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Circle no. 16 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Circle no. 64 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Ned Cramer ncramer@hanleywood.com EDITOR Katie Weeks kweeks@hanleywood.com MANAGING EDITOR Greig O’Brien gobrien@hanleywood.com
Sometimes, it’s okay for sustainability to be beneath you.
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The Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator (papercalculator.com) estimates that eco-structure will save the following resources by using recycled-content cover stock and paper over the course of 2010: 232 trees ▪ 711 million Btu of energy ▪ 37,133 lbs CO2 equiv. ▪ 92,928 gallons of wastewater ▪ 9,884 lbs. of solid waste
Vol. 8, No. 4. July/Aug 2010. eco-structure® (ISSN 1556-3596; USPS 022-816) is published seven times per year (Jan/Feb, Mar/April, May/June, July/Aug, September, October, and Nov/Dec) by Hanley Wood LLC, One Thomas Circle N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20005. Subscriptions are free to qualified recipients. Publisher reserves the right to determine recipient qualification. Annual subscription rates for nonqualified recipients in the U.S. $15, Canada $64 (U.S. funds), all other countries $192 (U.S. funds). Back copy price: $10 for U.S. residents. Copyright 2010 by Hanley Wood LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to eco-structure, P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065-9831.
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CIRCLE NO. 55 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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Circle no. 6 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMERCIAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Patrick J. Carroll pcarroll@hanleywood.com PUBLISHER, COMMERCIAL DESIGN Russell S. Ellis rellis@hanleywood.com; 202.736.3310 NEW ENGLAND, GEORGIA, FLORIDA, INDIANA, OHIO Dan Colunio dcolunio@hanleywood.com; 617.304.7297
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Circle no. 11 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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CONTENTS July/August 2010
38
FEATURES Code Green 38 Examining the prognosis for sustainability in healthcare.
Road to Recovery 46 A study shows how new hospitals can reduce energy use by 60 percent.
Health Reform 48
48
46
At a California university, the well-being of students—and the health of the planet—are clearly a priority.
On the Cover: University of California, Davis Student Health & Wellness Center, designed by WRNS Studio. Photo by Sharon Risedorph. JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 7
CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS Viewpoint 10 Greenscene 12 Products 33 Deep Green 17 A principal from Perkins+Will explores the challenge of clearing the air and reducing waste in healthcare settings.
Technology 21
33
Lighting control systems can reap big energy savings.
Perspective 25 Kathy Gerwig, vice president for workplace safety and officer of environmental stewardship for Kaiser Permanente, talks about how healthcare providers are looking to improve their environmental footprints.
Genzyme Center’s passive and sophisticated solutions remain a demonstration of green building practices.
56
Ecocentric 56 Portable medical clinics crafted from shipping containers are designed to handle their new cargo with care.
ECO-STRUCTURE.COM Visit us online for more news, projects, products, and essays. Among this month’s highlights: Green Experts: The ABCs of IAQ. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ecostructure Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com
29 8 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
This page: InterfaceFLOR (top); Anshen + Allen (right); Roland Halbe (left). Previous page, top to bottom: Kat Nania; Bruce Damonte; NBBJ.
Flashback 29
High-tech, high style
Morris Hospital & Healthcare Center, Morris, IL Construction Design Services: CD Group Roofing Contractor: Sullivan Roofing, Inc. Material: PAC-3000 RS Composite Wall Panels finished in Reynobond Series 2 Bright Silver Metallic
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Circle no. 79 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
VIEWPOINT Do No Harm
When it comes to the environmental impact of buildings, the healthcare industry needs help, stat. Consider these statistics on energy, waste, and water use in healthcare facilities, compiled by the Healthier Hospitals Initiative, a new coalition of healthcare providers who believe hospitals have a responsibility to minimize their adverse environmental impacts. As noted in this issue’s Perspective column (“Healthy Choices,” page 25), hospitals are the second most energy-intensive type of buildings in the United States, using 836 trillion Btu of energy each year. Financially, this equates to about $6.5 billion in spending. It’s estimated that healthcare facilities generate 6,600 square tons of waste per day and, calculating disposal costs at $68 per ton, this totals more than $15 billion spent annually on waste disposal. And when it comes to water, it has been estimated that between 68,750 gallons and 298,013 gallons are used per year per bed in hospitals ranging in size from 133 beds to 510 beds. While it’s hardly an ideal diagnosis, there is plenty of opportunity for recovery and improvement. Getting there, however, will require a change in how we design, construct, and operate our facilities, as well as how we deliver care. The prescription: a range of innovative solutions, as showcased in this issue of eco-structure. In our cover story (“Code Green,” page 38), we look at the sustainable design elements of five large-scale hospitals around the country. As you’ll see, in many facilities environmental performance is addressed through a combination of tactics, from installing high-efficiency HVAC systems, lighting control systems, and occupancy sensors, to incorporating green roofs and healing gardens, and specifying energy-efficient medical equipment. In some cases, however, the sustainable efforts are concentrated on one showpiece, as illustrated at Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ill., where a 15-acre geothermal lake serves as a large green element. It’s a showpiece that pays: The lake not only helps manage water runoff on site, but the geothermal system is expected to reduce the hospital’s annual 10 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
heating and cooling costs by $1 million. And while initial estimates predicted an eight-year payback period, after just seven months of operation that estimated payback period has already dropped to six years. Looking at how a kit of parts can contribute to a more sustainable whole is “Targeting 100! Envisioning the High Performance Hospital: Implications for A New, Low Energy, High Performance Prototype,” a study from two researchers at the University of Washington. Published in June, the study was produced in collaboration with a number of architecture firms in the Pacific Northwest and funded by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance’s BetterBricks Initiative. Its main hypothesis is that a new 225-bed acute care hospital in the Pacific Northwest can reduce its energy use by 60 percent by utilizing a combination of energy-efficient strategies. While the complete study is available online, our story (“Road to Recovery,” page 46) takes a quick peek at some of the technologies it recommends using to meet that reduction target—which, by the way, would also meet targets set by the 2030 Challenge. This study’s release is good timing: According to the 2010 Energy Efficiency Indicator survey conducted by Johnson Controls in association with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and the International Facility Management Association, healthcare organizations are more likely to invest in energy efficiency than other industry sectors. The survey found that 58 percent of healthcare building decision-makers reported energy management as very or extremely important to their organization, and 67 percent of the responding healthcare organizations planned to make capital investments in energy efficiency over the next 12 months. In comparison, 52 percent of survey respondents as a whole reported energy management as very or extremely important and 52 percent planned to make capital investments in energy efficiency over the coming year. Of course, care is not just delivered in largescale hospitals. It also takes place in specialized outpatient facilities, long-term care and assisted living communities, spas, and, as showcased in “Health Reform” on page 48, student health centers.
It also can be administered in unexpected venues, such as repurposed shipping containers (see our Ecocentric story, “Ship-Shape Care,” page 56). Speaking of size, consider this question raised by Kathy Gerwig, vice president of workplace safety and officer of environmental stewardship for Kaiser Permanente, when we chatted for this issue’s Perspective column: How will changing the delivery of care impact our facility design? As a example, she spoke of Kaiser Permanente’s work to encourage e-visits, where patients e-mail their doctors before making a physical trip to the medical office or hospital. Last year, patients in Kaiser Permanente’s health system sent 8.6 million e-mails to their doctors, reducing the need for car trips to a facility for an in-person visit. The larger query is this: Is there medical care that doesn’t require the enviromental footprint of a physical facility? Whether they are designing a gigantic research hospital or retrofitting a small community clinic, building professionals working in this sector must create design solutions that address a number of elements that are non-negotiable. Among them: infection control and sanitation issues, flexibility in space planning and technology, security. Will sustainability eventually become one of these nonnegotiable elements?
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Perfecting the Pitch
Written by ECO-STRUCTURE Staff
12 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
Capitalizing on World Cup fever and the spotlight that the tournament brought to the African continent during the end of June and beginning of July, the Annenberg Foundation, a Los Angeles–based foundation that funds nonprofit organizations, unveiled a soccer field, called “Pitch:Africa,” that doubles as a rainwater system. Designed by architects David Turnbull and Jane Harrison of Princeton, N.J.–based Atopia Research, the project revolves around transforming abandoned cargo containers into cisterns that capture, filter, and store rainwater in regions where water is scarce or unavailable. Installing a soccer field, or pitch, above the containers creates a community gathering space. Pitch:Africa is a soccer venue that measures 64 feet by 80 feet and can seat up to 800 spectators. The structure captures rainwater after it falls on the playing field and the seating areas. From there, the water is funneled into cisterns stored beneath the pitch, where it can be kept until it is treated for reuse. It is estimated that 3 to 6 feet of rainfall is typical during a rainy season in temperate regions of Africa, and Atopia Research’s system is designed to capture up to 1.8 million liters of water annually in these areas. A small model was built at the Port of Los Angeles in California during the World Cup to formally launch the project. The Annenberg Foundation has partnered with Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project to build a working model in South Africa. ▪
Rendering courtesy Atopia Research
GREENSCENE
to upgrade your building.
Circle no. 88 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GREENSCENE
WILSON WINS HANLEY AWARD Alex Wilson, founder of BuildingGreen, in Brattleboro, Vt., is the 2010 recipient of the Hanley Award for Vision and Leadership in Sustainable Housing. The award, which was founded in 2009, recognizes individuals who demonstrate extraordinary, lasting, and far-reaching contributions to the advancement of sustainable housing in the United States. It is sponsored by the Hanley Foundation, EcoHome magazine, and ecostructure’s publishing company, Hanley Wood. The award is open to residential construction professionals or those working in technical research, product development, educational outreach, environmental advocacy, governmental policy, and related areas. Nominees are chosen by a committee and a final winner is chosen by a separate jury.
As this year’s winner, Wilson receives a $50,000 grant, will be formally awarded at the USGBC Hanley Award Dinner on Nov. 17 during Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Chicago. Wilson also will be featured in an upcoming issue of EcoHome. In 1992, Wilson founded Environmental Building News, a monthly newsletter covering green building products and technology. He has won national awards for journalism, environmental leadership, and educational outreach, and has served on the boards of the USGBC, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, and the Conservation and Research Foundation. Wilson also was nominated in 2009 for the inaugural Hanley Award. Wilson was chosen from a slate of nominees that included architect David Baker, Dennis Creech of Southface Energy Institute, USGBC founder
“For more than 30 years Alex has quietly and methodically gone about the business of changing the way we build by defining green building product standards, promoting performance-based thresholds for projects, and challenging all sectors of the industry to become honest brokers in advancing environmental building.” —Rick Schwolsky, editor, ECOHOME magazine David Gottfried, Robert Hammon of energy solution provider ConSol, building scientist Mark LaLiberte, architect William McDonough, builder Chris Miles, architect Peter Pfeiffer, architect Steven Winter, and public housing executive Sunia Zaterman. The jury included Michael J. Hanley, president of the Hanley Foundation; Frank Anton, CEO of Hanley Wood; Joyce Mason, vice president of marketing for Pardee Homes; Nate Kredich, vice president of residential market development for USGBC; and 2009 Hanley Award winner Edward Mazria, founder of Architecture 2030. ▪
CIRCLE NO. 82 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
UPCOMING COMPETITIONS
Performance Data Wanted The USGBC’s Building Performance Partnership (BPP) is now open to all current whole-building LEED-certified commercial and residential projects. The program was announced last summer and aims to collect and analyze performance data on LEED-certified facilities. Data collected through the program will inform future versions of the LEED ratings system, and, through the program, USGBC aims to create a comprehensive green building performance database and enable standardization of reporting metrics and analytics to establish new building-performance benchmarks. Participating buildings will receive annual information on performance, specifically comparing predicted or actual performance at the time of certification with the project’s current performance. Current participation is voluntary and projects certified under any LEED rating system version are eligible. In addition, projects certified under LEED 2009 for New Construction, LEED 2009 for Core & Shell, and LEED 2009 for Schools can earn one point under the systems’ Energy & Atmosphere Credit 5 for their participation in BPP. More than 120 projects are participating in the program’s first phase, which is focused on energy and water. Data will be collected through Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager for LEED-certified commercial projects and through Earth Aid for LEED-certified residential projects. Participants in this first phase will receive a basic performance report by Greenbuild 2010 in November. No building will be decertified for performance or a performance gap. “There is all too often a disconnect or predicted performance gap between energy modeling done during design and what actually happens during daily operation after the building has been constructed, due to occupant behavior and other factors,” says Scot Horst, senior vice president, LEED. “In order to improve upon LEED and for projects that perform lower than anticipated, BPP will help projects meet operational sustainability goals sought originally during the design and construction process” ▪
What: GreenSite Awards Deadline: Aug. 27 Additional info: theconcreteproducer.com or concreteconstruction.net Details: Hosted by The Concrete Producer and Concrete Construction magazines, two publications produced by eco-structure’s parent company, Hanley Wood, the GreenSite awards recognizes innovative contributions to green building from the concrete community. The awards will celebrate projects of the year in 12 categories. Winners will be recognized in both magazines as well as at World of Concrete in Las Vegas in 2011. What: Green Roof and Wall Design 2010 Awards of Excellence Deadline: Sept. 8 Additional info: greenroofs.org Details: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ annual awards acknowledge excellence in innovative and integrative green roof and wall design. Entries are accepted in seven categories—three for extensive green roofs, three of intensive green roofs, and one for green walls. All entries will be judged on aesthetic, economic, functional, and ecological components. Winners will be notified by Oct. 10, and will
be recognized at the 8th Annual CitiesAlive! conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. What: The 3rd International Holcim Awards Deadline: March 23, 2011 Additional info: holcimawards.org Details: A total of $2 million is at stake in prize money from the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction for innovative, futureoriented, and sustainable construction projects. The competition is held in three-year cycles, and is composed of five regional competitions (Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa Middle East, and Asia Pacific) and one global competition. It is open to architects, builders, construction firms, engineers, planners, and project owners. The awards also offer a “next generation” category for student projects. Regional winners will be announced between September and November 2011. Three winners—recognized as gold, silver, and bronze winners—will be chosen for each region. The 15 total winners will then qualify for the global competition, whose winners will be announced in 2012. To enter, projects must have reached an advanced stage of design and construction or commercial production after July 1, 2010. ▪
For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/bpp.
CIRCLE NO. 29 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
→ A REVOLUTION IN BUILDING AND DESIGN TECHNOLOGY ←
R DSYMPOSIUM +
[GEEK IS GOOD] Sept 22 and 23, 2010 → Trump Tower, Chicago Earn 11.5 learning units (including HSW and SD credits) in this two-day discussion on the forefront of building technology. DAY ONE Choose one of three tour tracks: Tall Buildings with Studio Gang and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects; Engineered Details with Goettsch Partners; or Green Design & Adaptive Reuse. DAY TWO A full day of seminars featuring case studies on new projects and research by firms such as Thomas Phifer and Partners and UrbanLab, presentations from the Fourth Annual R+D Award winners on new building innnovations, and more.
For more information and to register, visit RDAwards2010.com. LEARNING UNITS PENDING AIA APPROVAL
DEEP GREEN
GOOD AIR BAD AIR
(Air) Quality Control A PRINCIPAL FROM PERKINS+WILL EXPLORES THE CHALLENGES OF CLEARING THE AIR AND REDUCING WASTE IN HEALTHCARE SETTINGS.
Text Robin Guenther Illustraton Henry Obasi
Garbage and indoor air—at first glance, it is difficult to comprehend what common elements these two critical sustainability issues share. However, hospitals and designers focused on these two areas demonstrate a commitment to improved health—for occupants, local communities, and the planet. And through a variety of built environment and operational strategies, hospitals are celebrating dramatic performance improvements. The linkage between waste disposal practices and human health has profoundly affected hospital waste management. In 1996, the EPA named medical waste incineration as the second largest source of airborne dioxin emissions. (Dioxin is a potent human carcinogen and persistent bioaccumulative toxic chemical.) Two years later, the EPA and the American Hospital Association called on hospitals to reduce their waste volume and toxicity. Since then, facilities have implemented alternatives to incineration of regulated medical waste, and reduced or eliminated plastics, such as PVC, that produce dioxin when incinerated. As disposal costs rise for medical waste, many hospitals have found that reducing these volumes of waste also has financial payback. On-site hospital incinerators have all but disappeared and, according to the EPA, airborne dioxin levels are trending downwards. While it may be difficult to imagine a zero-waste hospital, strategies focused on the mantra of “reduce, reuse, recycle” are yielding waste volume reductions approaching 60 to JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 17
DEEP GREEN
70 percent below levels found in 2000. These strategies begin with environmentally preferable purchasing strategies that minimize packaging and prioritize end-of-life recyclability. Hospitals are shifting away from disposable products to reusable equivalents. Garbage-free cafeterias focus on compostable foodware, pulping, and composting of food waste. And careful segregation of clinical waste is facilitating recycling programs for paper, cardboard, and clinical plastics, while also enhancing segregation of medical waste for treatment and landfill. For designers, this poses new requirements on loading docks, particularly trash areas, which now need space for staging recyclables, reusable
The linkage between waste disposal practices and human health has profoundly affected hospital waste management. In 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency named medical waste incineration as the second largest source of airborne dioxin emissions. sharps containers (used for disposing of needles and other sharp medical instruments), and reusable packaging. Additional requirements include balers, shredders, and autoclaves for conversion of medical waste to inert plastic, suitable for landfill instead of incineration. Practice Greenhealth (practicegreenhealth.org) offers tools and resources for hospitals engaged in waste reduction practices. Shifting indoors, it may be surprising to learn that the answer to improved indoor air quality (IAQ) in hospitals, historically, has been simply to increase the air change rates. In an era of cheap energy, that might have been a reasonable approach, but hospital air change rates contribute to their enormous energy consumption—estimated by the Energy Information Agency as an average of 346 kBtu per square foot per year. In this era of expensive energy and concerns about carbon emissions, design teams must balance energy demand, air quality, sealed envelopes, and pollutant source control. But how? Infection control and pandemic disease concerns are leading many hospitals to provide 100 percent outside air with no air recirculation, coupled with heat recovery technologies. This should lead to improvements in IAQ, but the reality is that hospital interiors are filled with air pollutant point sources, both gaseous and particulates—from the building materials to cleaning products—and these point sources have demonstrable negative health impacts on building occupants. It is imperative to balance outside air 18 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
delivery and pollutant source control. Sick Building Syndrome and Building Related Illness are linked to sealed envelopes and indoor pollutant sources—primarily off-gassing from volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Cleaning products, particularly floor waxes and strippers, contain high levels of VOCs and heavy metals, and, given the 24/7 occupancy of hospitals, all cleaning takes place while the building is occupied. Pollutants also come from the building materials themselves— formaldehyde and benzene in adhesives, VOCs in paints and solvents, and phthalate plasticizers in flooring and window treatments. One provocative question is whether these chemical exposures matter. In May 2010, Environment and Human Health (ehhi.org) released “LEED Certification: Where Energy Efficiency Collides with Human Health,” a study that is critical of LEED certification that prioritizes energy efficiency while not effectively providing equal priority for IAQ threats from chemicals. It cites the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey analysis of hazardous chemicals in human tissues, begun in 1999 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which documents widespread and chronic exposure to pesticides, fire retardants, plastics, metals, and other chemicals routinely found in building products. The CDC’s 2009 assessment of human exposure to chemicals measured more than 200 chemicals in 2,500 participants. Chemicals used in building materials that were detected in human tissues include BPA, metals, VOCs, phthalates, and dioxins, all of which are recognized as being toxic. “Carcinogenic and endocrinedisrupting pesticides were detected in more than 50 percent of those tested,” the report said. The Green Guide for Health Care (gghc.org) includes credits aimed at many of these chemicals of concern, and the USGBC is beginning to introduce such credits in its LEED pilot library. And many leading healthcare organizations, such as Catholic Healthcare West and Kaiser Permanente, are implementing standards that phase out building products containing such chemicals. At 17 percent of the GDP, the healthcare industry is in a good position to drive market transformation to safer, healthier materials. Likewise, innovative waste reduction and processing strategies significantly reduce landfill volumes and incineration of toxic products. Through waste and IAQ initiatives, hospital leaders and designers demonstrate a commitment to more than high-quality patient care—they demonstrate a commitment to saving lives and improving health without undermining ecosystems or diminishing the world. ▪ Robin Guenther, FAIA, is a principal of Perkins+Will and author of Sustainable Healthcare Architecture. She is a co-coordinator of the Green Guide for Health Care and is a member of the LEED for Healthcare committee.
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Circle no. 1 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
© 2010 Kawneer Company, Inc.
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Circle no. 67 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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TECHNOLOGY
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Taking Control LIGHTING CONTROL SYSTEMS CAN REAP BIG ENERGY SAVINGS. Text Barbara Horwitz-Bennett Illlustration Jameson Simpson
Despite the fact that lighting may account for 40 percent to 50 percent of a facility’s total energy use, and advanced lighting controls may help reduce that consumption by 50 percent to 75 percent, the majority of today’s lighting system designs are crafted only to meet code. “The technology is there, but projects rarely allow sufficient funds in the budget for the most appropriate lighting control system,” says Rachel Petro, a lighting designer and associate with RNL in Denver. In contrast, she says, the added cost of advanced control systems is relatively minor in the grand scheme of a new construction project. When direct energy savings, rebates, and tax credits are entered into the equation, return on
investment (ROI) is often less than two years, or in some cases, just one year, says Bob Freshman, marketing manager for Leviton Lighting Management Systems in Tualatin, Ore. To illustrate this, Leviton offers a free downloadable tool, called Dollars & Sensors, for calculating ROI based upon product cost, installation, local power rates, tax credits, and rebates. Getting Started Since most codes mandate basic levels of lighting control, occupancy sensors are commonly specified and generally offer savings in the realm of 15 percent and up. A programmable intelligent relay control system can automatically operate a light system based upon time of day. In addition, daylight harvesting—where lights are automatically dimmed or turned off when the system is cued by natural light levels—can add savings. Daylighting also could help to earn LEED points, says Craig DiLouie, education director for the Lighting Controls Association in Rosslyn, Va. Other possible options include task tuning, defined as automatic dimming for use over designed spaces with excessive electrical lighting for area tasks, and load shedding, where dimming and/ or switching kicks in during peak demand periods to ease the load on the grid. Newer technology offers even more functionality. “As with the rest of the electronics world, smart devices and wireless have made their way into the world of lighting control,” says JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 21
TECHNOLOGY
Brennan Matthews, national sales manager of the energy solutions group for Lutron Electronics Co. “Individual lighting ďŹ xtures can now be controlled independently, as opposed to historically being controlled through the line voltage they were wired to.â€? New wireless systems can rezone a space using a smart phone or mobile device such as an iPod Touch or iPad. And while digital-based wired systems aren’t as sleek as wireless, they still oer a number of beneďŹ ts such as simpliďŹ ed wiring, easier networking, and zoning as small as individual ďŹ xtures. In addition, notes Debra Fox, a lighting designer at the architectural ďŹ rm LPA in Irvine, Calif., “the twoway communication system inherent to this digital technology allows for equipment status updates and lamp or ballast maintenance reporting, information which can be used to improve a facility’s maintenance operations, as well as monitor energy consumption.â€? Staying Aoat Of course, with a plethora of technologies and products on the market, navigating through the sea of oerings can be a little tricky. While ample manufacturer-based literature is available, Avraham Mor, a partner at Lightswitch Architectural, a nationwide design consortium, advises practitioners
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to seek information from fellow designers and endusers. “I have spent hours upon hours learning about all the dierent manufacturers’ systems, what they are good for and what they are not,â€? he says. Fadi Bark, a senior electrical engineer at EYP Architecture & Engineering in Boston, adds, “as technology is constantly changing, designers must keep up with the latest available systems and features so that the best system can be used for the application.â€? Finally, the role of commissioning cannot be underestimated. Due to the delicate nature of these systems, if the electronic sensing devices aren’t installed in the correct location with precise orientation, the system will not operate properly, says Adam Sloan, an electrical engineering manager with LPA. As such, Lightswitch’s Mor adds, “after a system is designed, making it do what it’s supposed to do takes time and patience.â€? Ultimately, a highly eďŹƒcient lighting controls system will only come to fruition if it’s in the budget, so coming armed with statistics, case studies, and technological information will certainly increase one’s odds of successfully freeing up that elusive funding. â–Ş Barbara Horwitz-Bennett is a frequent contributor to publications in the building and construction industry. She can be reached at bhbennett.com.
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CIRCLE NO. 81 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Tile of Spain - Trade Comission of Spain Voice: 305 446 4387 F.: 305 446 2602 miami@mcx.es www.spaintiles.info Tile of Spain and the “Ñ” logo are registered trademarks of ASCER (Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association of Spain) Circle no. 57 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
CALL FOR ENTRIES COMMERCIAL / CULTURAL / EDUCATIONAL / GOVERNMENTAL / MULTIFAMILY HOUSING / HEALTH-RELATED / SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSE / INDUSTRIAL / RECREATIONAL / RELIGIOUS / URBAN DESIGN
THE P/A AWARDS RECOGNIZE UNBUILT PROJECTS THAT DEMONSTRATE OVERALL DESIGN EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION. 58TH ANNUAL P/A AWARDS Judging will take place in November 2010. Winners will be notified in December 2010, published in the February 2011 issue of ARCHITECT, and honored at a ceremony in New York that same month. ELIGIBILITY Architects and other design professionals practicing in the United States, Canada, or Mexico may enter one or more submissions. All entries must have been commissioned by paying clients for execution. Proposals may be for any location, but work must have been directed—and substantially executed—in offices in any one of those three countries. Projects may not have been featured in other national design publications. All entries must have been commissioned for compensation by clients with the contractual intention and the authority to carry out the submitted proposal. Projects must have a completion date after January 1, 2011.
FEES First Entry: $195 Subsequent Entry: $150 Late Fee: $50
DEADLINES Regular: October 8, 2010 (registration and postmark deadline) Late: October 13, 2010 (registration and postmark deadline, additional $50 fee per entry)
FOR MORE INFORMATION e-mail: paawards@architectmagazine.com
REGISTER → paawards.com
PERSPECTIVE When it comes the environment, healthcare facilities often struggle to get a clean bill of health. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, hospitals account for 836 trillion Btu of energy per year, an amount that, according to the Energy Information Administration, accounts for 4 percent of the total energy consumed in the United States. Practice Greenhealth also estimates that hospitals generate 6,600 tons of waste per day, 80 percent to 85 percent of which is nonhazardous solid waste such as paper, cardboard, food waste, metal, glass, and plastics. Recognizing that hospitals have a responsibility to minimize their environmental impact, six large-scale healthcare systems and organizations recently founded the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI). Among the charter members is Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest not-for-profit health plans in the country that serves more than 8.6 million members. eco-structure recently spoke with Kathy Gerwig, vice president for workplace safety and officer of environmental stewardship for Kaiser Permanente, about how healthcare providers, both individually and collectively through initiatives like the HHI, are looking to improve their environmental footprint. Can you tell us a bit about Kaiser Permanente’s philosophy regarding the environmental performance of its facilities? Our efforts stem from an understanding that people need a healthy environment in order for them to be healthy. Our mission is to make our members and their communities healthier, and buildings play an enormous part in that. Buildings that are highly efficient, that are sited well, and [that] are accessible by mass transit, walking, and biking are directly connected to the health of the communities in which they operate, and that’s a fundamental point in our discussions of green buildings or any other sustainability initiatives. We have four sustainability initiatives that all tie into green buildings in some way. They are climate and energy; safe chemicals; sustainable food; and waste reduction. Let’s talk about your climate and energy initiatives. Has Kaiser Permanente set specific targets? Our overall goal is to reduce our carbon footprint through two parallel means: increasing energy efficiency and reducing fossil fuel use. To address energy efficiency we’re instituting design features such as installing cooler roofs and white roofs, examining how a facility is positioned on its site, evaluating the type of window overhangs we’re
Healthy Choices Interview Katie Weeks Portrait Eric Millette
JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 25
A PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTHIER FACILITIES AND OPERATIONS Founded by six major hospital systems (Advocate Health Care; Catholic Healthcare West; Hospital Corporation of America; Kaiser Permanente; MedStar Health, and Partners Healthcare System), the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is anchored on the belief that hospitals have a responsibility to minimize adverse environmental impacts of their operations on patients, staff, and the natural environment, and that sustainability can be achieved through a coordinated national approach. In May, HHI released the Healthier Hospitals Agenda, which outlines specific strategies participating HHI organizations should take into consideration in designing, building, and operating their hospitals. Three nongovernmental organizations—Health Care Without Harm (hcwh.org), Practice Greenhealth (practicegreenhealth.org), and the Center for Health Design (healthdesign.org)—have partnered with HHI to provide expertise and technical assistance in developing programs to address and implement HHI Agenda recommendations. Among the recommendations that directly address healthcare facility design and construction are: Core goal: Improve environmental health and patient safety. General recommendation: Design and operate healthier and safer facilities for
2. Eliminate the purchase of bottled water except where absolutely necessary.
patients and employees.
3. Switch from radiological imaging equipment to digital imaging.
Specific initiatives for participating organizations: 1. Utilize the Green Guide for Health Care (gghc.org) for design, construction,
General recommendation: Minimize waste and emissions; decrease or eliminate
and operations.
incineration.
2. Select building materials based on the Pharos Project database.
Specific initiatives for participating organizations:
3. Build all new construction and major renovations to USGBC LEED Silver
1. Implement a comprehensive waste reduction program.
standard or equivalent.
2. Target a 30 percent waste reduction goal or more through reduce, reuse,
4. Utilize an evidence-based design process for planning, design, and
recycle programs.
construction (e.g., Evidence-based Design Accreditation and Certification,
3. Implement a regulated medical waste reduction (RMW) plan using proper
healthdesign.org/edac, and the Ripple database, ripple.healthdesign.org).
EMW segregation techniques with the goal of RMW comprising no more than 15 percent of the facility’s total waste.
Core goal: Reduce healthcare’s use of natural resources and generation of water.
4. Implement a program to use reprocessed medical equipment.
General recommendation: Reduce the consumption of energy; support the
Core goal: Institutionalize sustainability and safety.
transition to renewable energy sources.
General recommendation: Make sustainability and safety a strategic imperative.
Specific initiatives for participating organizations:
Specific initiatives for participating organizations:
1. Investigate the purchase of clean energy, and if available, plan to purchase
1. Develop and commit to a system-wide sustainability policy.
at least 5 percent clean energy at the next available opportunity.
2. Dedicate staff resources at the executive and corporate and facility levels to
2. Investigate production of renewable energy on-site and include generation
address safety and sustainability issues organization-wide.
of renewable energy on all new building plans.
3. Reflect sustainability in strategic and operating plans and budgets.
3. Encourage use of public transportation by all staff and/or visitors.
4. Develop a task force consisting of representatives of various departments
4. Implement EPA Energy Star recommendations on reducing energy
and professions within the organization to help guide and implement safety
consumption by 25 percent.
and sustainability efforts. 5. Have staff members in the facility department be trained in LEED and evidence-based design accreditation and certification.
General recommendation: Conserve water. Specific initiatives for participating organizations: 1. Eliminate seal and cooling water on medical air compression and vacuum pumps, replace flush valves on toilets and urinals, retrofit water faucets and
To access the full Healthier Hospitals Agenda and more information on the
refrigeration systems.
Healthier Hospitals Initiative, visit healthierhospitals.org.
using, and looking at the vegetation we have on site and how it provides shade. Then, we have a sophisticated system of building standards and templates so that if you’re building or renovating a facility and are putting in windows, we already know which windows are the most energy efficient and we have contracts in place that a team can access during construction. These standards apply to all new buildings and any existing buildings undergoing renovation. Our goal this year is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per gross square foot by at least 4 percent from a 2008 baseline. In attempting to use less fossil fuel, we’re moving toward renewable energy. We’ve begun 26 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
work on an extremely large solar power installation that will provide 15MW of solar over the next year. Overall, the installation will generate about 10 percent of the energy used in about 15 facilities. [On a larger scale,] we have the goal of having 25 percent of our energy come from on-site renewable resources by 2020. How are you addressing waste reduction? We’ve been tracking waste reduction for about a decade and overall we estimate that total work volumes are down about 30 percent less than they would have been. Last year we adopted a programwide waste reduction policy that mandates that each facility set a target, track its waste, and report on its
performance once a year so we can be transparent about it within the organization and with our communities. This year we’re getting the system set up so we can get common metrics from each facility. It’s actually quite difficult to compare one facility to another because each uses different vendors and each recycling system is different. We’re working on getting enough data to create a baseline for everyone. What was the impetus behind Kaiser Permanente’s involvement in the Healthier Hospitals Initiative? We’re a big system that has a lot of experience with green building and safer chemicals and products, and the HHI provides a forum to share our knowledge. We also have a lot to learn and would love to find out how other systems have approached their work and achieved certain things. The overall impetus [for participating in the HHI] was the thought that if we’re going to change the environmental performance of the entire healthcare sector, getting some of these large systems together to share information, change practices, and improve our approaches can help move the entire marketplace. An important feature of the HHI is that we’re also partnering with three nongovernmental organizations: Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, and the Center for Health Design. They bring an additional expertise and community of voices to the work.
PERSPECTIVE
done a lot to encourage members to e-mail their doctors and connect with their providers in ways that don’t require a physical trip. Last year, patients sent 8.6 million e-mails to doctors, reducing the need for car trips to those doctors’ offices. When you think about delivery of care in the future, the greenest hospital is the one you don’t build or the one you don’t need because you’re able to offer care in ways that are not generating the environmental footprint of a traditional facility. Obviously we will still need facilities, but I think 21st century technology is going to rapidly change how we think about care delivery. ▪
How do you see the HHI operating going forward? The first thing we’re working on is setting metrics around each of our key agenda items. Once we formalize the metrics, we’ll be tracking performance and reporting back to other HHI members. We also want to invite any hospital system or any individual hospital to pledge to work toward the agenda so that we can expand communication with other systems and work more deeply within the healthcare sector. (For specific agenda items related to building performance, see “A Prescription for Healthier Facilities and Operations,” left.) How do you see the initiative impacting healthcare facility design and construction directly in the next 10 years? In terms of the actual bricks and mortar, there are specific areas the HHI speaks to. We would like everyone to use the Green Guide for Healthcare for construction. We’d like them to use materials that are environmentally preferable and use the Healthy Building Network’s Pharos Project as a tool when selecting building materials. There are recommendations based on evidence-based design, a core focus of the Center for Health Design. There are recommendations to promote clean and renewable energy and on-site installations. We also want to address transportation and site issues. One thing we haven’t talked about but I’d like to mention is the larger issue of how you deliver care and how that contributes to environmental stewardship. As an example, Kaiser Permanente has
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CIRCLE NO. 71 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GREENS ITE PROJEC T S OF T HE YEAR
CALL for ENTRIES
ACHIEVE THE RECOGNITION YOU DESERVE Sustainable building practices are gaining acceptance in the competitive world
Winners will be featured
of concrete construction. The editors of CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION and THE CONCRETE
in THE CONCRETE PRODUCER
PRODUCER have created an awards program to recognize the concrete community’s innovative contributions to green building. GreenSite Projects of the Year honor the best projects in eleven different categories.
CATEGORIES
and CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION. GreenSite winners will also receive special recognition at World of Concrete 2011.
DEADLINE
Residential
Institutional
Multi-family housing
Transportation
Landscaping
Rehab/retrofitting
Industrial
Historic restoration
High-rise
Municipal
Commercial
Demonstration projects
Entries are due August 27, 2010 Enter online at theconcreteproducer.com or concreteconstruction.net
QUESTIONS cpalait@hanleywood.com
ENTER ONLINE AT THECONCRETEPRODUCER.COM OR CONCRETECONSTRUCTION.NET
FLASHBACK
Breakthrough Study Text KJ Fields Photos Roland Halbe
GENZYME CENTER’S PASSIVE AND SOPHISTICATED SOLUTIONS REMAIN A DEMONSTRATION OF GREEN BUILDING PRACTICES. As a biotechnology company, Genzyme Corp. knows about experimentation, which involves challenging assumptions, trial and error, and ultimately demonstrating better results. In 2005, the 350,000-square-foot Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Mass., earned LEED Platinum certification and established a new green building benchmark for the corporation’s buildings across the globe. During design of the facility, which was completed in 2003, the market for U.S. sustainable building technology was lacking. At the time, project designers Behnisch Architekten brought some systems, including a daylighting system, mirror system, skylights, chandeliers, and perimeter blinds, from the firm’s home country, Germany. However, Behnisch partner Christof Jantzen maintains that the building’s success lies not in the technology itself, but in its design approach. “The project was JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 29
FLASHBACK
Behnisch Architekten experimented with a variety of technological systems to flood the Genzyme Center with natural light. The building is anchored by an atrium (previous page), where daylight comes in through heliostats that track the sun’s movement and bounce the light down into the atrium and office floor plates. On the façade (above), a perimeter glass curtain wall brings in additional light while blocking solar gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. Automatically adjusting louvers also respond to the sun’s positioning to bring in and disperse natural light. For a slide show with additional photos of the Genzyme Center, visit eco-structure.com.
LESSONS LEARNED Monitor the building. Put people who understand what the data means in place to discover and correct inefficiencies. Genzyme’s facilities staff received extensive training in the operation of building management systems and data interpretation. Consider a dedicated cooling supply for the computer room. In order to shut off the main building chiller during times of low-occupancy and low-cooling demands, Genzyme may purchase a small electric chiller to serve the data center. Educate employees on how to live with the seasons: Encourage them to dress for the weather rather than adjust building temperatures. Genzyme distributed building employee manuals that were supplemented by orientation training regarding building operation and individual employee controls. The facility also educates the community: More than 18,000 people have toured Genzyme Center to see its sustainable practices.
30 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
about ecology, design synergies, and collaboration,” he says. “It’s less about technology than how you put the building together and make the best use of it that counts.” Behnisch paired technology with natural light to offer a luminous workplace. A substantial sky-lit atrium in the 12-story building allows deep daylight infiltration. A descending dance of light begins on the rooftop with exterior heliostats—sun-tracking parabolic mirror systems —that bundle the daylight and disperse it down into the atrium. Polished aluminum vertical louvers diffuse the light and an artistic chandelier of 768 animated prismatic tiles radiates iridescence throughout the atrium and into the office floor plates. Light also enters the building through a perimeter glass curtain wall, 32 percent of which is a ventilated double façade that blocks solar gain in the summer and heat loss in the winter. In addition, motorized polished-aluminum horizontal louvers automatically adjust their positions in response to the sun’s movement and bounce daylight to reflective ceiling tiles, which ricochet it deep into the interior spaces. In addition to lowering energy costs, the constant play of natural light combines with water features, such as a reflecting pool, and 13 indoor gardens to blur the line between the office and outdoor environments. The gardens improve air quality and operable windows bring in fresh air. Utility-supplied steam provides heat and powers the building’s steam absorption chillers to produce chilled water for building cooling. However, the team discovered that the original design anticipated a much higher steam demand for heating and cooling than actual operations require. By shutting down the chiller on a weekend and noticing that the meter still recorded steam use, the facility operators realized that the steam meter could not accurately measure the building’s lower flow rate. Genzyme and its local utility company calculated the amount of steam condensate and a profile of steam consumption to select a new meter in the mid-range of actual usage. Genzyme also has monitored its 40,000-point building automation system all along, but, early this year, paired with an independent company to provide continuous commissioning. Facility staff now receive monthly reports on 9,000 points in the operations sequence. One major alteration since completion was a change in temperature set points. Currently, the staff allows a daytime floating temperature from 73 F to 75 F in the summer, significantly lower set points over the weekends, nighttime setbacks down to 65 F, and a setup of up to 80 F in the summer. “We gauge our success on employee feedback as well as the data,” explains Genzyme operations manager Steve Moran. “We have made changes, discovered they didn’t help, and gone back to our original settings. But now, we have no complaints.” ▪ KJ Fields writes about sustainable architecture from Portland, Ore.
Circle no. 61 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Ahrend 601 Bench ▪ There are three versions of the 601 Bench available: one made from recycled compressed beech hardwood that is 100 percent recyclable; a second made from partially recycled aluminum alloy; and an outdoor version of the recycled compressed beech offering that is treated with Belmadur solution, a water-based weatherproof treatment. The sloping, low-scale design has no visible seams, bolts, or screws. Each piece is water-jet cut from a single rectangle of material that is then steam-bent into an outward curve. Complementary stools and occasional tables are available. ahrend.com; 973.652.4357. Circle 100 ecostructure.hotims.com
Text ECO-STRUCTURE staff
Products Richlite Co. Cascade Collection ▪ These paper composite surfaces feature solid-color tops with two- or three-tone edges in six color schemes. The surfaces, which are meant for use in countertops, work surfaces, stairs, wall cladding, flooring, and columns, are available in 0.5-inch, 0.75inch, 1-inch, and 1.25-inch thicknesses, as well as custom thicknesses of up to 3 inches. Two sheet sizes are available: 4 feet by 8 feet and 5 feet by 12 feet. All Richlite products are made with FSC-certified or post-consumer recycled paper, and are Greenguard certified for indoor use in residential, school, and institutional environments. richlite.com. Circle 101 ecostructure.hotims.com
JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 33
Glass GLASSX AG GLASSXcrystal ▪ Four layers of materials comprise GLASSXcrystal: an exterior layer of tempered safety glass, two layers of tempered low-E safety glass, and an interior layer of tempered safety glass with ceramic silk-screen printing. In between the two layers closest to a building’s interior, a plate filled with salt hydrate phase change material (PCM) captures and stores solar heat. Initially in a crystallized form, the PCM melts as it absorbs solar heat. The heat is then released overnight as the PCM recrystalizes. glassx.ch; +41 (0)44 389 10 60. Circle 102 ecostructure.hotims.com
NanaWall Systems Bird-Protection Ornilux Glass ▪ Designed to help reduce the number of birds colliding into windows—which is estimated to kill between 100 million and 1 billion birds per year in the United States , according to NanaWall —Bird-Protection Ornilux Glass contains ultraviolet patterns that make it visible for birds but allow it to remain transparent to the human eye. Created by German manufacturer Arnold Glas, the glass is compatible with all of NanaWall’s folding and sliding glass systems and its all-glass window-wall systems. nanawall.com; 800.873.5673. Circle 103 ecostructure.hotims.com
34 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
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Flooring Smith & Fong Co. Sideways ▪ Smith & Fong’s first venture into hardwood flooring comes in 9/16-inch-by-5-inch engineered click-lock planks up to 471/2 inches in length that feature a rotary-cut hardwood veneer face. The line is formaldehyde-free, California Section 01350-compliant, FSC-certified, and is manufactured in North America from indigenous hardwood species such as maple, beech, birch, cherry, and hackberry. plyboo.com; 866.835.9859. Circle 106 ecostructure.hotims.com
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Armstrong Migrations BioBased Tile ▪ BioBased Tile, or BBT, uses a polymer called BioStride that contains biobased rapidly renewable ingredients. The tiles can be used where composition tile currently is used; no new training, equipment, or cleaners for maintenance purposes are necessary. BBT features twice the indent resistance, five times greater impact resistance, and is two-and-a-half times more crack resistant than composition tile. Twenty-eight neutrals and colors coordinate with any design. armstrong .com; 717.397.0611. Circle 107 ecostructure.hotims.com
Strength | Beauty | Flexibility ...in perfect balance
Karastan Tuscany Fields ▪ Karastan, a brand of the Mohawk Group, has debuted Tuscany Fields, a broadloom carpet inspired by the hills and grapevines of the Italian region. Eighteen colorways make up the color palette and, with one running line pattern and custom design options, the piece-dyed collection can be color customized. The product is manufactured with SmartStrand Contract, a fiber made with up to 37 percent bio-based renewable resources. themohawkgroup.com; 800.554.6637. Circle 108 ecostructure.hotims.com
Grasspave2 porous paving for parking, fire lanes, access roads & more Strength - 823,824 pounds per square foot (5721 psi) Beauty - 100% grass coverage for green space AND paving Flexibilty - Large, flexible rolls for easy installation invisiblestructures.com | 800-233-1510 CIRCLE NO. 24 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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CODE GREEN
CATHEDRAL HILL HOSPITAL
Text Jay W. Schneider
EXAMINING THE PROGNOSIS FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN HEALTHCARE.
Renderings by SmithGroup (left, previous spread).
While some markets have embraced green design, the healthcare industry, as a whole, has taken relatively small steps toward sustainability. But that’s changing. Clients not only are more comfortable going green, they also are seeking to reduce energy costs and water usage. Design teams are combining creativity with experience to find sustainable features that best suit each project, as illustrated in the five projects shown here. Cathedral Hill Hospital At more than 1.2 million square feet, the 13-story, 555-bed California Pacific Medical Center’s Cathedral Hill Hospital in San Francisco (part of the private nonprofit Sutter Health system) is one of the largest healthcare projects currently targeting LEED Gold certification. This is no easy feat when you consider that hospital administrators are typically risk-averse. “Healthcare clients aren’t exactly barrier-breakers,” says Russell Perry, co-director of sustainable design at SmithGroup and managing director of the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. “They’re building some of the most expensive projects out there, and, because these projects represent such a huge financial investment, they have to be very conservative.” However, more clients—including Sutter Health—are motivated to lower energy costs, reduce water use, and simply build better. Strategies used in the design for the $1.7 billion hospital—such as variable air volume, displacement ventilation (which Perry expects will soon become a dominant air-delivery system for healthcare projects), and heat recovery (a no-brainer since the hospital is utilizing 100 percent outside air) —are expected to reduce annual energy use by 35 percent and carbon emissions by 26 percent. Additional energy savings will come from multilevel switching and dimming lights in patient rooms and staff areas (specifically task lighting), as well as the installation of occupancy sensors to control lighting in corridors, offices, nursing areas, and support spaces. The team is also sourcing energy-efficient medical equipment, which could reduce loads by more than a third. (The search for this equipment is proving difficult because manufacturers don’t yet see energy efficiency as a priority.) SmithGroup also looked into using photovoltaics, but the system couldn’t be justified because energy production would contribute only a token amount to the overall power demand. The hospital’s water strategies focus on high-efficiency, low-flow fixtures that are expected to reduce domestic water use by 3.3 million gallons per year. Additionally, a pulse-powered, nonchemical water treatment system will be used in place of traditional chemicals to provide corrosion, microbiological, and scale protection in the condenser water system. The process, which reduces bleed off and produces clean water (unlike water treated by traditional chemical processes), is expected to save 20 million gallons per year. Water needed to irrigate the hospital’s green roofs, green walls, and street plantings will come mainly from cooling tower blow-down and captured stormwater. Expected water savings: 180,000 gallons per year. Torrance Memorial Medical Center When administrators at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Southern California talked to HMC Architects about designing a new patient tower, they wanted to go green. “They asked for LEED Silver JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 41
Renderings by ZGF Architects (left); HMC Architects (right).
ANN AND ROBERT H. LURIE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO
or better,” recalls Jerry Eich, healthcare practice leader at the Ontario, Calif.–based design firm. To reach that goal, Eich and his project team targeted everything from equipment to materials to lighting in the 390,000-square-foot, 256-bed hospital. They even set up on-site construction waste recycling to take the onus off the city. However, it’s unlikely that the $500 million project will ever be certified at LEED Silver. “Socially they’re doing the right thing,” says Eich of administrators at Torrance, “but mentally they haven’t gotten past having to pay for the certification at the end.” For many, it’s enough to comply with LEED without having to spend extra money proving it. Eich tries to get his clients to see the value in both sustainability and certification, stressing that it helps the hospital’s public image, shows the community its commitment to sustainability, and proves that the building really is operating as intended one year later. However, he also expects to see fiscal tightening convince more hospitals to become LEED equivalent, but not necessarily LEED certified. Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago “Sustainability was a huge concern in the project brief, but the client made it very clear they weren’t going to contribute additional resources to make the sustainable mission happen. So we worked on getting LEED 42 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
TORRANCE MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER
SHERMAN HOSPITAL
SMILOW CANCER HOSPITAL
with no premium to the budget,” says Stuart Baur, principal at ZGF Architects, of the firm’s work on the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The 23-story, 1.25-million-square-foot facility on Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine campus is now targeting LEED Silver. Baur says it’s still common for clients to perceive sustainable construction as costing more. But that’s not the case if, in the earliest stages, the right questions are addressed so that money can be allocated where it’s needed: Where is heat wasted? How can water be reused? What are we spending on energy? “I absolutely believe that, done well, you can achieve at least LEED Silver with no premium to the budget,” Baur says, adding that it’s more important to focus on creating the healthiest, most efficient hospital for the budget than it is to focus on a specific LEED level. The green effort for this project included a high-efficiency ventilation system; high-efficiency plumbing fixtures (expected to reduce water use by 20 percent); a stormwater management system (designed to treat 90 percent of all runoff water); a salvage and recycling program (targeting a minimum 50 percent of demolition waste); a green roof and healing garden about 13,500 square feet in size; and a light-colored, precast concrete exterior and light-colored paving along the street frontage to reduce the heat island effect. It’s worth noting that it is the project team who decided not to target lighting in its sustainable endeavors. “We stayed away from items we didn’t think contributed meaningfully to the hospital,” Baur says. “We chose not to do lighting control because with a 24/7 building, lights are on all the time. … The reality is that most rooms are in use and we didn’t feel like they [lighting controls] would be a value-add. Sustainability is about saving our clients money by giving them the right things.”
Rendering by Shepley Bulfinch (top); Photos by Kat Nania (left, right).
Sherman Hospital Rather than have a sprinkle of green here and there, the project team working on the $250 million Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ill., focused on one large sustainable gesture: a 15-acre geothermal lake. “You don’t see a lot of geothermal in healthcare so we had to do some convincing to get the hospital on board,” says Katie Faulkner, associate principal at Shepley Bulfinch in Boston. What helped the architectural firm’s pitch was the fact the lake wasn’t simply a green indulgence; the hospital’s extensive 154-acre campus required three detention ponds for water runoff, so converting one of them to geothermal use wasn’t a stretch. Additionally, the dredged soil would be reused on site, eliminating the need to truck in top soil. Of course, the financial argument was most compelling to the clients: an approximate $1 million reduction in annual heating and cooling costs (depending on utility rates) and an expected eight-year payback. “Anything under 10 years is considered part of your short-term operational cycle,” Faulkner says. After the system was green-lit, hospital administrators secured a $400,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to help offset initial costs. The geothermal infrastructure and lake system, engineered by KJWW Engineering Consultants of Rock Island, Ill., involves a total of 175 rafts sitting on the lake bottom —they are weighted down at a minimum of 18 feet below the water surface—with 150 miles of closed-loop pipe circulating a methyl-alcohol mixture through the system and in and out of the hospital. Most of the 650,000-square-foot hospital is served by the geothermal system, including its 255 patient rooms, but some spaces, such as the intensive care unit and operating rooms, still require roof-mounted air-handling units, albeit far fewer than would be necessary with a conventional system. The hospital opened in December 2009, and Faulkner reports the geothermal system is performing better than expected: The payback period is now tracking at just six years. Smilow Cancer Hospital Shepley Bulfinch incorporated green throughout the 516,000-square-foot Smilow Cancer Hospital at YaleNew Haven Hospital in Connecticut, intending to meet LEED certification—which was still somewhat uncharted territory when the project began. “We started working on this hospital in 2004 and at that point [we think] there was only one other hospital that [had] achieved LEED,” says Angela Watson, principal at Shepley Bulfinch. “Clients usually want someone else to have tried something first. No one wants to be a guinea pig.” In this case, however, the owners were excited about the challenge of going for certification, and the hospital eventually earned enough points to target LEED Silver. The $290 million hospital opened earlier this year and is still in the LEED review process. The hospital hits a lot of the typical sustainable hot buttons: high-efficiency HVAC system; low-albedo roof to reduce the heat island effect; a small vegetated roof on the seventh floor that doubles as a healing garden; recycled construction waste; daylighting with high-efficiency, low-E glazing on the façade; and a terra-cotta rainscreen system that, because of its light weight, reduced the tonnage of steel required in the building’s construction. The hospital also qualified for LEED points due to its educational program that targeted to various audiences—including nurses, visitors, and those responsible for facilities maintenance. “Green buildings require a commitment after the fact,” Watson says. “What happens after the building is completed is equally important.” ▪ Jay W. Schneider has written about the A/E/C industry for more than 15 years, and most recently was senior editor of Building Design+Construction magazine. To see a slide show of projects in this article, visit eco-structure.com. JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 45
VACANCY AIR CONTROL Reduced air supply and lighting in vacant rooms
THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE Heat recovery equipment
HEAT RECOVERY SYSTEMS Ground-sourced heat exchange
WALL AND WINDOW VALUES Wall and window insulation and tightness
ROAD TO RECOVERY
A STUDY SHOWS HOW NEW HOSPITALS CAN REDUCE ENERGY USE BY 60 PERCENT.
Rendering courtesy NBBJ
SOLAR AND DAYLIGHT SHADING AND CONTROL
IN-ROOM ENVIRONMENT TEMPERING Separate distributed air supply and separate heating and cooling
Here’s a prescription for instant savings: According to a new study from the University of Washington, using an integrated design process that addresses energy consumption from the beginning of a project—combined with systematic strategies such as daylighting, thermal energy storage, and vacancy air control—can reduce the energy use of a new hospital built between 2010 and 2015 in the Northwestern United States by 60 percent to meet 2030 Challenge carbon reduction goals. It is estimated that these energy reductions would save around $730,000 per year in a newly constructed, code-compliant hospital. The study, titled “Targeting 100! Envisioning the High Performance Hospital: Implications for A New, Low Energy, High Performance Prototype,” is the result of a three-year research effort from the University of Washington in collaboration with NBBJ, and in association with Cameron Macallister Group, Mahlum, Mortenson Construction, Solarc Architecture and Engineering, and TBD Consultants. Funded by the BetterBricks initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, the study derives its name from the impact of the 2030 Challenge on a hospital’s Energy Use Index (EUI). A facility’s annual EUI is estimated by compiling the annual energy use of all fuels on site and converting the total number to KBtus. This individual number can then be compared to that of similar facilities in order to gauge efficiency. It is estimated that a 225-bed, 520,000-squarefoot acute care hospital in Seattle would have a baseline EUI of 270 KBtu per square foot per year. To reduce this energy use by 60 percent to meet 2030 Challenge goals, the average hospital would have to reduce its EUI to 108 KBtu per square foot per year. Rounded down, this number became “Target 100.” Some of the suggested design strategies to achieve the 60 percent reduction in energy consumption are highlighted here. To download the full study, visit betterbricks.org. ▪ katie weeks JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 47
HEALTH REFORM Text Lydia Lee Photos Bruce Damonte (exterior), Sharon Risedorph (interior)
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AT A CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY, THE WELL-BEING OF STUDENTS— AND THE HEALTH OF THE PLANET—ARE CLEARLY A PRIORITY. Multiple-choice quiz: One of the newest buildings at the University of California, Davis, is: 1) targeting LEED Gold certification; 2) a prime example of a more holistic view of student health; or 3) the most popular destination on campus? The answer is 1 and 2; and while it’s unlikely that students will be crowding the health center just to hang out, UC Davis’ new Student Health & Wellness Center certainly makes the grim student infirmary a thing of the past. The 75,000-square-foot facility brings together various student health services, including primary and urgent care, sports medicine, a women’s clinic, and counseling and psychological services, in a sleek, glass-walled building. For San Francisco architecture firm WRNS Studio, whose City of Watsonville Water Resources Center was just named one of the AIA’s Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Projects of 2010, sustainable design was a given. “The UC Davis building arrives at this wonderful moment in our thinking about health,” says Bryan Shiles, a principal at WRNS Studio. “These days, there is more awareness of diet and health, and of the pressure that students are under. Student wellness is being pushed to the forefront as something to be taken care of and thought about.” The new three-story space puts that emphasis on display. All the public parts of the building, where visitors enter, wait, and walk from floor to floor, are visible to passersby through glass curtain walls. The open façade on the north side floods spaces with bright but indirect light. In contrast, the sunny south façade is mostly stucco. The west and east sides, which are difficult to shade, are minimized in the long, thin building shape. After creating this classic design centered around solar orientation, WRNS looked for other ways to make the building more sustainable. Cooling was a key issue, since medical offices and equipment generate significant heat and summertime temperatures in Davis regularly hit 90 F. A chilled beam system uses considerably less energy than traditional air conditioning and is also used for heating. “Since you’re not blowing large volumes of air, it’s very comfortable and eerily quiet,” says Shiles. The chilled beam system was a first for UC Davis, as was a small green roof over the lobby. “The campus representatives were hesitant, since there weren’t any other green roofs on campus,” says Jill Tomczyk, senior project manager in the university’s design and construction management division. “So we assured them that if the plants died, or it looked horrible, we would replace it with a rock garden.” The green roof is planted with native, drought-tolerant, flowering sedums that the designers expect will need no irrigation once they are established. All the water that is collected on the remainder of the roof is handled on site, draining into a wellness garden on the south side of the building. The wellness garden features drought-tolerant species that stimulate the senses, such as lamb’s ears, trumpet vines, pineapple guava tress, and orange trees. In addition, one section is devoted to medicinal plants and herbs such as ginko biloba, wormwood, wild lilac, sage, and St. John’s wort. “A committee of campus wellness professionals, the campus landscape architect, the building designer, and my office was assembled to select appropriate planting materials and a layout for the pathways and seating areas,” says Tomczyk. “We were able to implement almost all of the requests from the group in the final design. The garden contains several small ‘pocket’ areas where meditation or reflection is encouraged, and it also contains a vegetable garden that is maintained by the staff of the wellness program.” When it came to space planning, “we wanted to maximize flexibility, so we created the clinics and rooms so they were interchangeable,” says Brian Milman, an associate partner at WRNS. The firm developed a modular scheme for the spaces. On the second floor, there are four clinics—two primary care clinics and two specialty clinics currently being used for women’s health and dermatology. The layout of each clinic is virtually identical, with offices on the perimeter and exam rooms and nurse stations in the center, and exam rooms and offices are set up in a consistent fashion so that it is relatively easy to covert one pod to another. Although the project had been designed with LEED Silver in mind, the decision to pursue formal certification for LEED Gold was made at the 11th hour, right before construction began. “We were slightly handicapped, since the design was completely set in stone at that point,” says Tomczyk. “But from day one, WRNS had worked so much sustainability into the project that we were still able to get as far as we did.” A healthy building for a health center makes perfect sense. After all, while daylighting is fundamental to an energy-efficient building, its positive impact on human health seems all too obvious, though difficult to quantify. One 2005 study in the International Journal of Nursing Studies reported that daylight exposure of at least three hours a day resulted in less stress and higher work satisfaction for nurses. But even for the students, who are there for just a little while, a case of the flu or a sports injury is now a little more bearable. “The transparency of the building lets you see the outdoors,” Tomczyk says. “That’s nice when you’re in a place that you have to be in because you’re sick.” ▪
2
3 Sometimes the simple solution is the best one. WRNS Studio started out with several designs, including structures that wrapped around courtyards, but a long, thin rectangle (previous spread, 1) was more economical to build, more energy-efficient, and the best fit for the program. Inside (2), polished concrete floors for all the entryways were an inexpensive way to give the building a “wow factor.” The floors, which look a little bit like terrazzo, require no maintenance. FSC-certified walnut on the lobby ceiling and on accent walls creates a warm, natural feeling. On the south side of the building (3), a stucco façade keeps the heat out and irregularly placed windows with colored glass panels keep everything lively. The south side overlooks a wellness garden, which is planted with native species and has areas designed for meditation.
Lydia Lee writes about architecture and sustainability from Menlo Park, Calif. To see a slide show of UC Davis’ Student Health & Wellness Center, visit eco-structure.com. JULY/AUGUST 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 51
SPECS MORE AT ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS STUDENT HEALTH & WELLNESS CENTER GREEN TEAM Architect, interior designer: WRNS Studio, wrnsstudio.com Client/owner: University of California, Davis, ucdavis.edu Mechanical engineer: Guttmann & Blaevoet, gb-eng.com Structural engineer, geotechnical engineer: Rutherford & Chekene, ruthchek.com Electrical engineer, lighting designer: Silverman & Light, silvermanlight.com Civil engineer: Sandis, sandis.net General contractor: McCarthy Building Cos., mccarthy.com Landscape architect: Quadriga Landscape Architecture and Planning, quadriga-inc.com
MATERIALS AND SOURCES Adhesives, coatings, and sealants: Dow Corning Corp., dowcorning.com Building management systems and services: Siemens Corp., usa.siemens.com Carpet: Bentley Prince Street, bentleyprincestreet.com Ceilings: Rulon Co., rulonco.com; Hunter Douglas Contract, hunterdouglascontract.com; USG, usg.com Cladding: Alcoa, alcoa.com Curtain walls: EFCO, efcocorp.com Exterior wall systems: LaHabra Stucco, lahabrastucco.com Flooring: Pacific Decorative Concrete, pacificdecorative.com; Nora Systems, nora.com/us Furniture: Steelcase, steelcase.com Glass: PPG Industries, ppg.com HVAC: TROX, troxusa.com; Luppen & Hawley, luppenandhawleyinc.com Insulation: Owens Corning, owenscorning.com Interior walls: Georgia-Pacific, gp.com Lighting control systems: DSPM, dspmanufacturing.com Masonry, concrete, and stone: Trenwyth, trenwyth.com Metal: Alucobond, alucobondUSA.com Millwork: Braun Construction Services, braunconstservices.com; Midmark Corp., midmark.com; Lozier Corp., lozier.com Paints and finishes: Frazee Paint, frazeepaint.com Pavers: Hanover Architectural Products, hanoverpavers.com Plumbing and water systems: Airco Mechanical, aircomech.com Roofing: Fibertite, fibertite.com; American Hydrotech, hydrotechusa.com Signage: Weidner Architectural Signage, weidnersignage.com Structural systems: Gayle Manufacturing Co., gaylemfg.com; Glazier Ironworks Wallcoverings: Xorel, xorel.com Windows and doors: EFCO, efcocorp.com; VT Industries, vtindustries.com; Wilson Partitions, wilsonpart.com
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ECOCENTRIC
Ship-Shape Care
Text Peter James Renderings Anshen + Allen
PORTABLE MEDICAL CLINICS CRAFTED FROM SHIPPING CONTAINERS ARE DESIGNED TO HANDLE THEIR NEW CARGO WITH CARE.
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Every day in the developing world, thousands of women and children die from pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications, as well as from malnutrition, dehydration, and pneumonia, according to Containers to Clinics (C2C), a Bostonarea nonprofit organization. Many of these deaths are preventable through basic, inexpensive health care, but building the necessary infrastructure— clinics, pharmacies, laboratories—is nearly impossible in remote, poverty-stricken areas. C2C is working to change that by building and deploying portable medical clinics made from repurposed shipping containers. The ubiquitous shipping container—there are an estimated 20-plus million containers worldwide that are out of use—lends itself to sustainable, modular adaptive reuse. In 2009, C2C developed a prototype with the pro bono help of San Francisco– based architecture firm Anshen + Allen and modular builder Stack Design Build. The resulting L-shaped mobile clinic, made from two containers with footprints of 8 feet by 20 feet each, includes two exam rooms, a waiting room, diagnostic lab, and pharmacy. “The clinics are designed as a kit of parts— so that they can be shipped in several different configurations” depending on end user needs, says Ryan Campbell, associate and senior project coordinator at Anshen + Allen who spearheaded the design effort. Sustainable features in the upcycled containers include operable doors
and windows that provide natural ventilation, while solar-powered fans draw stale air through wall vents. An overarching fabric canopy shades an outdoor courtyard as well as the containers themselves, which are coated with highly reflective paint to further reduce heat gain. In each unit, an inverter stores energy for use during power outages—common in rural areas and disaster zones—and a backup generator ensures continuous operation of water pumps and lights. While C2C relied on donated materials that were selected for their durability and cleanability in order to finish the first batch of interiors, Campbell hopes future versions will incorporate greener flooring and wallcoverings. In addition, future models may be modified to run on renewable energies such as solar or wind power. Every unit, however, will continue to have a backup generator for medical equipment and storage refrigerators. Originally envisioned to provide primary and preventive care for women and children, the container clinic has taken new life as a resource for disaster relief. In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, the prototype was sent to Port-auPrince, where it is being used for three years as a replacement women’s and children’s facility for the heavily damaged Grace Children’s Hospital. There, the two-room clinic will serve up to 84 patients a day, and C2C plans to send at least two more clinics to aid the country’s reconstruction efforts. ▪
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Opening Up The Opportunities With VP’s Open Web Framing Open Web Advantages Include…
Building Efficiency
For projects that require clear spans approaching 100’ or greater, open web trusses may be a natural choice. Clear span trusses have the ability to carry heavy roof loads more economically than other framing options. Additionally, projects that do not require heavy roof loads may sometimes benefit with a truss frame design, especially in design/build projects where the builder can control roof height and clear height requirements. Plus the fact that the open web design allows for better light distribution and air circulation helps to make the building more efficient.
Architectural Appeal
Open web trusses have an architectural look that gives building interiors an attractive, open structural appearance. Further, the latticed design of the rafter allows building mechanicals and ductwork to be located within the web, allowing for more clearance beneath the bottom chord.
Erectability
One of the erection advantages of an open web frame is the fact the frames are relatively light compared to alternatives. This allows for easier lifting and bolt-up in the field. When projects are being erected with supersets (bays assembled on the ground then lifted into place) these light but rigid assemblies can be erected faster and safer.
See How Open Web Framing Can Be An Opportunity For You Open web framing is one of the unique building solutions available through Varco Pruden Builders. Varco Pruden Buildings is a recognized leader in providing quality steel building systems throughout North America. For more information about our innovative products and our network of more than 1,000 Independent Authorized VP Builders, call us at 800-238-3246 or visit www.vp.com.
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