used as an emergency flashlight, or light up an outdoor seating area. Fully charged, the Lumio light lasts for up to eight hours, and the spine design allows users to control brightness just by adjusting the angle of the book. www.hellolumio.com
Cork Insulation
WegoWise
Cork is useful for so many more things that bottling wine. The natural, renewable material is now being used for building insulation because of its thermal and vibrational insulation features. Aside from sustainable benefits of using cork, the cork oak is naturally fire resistant, so by installing cork insulation, it acts as a fire barrier in any house or building.
Property managers dread the hot summer months and bitter cold of winter not only because the weather is awful, but also because utilities are going to be extremely costly during those times. WegoWise helps building managers get a better handle of their utilities spending by offering a free (or $5 a month premium package) online service that monitors a building’s energy use, helping the manager locate ways to save by automatically updating utility data to track building upgrades and set benchmarks.
www.bcork.amorim.com
Every city planner should take a look at these modular bus vestibules that have bike racks built into them. The arc modules are made from recycled resin sheets, and the structures themselves are easy to assemble. The company started with a vertical bike storage idea and has expanded to include the bike rack idea into a bus stop, modular car garage, and even a modular off-the-grid house. Also, the bikes take up less space because of how they’re positioned, which means more room for sitting and interacting. www.bikearc.com
www.wegowise.com
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Photos: Peter Pham / Jenny Pan (LUMIO); Amorim; Wegowise; Bike Arc
Bus Arc
green building & design
Index Advertisers
Interested in advertising? Grab the gb&d media kit online at gbdmagazine.com or email laura@gbdmagazine.com for more information!
For only the MOST sustaina bly minded com panies and profess ionals. What are you waiting for?
Green Buildin g & Design Media Kit 2013
A Anders & Falltrick Architects, 120 A. Messe and Sons, 35 Acuity Brands Lighting, 77 AKF Group, 102 AKRF, 131 ALC Architecture, 154 Alston & Bird, 30 Alternative Utility Services, 157 Alumilex, 123 American Hydrotech, 164 B Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers, 83 Bay & Associates Consulting Engineers, 30 Blackstone Builders Inc., 6 Big Ass Fans, 63 Bosch, 73 Boston Valley Terra Cotta, 95 Brunton Architects, 49 C C3 Inc., 83 Center Line Technologies, 107 Christopher Rose Architects, 77 Consultant Engineering Services, 134 Core Construction, 141
Corporate Realty, 44 Crossville, 56 D Design Fusion International, 30 DM Group, 6 E E. Sam Jones Lighting & Energy Solutions, 36 Eco Insulating Glass, 123 EDC, 27 EllisDon, 20 Engineering System Solutions, 107 ESI, 25 EwingCole, 93 Extreme Measures, Inc., 20 H H Window Company, 125 Halford Busby, 20 Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo, 2 Holly & Smith Architects, 44 I Intus Windows, 56 J J.F. Electric, 27 Jair Lynch Development Partners, 63 K Kone, 25 Keene Building Products, 163 L Lafarge North America, 131
Essential to sust gbdmagazin ainability. e.com
LiveRoof, 115 M Meidh, 125 N Nudura, 102 P P3A, 115 Paric, 141 R R.D. Lawrence, 36 RAS Design Group, 49 RFJ Meiswinkel Company, 73 RLPS Architects, 35 Roma Design Group, 146 Royal Contracting, 32 RSP Systems, 134 S SoundEarth Strategies, 49 Stone Pigman Walther Wittman, 44
T The Gordian Group, 95 Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance, 102 TriState HVAC Equipment, 93 Turner, 134 U Union City, 146 Urban Engineers, 32 W Webcor Builders, 83 Western Allied Corporation, 115 Whiting-Turner, 146 Window Film Depot, 154 Woodward Design+Build, 44 Z Zeidler Partnership Architects, 63
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On the Spot... with Guest Editor Rachel Gutter She loves Shel Silverstein, hates the phrase “low-hanging fruit,” and wants to create an Americorps-style green schools program. Meet the executive director of the Center for Green Schools.
One book everyone should read: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
About Rachel Gutter Rachel Gutter is the executive director of the USGBC’s Center for Green Schools and served as gb&d’s guest editor for this issue. See more of Rachel on pages 12, 67, 97, 100, 108, and 113.
Print news outlet you hope will never die: School newsletters. An article you recently shared: “School Design May Affect a Child’s Grades,” from Wired.com. Building you would save if the world was going to end: The National Building Museum—it’s gorgeous, has a rich history, and would memorialize other buildings lost, not to mention it’s the perfect place for an Armageddon ball. The boldest idea in sustainable design: Buildings that improve the physical health of occupants and the ecological health of the land they occupy. What you’d tell the green movement if it was your child: Stop talking to each other and start talking to everyone else. Industry jargon you would banish: “Low-hanging fruit”—ick.
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The first step to becoming a steward of the environment: Wake up. The perfect city would have: 360 degrees of sky from every rooftop and a view to the ocean. Your topic if you were asked to give a TED Talk: Delivering on the Promise: Green Schools within this Generation. Blog that you follow religiously: I listen to people’s stream of consciousness enough in my day job, so I have no need for blogs. Twitter feed you tell everyone about: @mygreenschools. Trend you hope will never go out of fashion: Leg warmers and thumbholes. Favorite mode of transportation: My ice skates—too bad I don’t live on a canal in Ottawa.
Favorite place you’ve traveled: I’ve been to 45 out of 50 states and 23 countries—I can’t possibly choose! Most impactful experience in nature: A glorious week practicing yoga on an open-air deck overlooking a Hindu temple and rice fields in Bali. The thought or idea that centers you: Be the change. Cause you’d support if you had a billion dollars: A revolving loan fund for green school retrofits that could make a dent in the $X billion it will take us to modernize schools in the US. Your elevator pitch to President Obama: The need for a national green schools corps—placing full-time sustainability officers in school districts, AmeriCorps style. The question green building professionals should always be asking themselves: Am I doing less bad or more good? gb&d gbdmagazine.com
photo: Center for Green Schools; F.T. Eyre (national building museum);
Social media, helping or hurting? Hurting—get off Facebook and go live your life.
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