ECO-STRUCTURE
YOUR NEXT ASSIGNMENT: Improve the Performance of LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Today’s Learning Environments
SEPTEMBER 2010
ECO-STRUCTURE.COM SEPTEMBER 2010
LIQUID OR POWDER, IT ALWAYS MAKES A LASTING IMPRESSION.
SPECIFY AND TRUST PPG CERTIFIED APPLICATORS
When you want a project to make a statement or simply stand the test of time, turn to the unequaled performance of Duranar ® Coatings. And you can rely on the members of the Certified Applicator Program to gain access to the best people, practices and products – including exclusive access to environmentally-friendly Duranar Powder Coatings. To learn more, call 1-888-PPG-IDEA. Or visit www.ppgduranar.com. Circle no. 46 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com Duranar and PPG are registered trademarks and IdeaScapes is a trademark owned by PPG Industries, Inc.
PPG Industries, Inc., 151 Colfax Street, Springdale, PA 15144 1-888-PPG-IDEA www.ppgideascapes.com 2774 PPG Duranar9x10 875 indd 1
3/23/09 2:57:06 PM
Green is sustainability. Green is energy efďŹ ciency. Green is AkzoNobel. And we live it. For three years in a row, AkzoNobel has been recognized as one of the industry leaders in our sector by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. We believe very strongly that doing business in a sustainable way is important for the long term beneďŹ t of the environment and the success of our customers. We are constantly working to integrate sustainability concepts into our actions and deliver eco-friendly solutions. www.akzonobel.com/ccna
Circle no. 73 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Introducing
THE NEW
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Ned Cramer ncramer@hanleywood.com EDITOR Katie Weeks kweeks@hanleywood.com MANAGING EDITOR Greig O’Brien gobrien@hanleywood.com SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Aubrey Altmann aaltmann@hanleywood.com ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Marcy Ryan mryan@hanleywood.com
Welcome to the new IPS: New Look New Facility New Products
ADDRESS AND SUBSCRIPTION CHANGES eco-structure P.O. Box 3494 Northbrook, IL 60065-9831 888.269.8410
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lindsey M. Roberts lmroberts@hanleywood.com
CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE omeda.com/ecos
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Michael Todaro mtodaro@hanleywood.com
LIST RENTALS 203.778.8700
Same Great Company
ONLINE
CIRCLE NO. 25 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES AND BACK-ISSUE ORDERS 888.269.8410 or ecos@omeda.com
SUBSCRIPTION FAX 847.291.4816
New Manufacturing Capabilities
Look to IPS for all of your insulated metal panel needs. For more information, visit us online at www.insulated-panels.com/IPSintro or call us at (800) 729-9324.
EDITORIAL INQUIRIES One Thomas Circle N.W. Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20005 202.452.0800 202.785.1974 fax
SENIOR EDITOR, PRODUCTS Laurie Grant lgrant@hanleywood.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jim Schneider
At IPS, our panels offer quick and easy installation, design versatility, appealing aesthetics, energy efficiency and longevity. We also provide excellent service and support, before and after the sale. That combination of superior products and outstanding service is what sets IPS apart and gives our customers the opportunity to be successful.
SERVICES
ASSOCIATE WEB PRODUCER Jack White jwhite@hanleywood.com
MEDIA KIT Janet Allen jallen@hanleywood.com REPRINTS The YGS Group 717.505.9701 ext. 128
PRODUCTION ADVISORY BOARD Lidia Berger, HDR Inc. Carlie Bullock-Jones, Ecoworks Studio Eric Corey Freed, organicARCHITECT Michael Deane, Turner Construction Bert Gregory, Mithun Sean O’Malley, SWA Group Tom Paladino, Paladino & Co. Patrick Thibaudeau, HGA Gregory Thomas, Performance Systems Development Inc.
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION/ PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES Cathy Underwood cunderwood@hanleywood.com PRODUCTION/AD TRAFFIC MANAGER Paige S. Hirsch phirsch@hanleywood.com PREPRESS MANAGER Fred Weisskopf PREPRESS COORDINATOR Betty Kerwin
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. 5. September 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.
www.insulated-panels.com/IPSintro 800.729.9324 info@insulated-panels.com
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. Canada Post Registration #40612608/G.S.T. number: R-120931738. Canadian return address: Pitney Bowes Inc., P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
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.
BUILD SMART
BUILD GREEN
www.vp.com ©2009 Varco Pruden Buildings is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Circle no. 62 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
The most highly insulating fenestration… LEED® point contribution in 5 separate categories. Vandal-resistant, glare-free, anti-terrorism compliant.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR COMMERCIAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION Patrick J. Carroll pcarroll@hanleywood.com PUBLISHER, COMMERCIAL DESIGN Russell S. Ellis rellis@hanleywood.com; 202.736.3310 NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Nick Hayman nhayman@hanleywood.com; 202.736.3457 NEW ENGLAND, GEORGIA, FLORIDA, INDIANA, OHIO Dan Colunio dcolunio@hanleywood.com; 617.304.7297
Brain Imaging Center Melvin H. Marx Building, University of Missouri Photo: BRS Photography
NORTHEAST/SOUTHEAST Mike Lesko mlesko@hanleywood.com; 203.445.1484 MIDWEST Michael Gilbert mgilbert@hanleywood.com; 773.824.2435
kalwall.com daylightmodelinging.com skylightinfo.com
800-258-9777 CIRCLE NO. 75 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
LIGHTING, NATIONAL Cliff Smith csmith@hanleywood.com; 846.642.9598 WEST COAST Mark Weinstein mweinstein@hanleywood.com; 562.598.5650 CANADA D. John Magner jmagner@yorkmedia.net; 416.598.0101, x220 UNITED KINGDOM/EUROPE Stuart Smith stuart.smith@ssm.co.uk INSIDE SALES Martin Landowski mlandowski@hanleywood.com; 773.824.2444 GROUP PUBLISHING SUPPORT MANAGER Angie Harris aharris@hanleywood.com MARKETING MANAGER Lucy Hansen lhansen@hanleywood.com CIRCULATION MANAGER Mary Leiphart mleiphart@hanleywood.com
HANLEY WOOD BUSINESS MEDIA PRESIDENT/HANLEY WOOD Peter M. Goldstone PRESIDENT, MARKET INTELLIGENCE/E-MEDIA Andy Reid PRESIDENT, EXHIBITIONS Rick McConnell DIRECTOR OF FINANCE Ron Kraft VICE PRESIDENT/CIRCULATION AND DATABASE DEVELOPMENT Nick Cavnar VICE PRESIDENT/PRODUCTION Nick Elsener VICE PRESIDENT/MARKETING Sheila Harris EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/E-MEDIA Andreas Schmidt GENERAL MANAGER/ONLINE COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION Kim Heneghan SENIOR DIRECTOR, HUMAN RESOURCES Curtis Hine
HANLEY WOOD, LLC CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Frank Anton CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Matthew Flynn EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/ CORPORATE SALES Paul Tourbaf VICE PRESIDENT/ CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Joe Carroll VICE PRESIDENT/FINANCE Brad Lough VICE PRESIDENT/GENERAL COUNSEL Mike Bender
All contents of this issue of ECO-STRUCTURE are copyrighted by Hanley Wood LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States. ECO-STRUCTURE
is the independent, unbiased source for green-building information. The magazine intends to foster an open dialogue about today’s vital green-building issues. HANLEY WOOD LLC is publisher of Aquatics International, Architect, Architectural Lighting, Big Builder, Builder, Building Products, Concrete & Masonry Construction Products, Concrete Construction, The Concrete Producer, Custom Home, EcoHome, The Journal of Light Construction, Masonry Construction, metalmag, Multifamily Executive, Pool & Spa News, Pro AV, Professional Deck Builder, ProSales, Public Works, Remodeling, Replacement Contractor, Residential Architect, and Tools of The Trade magazines.
DISCLOSURE / ECO-STRUCTURE occasionally will write about companies in which its parent organization, Hanley Wood LLC, has an investment interest. When it does, the magazine will fully disclose that relationship. PRIVACY OF MAILING LIST / Sometimes we share our subscriber mailing list with reputable companies we think you’ll find interesting. However, if you do not wish to be included, please call us at 888.269.8410.
CIRCLE NO. 29 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
30%* off your building’s energy bill is just the beginning. Imagine what we could do for the rest of your enterprise. Managing complex building environments while meeting your energy efficiency targets is no small task. Our EcoStruxure™ energy management architecture achieves this elegantly through intelligent integration of building systems on a single IP platform.
The savings go far beyond buildings Today, only EcoStruxure energy management architecture by Schneider Electric™ delivers up to 30% energy savings, uniting energy-intensive systems like HVAC, access control, video security management, and lighting control across your entire enterprise. Saving up to 30% of a building’s energy is a great beginning, and thanks to EcoStruxure energy management architecture, the savings don’t have to end there.
Active Energy Management™ architecture from Power Plant to Plug™
Data centers From the rack to the row to the room to the building, energy use and availability of these interconnected environments are closely monitored and adjusted in real time.
Industrial plant Open standard protocols allow for system-wide management of automated processes with minimized downtime, increased throughput, and maximized energy efficiency.
Learn about saving energy from the experts! Download this white paper, a $199 value for FREE, and register to win a Kindle™ e-book reader! Visit www.SEreply.com Key Code s979w Call 800-789-7038
Buildings Intelligent integration of security, power, lighting, electrical distribution, fire safety, HVAC, IT, and telecommunications across the enterprise allows for reduced training, operating, maintenance, and energy costs.
Circle no. 6 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
30% ©2010 Schneider Electric Industries SAS, All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric, EcoStruxure, Active Energy Management, and Power Plant to Plug are owned by Schneider Electric, or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. 35 rue Joseph Monier, CS 30323, 95506 Rueil Malmaison Cedex (France) • 998-2758 *EcoStruxure architecture reduces energy consumption by up to 30%.
Ecostructure_910_s979w.indd 1
™
7/29/2010 2:24:07 PM
Circle no. 79 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
CONTENTS September 2010
48
FEATURES Energizing Lessons 42 Learning about renewable energy generation is a breeze at Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Energy Lab.
Continuity and Contrast 48 Revealing a sustainable renovation at Portland State University.
Branching Out 54
42
A new public library gives a downtown D.C. neighborhood an anchor for the future.
54
On the Cover: Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Lab, designed by Flansburgh Architects. Photo by Matthew Millman. SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 7
CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS Viewpoint 10 Greenscene 12 Products 35 Deep Green 19 An industry consultant and strategist asks: Is LEEDigation—litigation involving the green building certification process—about to rise?
Technology 23 Green Roofs for Healthy Cities explores the potential of collaboration between rooftop vegetation and photovoltaic arrays.
19
Bill Orr, executive director of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools talks about improving today’s learning environments.
Flashback 31 When a green roof fails to perform, a school starts over with a new, more appropriate, design.
Ecocentric 64 The smallest ballpark in Major League Baseball hits the farthest homerun for sustainability.
64
ECO-STRUCTURE.COM Go online for more news, projects, products, and essays. Among this month’s highlights: Feature: Tyson Living Learning Center at Washington University in St. Louis Perspective: Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council Green Experts: The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ecostructure Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com 8 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
35
This page, top to bottom: Henry Obasi; Bergerson Photography; Dri-Design. Previous page, top to bottom: Charles Ingram Photography; Matthew Millman; Mark Herboth.
Perspective 27
Introducing the most effective way to eliminate solar heat gain and glare. Architect: BRT Architekten Hamburg, Germany
Not only are C/S Solarmotion™ Retractable Sunshades highly effective, they also offer lots of visual possibilities. Solarmotion can create a dramatic visual effect for your facade or virtually disappear. They can be used outside the building, inside, or between two panes of glass.The system allows occupants to control the amount of daylight entering their offices, while reducing glare and energy usage. Through an exclusive agreement with Warema, Europe’s leading manufacturer, C/S is able to bring this technology to the North American market. To learn more, visit www.c-sgroup.com, call 800-631-7379 or find Construction Specialties on ®, ® or . Circle no. 90 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Retractable Sunshades
VIEWPOINT While preparing this issue of eco-structure, I had a revelation: While I often reminisce about my school days, I rarely spend time recalling the actual classrooms and buildings where I spent so much of my time growing up. Reflecting on the brick-and-mortar structures of my education, I began to recall a range of spaces that, seen through my eyes now, were less than ideal. There was the portable classroom where I spent third grade, a stuffy, cramped trailer that was installed next to the main building after a population boom in the neighborhood resulted in too little space for the large student body. In high school, I remember being awed by the interior courtyard where we could eat lunch, but I also remember classes taking place in brick-lined, windowless rooms that felt more like bunkers than inviting learning environments. If you were unlucky enough to have class in the rear of the building during final period, not having a window was potentially a good thing as then you wouldn’t have to smell the diesel exhaust of the school buses idling outside. The crowning jewel of my college campus was a new, multilevel student recreation center, but we spent less time there than we did fighting to stay awake in large, windowless, impersonal lecture halls. My, how things have changed. As you’ll see from this issue’s feature stories, today’s learning spaces, from K–12 classrooms and higher-ed facilities to public spaces such as libraries, are often lessons in innovation and interaction. As the educational realm is, by its nature, fertile ground for architectural experimentation, it should come as no surprise that architects are increasingly exploring the boundaries of sustainable design and construction. The spaces they produce are then used as teaching tools by the educators that occupy them and provide hands-on learning opportunities to students. Among them: the Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Energy Lab (“Energizing Lessons,” page 42) and Tyson Living Learning Center at Washington University in St. Louis (profiled on our website, eco-structure.com). 10 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
Both facilities were constructed with locally harvested materials, and their architects paid significant attention to the buildings’ environmental footprints. The Hawaiian lab was designed as a place where students could study renewable energy technologies, so it’s no shock that all of its energy is generated from solar and wind installations on site. The strategy is successful thus far; the building uses only 30 percent of the energy it produces and feeds the rest back into the campus grid. The building’s also quite smart, having been equipped with more than 250 sensors so it can selfregulate its ventilation, heating and cooling, and energy generation. Similarly, Tyson Living Learning Center was designed with an eye on efficiency—a net-zero carbon footprint and net-zero water and energy use — thanks to initiatives such as a roof-mounted photovoltaic array, tubular skylights and clerestory windows, and rainwater harvesting and graywater and stormwater management systems that provide 100 percent of the building’s water. Both structures seek to meet the Living Building Challenge from the International Living Building Institute. Administrators also are improving the environmental performance of existing structures, as seen in the renovation of Shattuck Hall at Portland State University (“Continuity and Contrast,” page 48). There, an updated radiant heating system that’s visible to architecture students below was woven into the concrete bones of the original 1915 structure and ductwork. Architects and designers would do well to pay attention to this subsection of the education market. With new construction budgets already spent or stalled by the recession, renovations and modernizations will be driving school construction for the next three to five years, says Bill Orr, executive director of the San Francisco–based Collaborative for High-Performance Schools, who is the subject of this issue’s Perspective column (“Lessons in High Performance,” page 27). You should be prepared: It’s one thing, he says, to build in a range of sustainable features on a $50 million to $100 million new construction budget, and quite another to work them into a $3 million to $6 million modernization budget. But even renovation jobs
should be cause for excitement: “The improvement potential in these projects is immense,” Orr says. “It creates an interesting design challenge to be able to do meaningful and holistic things when the scope of your project and its budget are restricted.” Existing facilities also can provide continuing education. This is the core thesis of our regular Flashback column, which revisits older structures to report on the performance of their sustainable efforts. In “Extra Credit” (page 31), we revisit Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, D.C., which opened in September 2006 to much critical acclaim (including an AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten nod in 2007). Alas, the school’s green roof did not blossom as planned, and had to be replanted this year with a different blend of growing medium and plant species as D.C.’s notoriously hot summers and a rough winter of 2009–2010 proved too much for the original plantings. The school and design team are actively studying the new installation. My school days may be in the past, but it doesn’t mean I’ve stopped studying new subjects. I relish the fact that, as eco-structure’s editor, I’m constantly exploring and learning new things about sustainable design. Here’s hoping this issue teaches you a few new concepts, too.
Mike Morgan
Making the Grade
DELTA® protects property. Creates comfort. Saves energy.
Systems For Building Healthier Homes.™
DELTA -DRY ®
Ventilated Rainscreen For Absorptive Cladding.™ DELTA®-DRY optimizes wall drainage and drying mechanisms.
DELTA®-DRY ... ... offers excellent water resistance with exceptional drying capabilities.
... stops solar driven moisture.
... has a unique 2-sided 3-dimensional structure.
... is easy to install.
... provides a full capillary break.
... is performance tested and technologically advanced.
... has outstanding drainage capacity.
... is extremely durable and long-lasting.
Circle no. 12 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
DELTA -DRY. If it wasn’t so ingenious, you’d think it was pure genius. ®
1-888-4DELTA4 (433-5824) www.delta-dry.com
GREENSCENE Shining Overseas Text ECO-STRUCTURE staff Photo Javier Alonso Huerta
In a turn of events following back-to-back wins by European teams in the U.S. Department of Energy’s biennial Solar Decathlon, an American team took top honors in the Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 competition. Lumenhaus, the entry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was named the most efficient entry of the inaugural European competition. It was the first win for Virginia Tech after participating in the 2002, 2005, and 2009 U.S. Solar Decathlons. The only other American team competing in the 17team event, the University of Florida, received an online public choice award, decided by an Internet voting campaign. Lumenhaus edged out the second place 12 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
finisher, team Ikaros-Bavaria from the University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim, Germany, by one point. Inspired by the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, the 800-square-foot Lumenhaus features a rectangular open plan. The steel frame is topped by structural insulated roof panels that support an array of 45 grid-tied solar panels. The north and south walls are constructed entirely of glass and are buffered from the outdoors by the Eclipsis System, an automated system of sliding screens that include stainless steel shutter screens and aerogel-filled translucent insulating polycarbonate panels. It is designed to maximize daylight so that no electric light is needed during the day. To the south, the circular shade perforations of the shutter panels are designed to block direct sunlight while maintaining exterior views and interior privacy. To the north, the perforations are more porous to allow more sunlight. Energy collected during the day is then used at night through an LED system built into the Eclipsis System panels. Other sustainable features include an automated geothermal heat-pump system, radiant flooring, low-VOC paints, Energy Star appliances, and materials made with recycled content, containing low embodied energy, or made from rapidly renewable materials. For more information on the house, visit lumenhaus.com/eu. For more information on the Solar Decathlon Europe, visit sdeurope.org ▪
Los Medanos College | Pittsburg, CA
CENTRIA is focused on the future. Our high quality metal wall and roof systems complete the equation in many of today’s most innovative and imaginative learning environments. Whether it’s a retrofit project or new construction, CENTRIA consistently receives high honors for our commitment to aesthetics, performance and sustainability. It is our goal to help create educational facilities that are not only functional, but also inspirational.
We are…Distinctively CENTRIA.
800.759.7474
CENTRIA.com Fairmont State University | Fairmont, WV
Circle no. 11 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GREENSCENE
Greenbuild’s Legacy Announced The green building community will descend upon Chicago this fall for Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, taking place at McCormick Place West Nov. 17 to 19. And as a thank-you to the region for hosting the thousands of attendees, the USGBC, Habitat for Humanity Lake County, and Bank of America have announced they will build two LEED Platinum–certified homes in Lake County, Ill., as the conference’s legacy project. The homes will be designed and built for LEED for Homes Platinum certification from the USGBC. While the two homes will feature the same floor plan and appearance, they will be built with different construction methods. One home will feature insulated concrete forms and panelized construction, while the second home will be built using conventional stick construction. The second home is targeted for 75 percent completion by Greenbuild so that conference attendees can view its construction process.
TH E B E AU TY O F LOG IC.
Construction cost data and performance will be tracked for both homes and will be published upon their completion. “Because of Bank of America’s generous funding and Habitat for Humanity’s volunteers who will build two LEED Platinum homes for the 2010 Greenbuild Legacy Project, two families can rest assured that their homes are not only affordable, but are built with high-performance, energy and resource efficiency, and quality of health in mind, thereby ensuring they continue to save money over the life cycle of the home,” says Kimberly Lewis, vice president of conferences and events, USGBC. “Greenbuild attendees will have the exclusive advantage of witnessing much of the construction, providing not only a learning opportunity for building and design professionals, but also to educate on the importance of making affordable homes synonymous with green homes.” ▪
Logic suggests that the simplest solution is the correct one. The proof? Metl-Span Insulated Metal Panels, featuring a urethane foam core with high R-values encapsulated by attractively finished, lowmaintenance metal skins. This simple, versatile system is the most logical way to meet society’s demand for structures that are both energy efficient and aesthetically beautiful. To specify your own solution, call 877.585.9969 or visit metlspan.com/corevalues now. P I O N E E R I N G I N S U L AT E D M E TA L PA N E L T E C H N O L O G Y
CIRCLE NO. 36 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
to upgrade your building.
Circle no. 88 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GREENSCENE
New Standards in Development Two new sustainability standards regarding smart-grid models and natural stone products, respectively, are under development. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) are developing ASHRAE/NEMA Standard 201P, Facility Smart Grid Information Model. The standard will address electrical consumption management tools and smart-grid communication. It seeks to deďŹ ne an object-oriented information model to enable
building appliances and control systems to manage electrical loads and generation sources in collaboration with smart electrical grids, and to dispense information about these loads to utility providers. The standard will coordinate with work by the North American Energy Standards Board to develop a basic energy-usage data-model standard and a facilities data model that provides additional energy-usage data for lighting, heating, and HVAC loads, among others. In the product realm, the Natural Stone Council is working with Ecoform, an environmental analysis ďŹ rm, and NSF International, to develop a sustainability standard for natural stone products. The organizations are seeking to harmonize national and international environmental requirements for stone quarrying and production, encourage transparent chain of custody reporting, and create parity between stone and other competitive products covered by existing certiďŹ cation programs. Per requirements from the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) for adoption as an ANSI standard, a consensus committee of public agency oďŹƒcials, academics, nongovernmental agencies, industry leaders, and product users will vote on the standard before it is open for mandatory public comment periods. The standard is expected to be completed in 2012. â–Ş
CORRECTION The photography credits for the July/August cover image and the University of California Davis Student Health & Wellness Center (“Health Reform,� page 48), were incorrect. All photos were shot by Bruce Damonte. ECO-STRUCTURE regrets the error.
7+(5( ,6 $ 5($621 :+< 7+( ,1'8675< ,1129$725 ,6 $/62 7+( 0$5.(7 /($'(5 :KHQ LW FRPHV WR PRXQWLQJ IUDPHG 39 PRGXOHV GLUHFWO\ WR VWDQGLQJ VHDP PHWDO URRIV WKHUH UHDOO\ LV RQO\ RQH ZD\
7KH TXLFNHVW ZD\ 7KH HDVLHVW ZD\ 7KH ULJKW ZD\
5DLO RU 'LUHFW$WWDFKHGÂ&#x152;
6 PRXQWLQJ VROXWLRQV UHVXOW LQ GUDPDWLFDOO\ UHGXFHG FRVWV
6HH XV DW 0(7$/&21 %RRWK :H¡OO EH DW 6RODU 3RZHU ,QWHUQDWLRQDO
0RXQWLQJ KDUGZDUH DV ORZ DV SHU ZDWW 7R OHDUQ KRZ YLVLW ZZZ 6 VRODU FRP HFR RU FDOO
CIRCLE NO. 35 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
© 2010 Kawneer Company, Inc.
Knowledge isn’t just power; it’s energy. Kawneer’s smart, healthy and secure solutions go beyond energy savings to meet the challenges of the institutional market and help you fulfill your sustainability objectives. By combining high-performance products with decision support from our Architectural Services Team and LEED planning tool, you won’t have to worry about comparing apples to oranges. Together, we can energize institutional architecture. EVERY DAY YOU MAKE A CHOICE. MAKE A CHOICE THAT COUNTS.
Circle no. 67 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Architectural Aluminum Systems Entrances + Framing Curtain Walls Windows kawneer.com kawneergreen.com
Circle no. 3 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
DEEP GREEN
Ready To Tip? Text Chris Cheatham Illustration Henry Obasi
AN INDUSTRY CONSULTANT AND STRATEGIST ASKS: IS LEEDIGATION—LITIGATION INVOLVING THE GREEN BUILDING CERTIFICATION PROCESS—ABOUT TO RISE? I have spent the last two years writing Green Building Law Update (greenbuildinglawupdate .com), a blog based on the premise that green buildings will result in new litigation. To be more precise, I have written hundreds of blog posts predicting an increase in litigation involving the green building certification process—which I call “LEEDigation.” Yet, I will be the first to admit that the wave of LEEDigation has not developed. There certainly are examples of this type of dispute, but the number of cases are few and far between. So I began asking the question: What is the LEEDigation tipping point? Published in 2000, Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point details the theory that there are moments when ideas, trends, or social behaviors cross a threshold and spread like wildfire. I still believe that LEEDigation will hit its tipping point —but wonder why this moment has not yet materialized and how a company can avoid this type of litigation when it does arrive. To date, the prime example of LEEDigation is Shaw Development v. Southern Builders, a muchSEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 19
The solution to green building doesn’t have to be this difficult. Today's buildings demand reliable, robust, high thermal performance building envelopes that provide maximum energy-efficiency, prevent heat loss and eliminate thermal bridging, all of which, NUDURA Insulated Concrete Forms can deliver. These performance criteria are key factors in minimizing energy costs, while maximizing property value for building owners.
Visit Nudura.com for more details
TM
The NUDURA® name and logo are trademarks of NUDURA® Corporation.
CIRCLE NO. 44 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
discussed case that was filed in Somerset County, Md., in 2007. The contractor, Southern Builders, originally filed a lawsuit against an owner, Shaw Development, which it had contracted with to build a condominium project. The contractor alleged that the owner had withheld payments. The owner then filed a countersuit, alleging that the contractor failed to obtain LEED Silver certification in a timely manner, resulting in the owner having to forfeit $635,000 in green building tax credits. The contract between the owner and contractor incorporated a project manual written by the architect —who was not involved in the litigation—which stated that the project was “to be designed to comply with a Silver Certification level.” While the case never went to trial, the question remains: Would a court of law find the contractor responsible for failing to build a LEED Silver project when the contractor was not responsible for designing the building? While the Shaw Development case has been dissected ad nauseam, a more recent example emerged in 2008, when a group of citizens filed the first LEED-certification challenge against the LEED Gold-certified Northland Pines High School in Vilas County, Wis. Under the LEED rating system, any person is allowed to challenge any point received under the LEED certification process. The Wisconsin residents filed a 125-page complaint with engineering report, primarily to challenge a designer’s energy-efficiency modeling. In response, the school district and the USGBC each hired their own engineering firms to review the challenge. During the challenge process, the designer was allowed to submit revised energy models and, in April, the USGBC concluded that the project had met the LEED prerequisites and credits, in part based on the revised modeling. When Will It Tip? As a construction attorney and consultant, I have heard of numerous instances of projects failing to achieve LEED certification to the desired level. But these projects typically do not result in formal disputes or litigation. Why? First, the Northland Pines High School LEEDcertification challenge was a bellwether as to how the USGBC enforces the LEED rating system. By allowing the designer to submit revised energy models, the USGBC made it clear that it was not interested in decertifying buildings. If the USGBC continues to work with owners, designers, and contractors to remedy green buildings instead of yanking LEED certification, then the chances for LEEDigation remain small. Second, prior to the Great Recession, many building owners developed green buildings for nonfinancial reasons. When there were fewer LEED buildings, obtaining certification ensured industry buzz. It is difficult to measure loss of goodwill in monetary figures if a project fails to obtain a certain level of certification; therefore it is hard to sue for damages.
Third, the recession resulted in lower demand for legal services, including those for litigation. The construction and real estate industries were particularly hard hit by the recession, and demand for litigation from these industries dropped correspondingly. While the LEED challenge process does not involve formal judicial proceedings, it does involve the costs associated with defending against a lawsuit, including hiring independent experts. The green building industry may have avoided significant LEEDigation because parties were less willing to engage in costly litigation during the economic downturn. However, these three factors can—and likely will—change in the coming years, because there will be increased pressure on the USGBC to ensure that LEED buildings are performing properly and reducing energy usage. As a result, the USGBC is likely to come down harder by decertifying buildings that do not result in energy savings. Additionally, as LEED-certified buildings have become more common, and green building regulations more prevalent, owners are demanding LEED certification for financial reasons—such as higher tenant demand, lower
operating costs, and increased productivity. As more owners pursue LEED certification for these financial reasons, damages resulting from failed certification will be easier to calculate. Finally, as the economy begins to (hopefully) rebound, owners’ appetite for litigation will return. If you are a contractor, architect, or engineer involved with LEED-certified buildings, you absolutely must consider the implications and liabilities created by LEEDigation. If you guarantee some level of certification, you may be responsible if the project does not meet the contract requirements or if a subsequent LEED challenge proves successful. Clearly defining LEED requirements in your contracts is the best protection from LEEDigation. ▪ Chris Cheatham is the managing partner of Cheatham Consulting. He has helped owners, contractors, engineers, and architects implement risk mitigation strategies and draft contracts for green building projects. Cheatham is also a LEED Accredited Professional and frequently publishes articles about green building law and regulations on his blog, Green Building Law Update. He can be reached at chris@cheathamconsulting.com.
Reliable Water Storage
Would a court of law find the contractor responsible for failing to build a LEED Silver project when the contractor was not responsible for designing the building?
a subsidiary of ZCL Composites Inc.
Water is valuable. If you are designing/installing a rainwater or greywater collection system with underground storage, be confident that the water will be there when needed. Many products on the market today, such as excavation liners or various concrete products, don’t have the reliable, watertight, 30-year track record that Xerxes fiberglass tanks offer.
Xerxes Water Storage Tank Features: • 30-year track record - Companies that annually purchase the largest number of underground tanks in North America rely on Xerxes FRP tanks for their storage needs • Availability - Six manufacturing facilities in North America • Superior design - Rustproof, watertight and structurally strong • Strict manufacturing standards - meets various national design standards including an NSF listing that other products don’t offer
Visit our Web site or contact us for a copy of our Green Building Applications brochure. www.xerxes.com • (952) 887-1890 phone • (952) 887-1882 fax CIRCLE NO. 66 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Friendly to the planet. Friendly to your budget. Friendly to LEED projects. ®
www.vtindustries.com
Circle no. 63 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
10_DoorAd_EnvironmentalDoor_facebook_9x10.875.indd 1
Description: “Friendly to the planet.” – ENVIRONMENTAL Job #: VTT5810 Job Title: 2010 Door Print Ads Client: VT Industries Publication: Eco-STructure
4/15/10 1:26:21 PM
TECHNOLOGY
Systems Integration GREEN ROOFS FOR HEALTHY CITIES EXPLORES THE POTENTIAL OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN ROOFTOP VEGETATION AND PHOTOVOLTAIC ARRAYS.
Text Steven W. Peck and Damon van der Linde Illustration Jameson Simpson
Green roofs and roof-mounted solar panels may initially appear as competitors for limited rooftop real estate, but researchers are finding that instead, they may be ideally suited to a symbiotic relationship. The sun’s light energy (in photons) is the fuel that enables solar panels to output a stream of direct current for immediate use or for storage in a battery. However, there are few places subject to more extreme temperatures than a conventional rooftop, and heat is one of the primary factors that reduce the efficiency of roof-mounted solar panels. To be more specific, high rooftop temperatures increase the conductivity of a crystalline silicon panel’s semiconductor, which in turn inhibits charge separation and lowers the voltage of the solar cell. The higher the temperature, the less efficient the panel. The absence of shading and moisture, and the presence of heat-absorbent surfaces on a rooftop can create hot, desertlike conditions. While this open exposure to sunlight makes it an ideal location for solar panels, this hot zone can decrease photovoltaic panel productivity by up to 25 percent. Installing a green roof, however, can improve solar panel efficiency by reducing rooftop temperatures. Traditional black roofs can reach temperatures of 158 F, and they have an enormous effect on temperatures in the building and at ground level. In comparison, the rooftop temperature of an 1 extensive green roof rarely exceeds 77 F. SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 23
TECHNOLOGY
There are also financial benefits to this collaboration. The urban heat island (UHI) effect is the temperature increase in urban centers caused when impermeable surfaces convert sunlight to heat. The elevated temperatures associated with UHI promote the production of harmful groundlevel ozone. In addition, the disappearance of vegetation and the construction of tall buildings prohibits the occurrence of natural cooling processes such as evapotranspiration—the movement of water from the growing medium through the plants and into the air. High summer temperatures also create an enormous demand for interior air conditioning, which can cause problems for energy suppliers. It is projected that the cooling benefits of green roofs could save building owners in the city of Toronto, Canada, $37,130,000 annually in reduced energy costs.2 In addition to the cooling-efficiency symbiosis, racking systems for solar panels may be designed so that the green roof layers act as ballast, thereby saving the need for roof penetrations or concrete pavers. Companies such as Zinco in Germany have been installing these types of systems for years. For their part, green roofs can increase the longevity of a roof ’s waterproofing, thus helping to offset the expenses of removing and replacing solar panels when the waterproofing underneath has reached the end of its useful life.
The drainage and root repellant layers can be designed to provide an additional protection to the roof membrane from the solar panel racking systems, should they move slightly in the wind and begin to erode the waterproofing underneath. Also, irrigated green roofs may provide additional benefits in excessive heat and drought conditions. Water collected during periods of high precipitation can be stored and redistributed during dry periods to sustain plant life and also to cool solar panels when needed. In return, solar panels can provide shelter for green roof components, helping to protect the vegetation and growing media from gusting winds, and they may create partial shading, decreasing excessive evapotranspiration that can dehydrate plants under extremely hot and dry circumstances. Maximizing the symbiotic relationship between plants and solar arrays requires careful design, installation, and maintenance. As we move towards more sustainable, restorative buildings, our knowledge of how organic and inorganic technologies can work together will be critical to our long-term success. Because there are many factors involved in combining green roofs and solar arrays, these projects require a knowledge of systems integration that takes into account the components and stakeholders involved in a green roof. The success of a green roof project can be greatly aided by using a Green Roof Professional (GRP), an accreditation provided by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. To become a GRP, individuals are tested on subjects including design, installation, waterproofing, drainage, plants, and growing media. We are only just beginning to understand the ways in which these technologies may be integrated in different climates. Initial research presented at the Rio 02 World Climate & Energy Event in 2002 showed promising results for green roof and solar array integration, and North American researchers are now taking the lead on quantifying the exact benefits of the green roof and solar panel integration. Among them are David Sailor of Portland State University and professors Liat Margolis and Robert Wright from the University of Toronto, who will be presenting their research at the Eighth Annual CitiesAlive Green Roof & Wall Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. For more information on the conference, which will focus on overcoming barriers to systems integration, visit citiesalive.org. ▪ Steven W. Peck is the founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and Damon van der Linde is its communications and research coordinator. You can learn more about the organization at greenroofs.org. 1. Bass, Brad. The Impact of Green Roofs on Toronto’s Urban Heat Island. Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities, 2003. 2. Banting, Doug; Doshi, Hitesh; Li, James; Missios, Paul; with Au, Angela; Currie, Beth Anne; Verrati, Michael. Report on the Environmental Benefits and Costs of Green Roof Technology for the City of Toronto. 2005.
CIRCLE NO. 82 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
The answer: t(ask)ambient. single for any Premier P remAiecontrollable r vvisual isual ccomfort omsystem fort aand ndofeenergy nergy T-5 ssensibility enssluminaires ibility open office environment. The solution for visual comfort from a controllable controlllab ble system system o ingle lluminaires uminaires off ssingle and energy sensibility. that combines task and ambientt llighting. ighting. more about tambient at TheLightingQuotient.com. MoreLearn on t(ask)ambient at TheLightingQuotient.com.
Circle no. 89 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
SPEED UP BUILD TIME SLOW DOWN ENERGY COSTS
Circle no. 1 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
PERSPECTIVE
From late summer to early spring, more than 55 million children spend a significant part of their weekdays in K–12 schools across the United States. Recognizing this, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS, pronounced “chips”) seeks to make schools better —meaning healthier, more efficient, and more comfortable — places to learn. The nonprofit organization seeks to facilitate the design and construction of high-performance operation schools across the country, and has worked with a handful of states to create state-specific benchmarking criteria for high-performance schools that address site and materials selection, resource efficiency, and indoor environmental quality, among other construction and design considerations. In addition, the organization also offers two recognition programs (CHPS Designed, a selfcertification system, and CHPS Verified, a third-party review and verification) for new construction and major renovations or modernizations; as well as a series of best practices manuals and assessment tools. eco-structure recently spoke with Bill Orr, executive director of CHPS. How would you define a high-performance K–12 school? My “elevator” speech is that a high-performance school is a healthy and productive learning environment that conserves energy, water, and other natural resources, while also minimizing waste, pollution, and environmental degradation. From this, CHPS developed core criteria that elaborate on that definition. [See sidebar: “What is a High-Performance School?” on page 29.] What do you think are the biggest factors influencing school design right now? For schools that are under design right now, there is more of a focus on renovations and modernizations, and I think designers need to start thinking about how to incorporate highperformance features within the scope of those budgets. It’s one thing to have a $60 million or $100 million budget for a new school, but it’s another thing to design a renovation or modernization on a $3 million or $6 million budget. The improvement potential in these projects is immense, but the constraints are equally challenging. It creates an interesting design challenge to be able to do meaningful and holistic things when the scope of your project and its budget are restricted. Another thing I’m seeing is an incredible amount of activity regarding modular classrooms
Lessons in High Performance
Interview Katie Weeks Portrait Richard Morgenstein
SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 27
PERSPECTIVE
and prefabricated buildings. I’ve been talking to manufacturers of relocatable and modular buildings for eight years and have been wondering: When are we going to have green, high-performance prefabricated modular classrooms? I think we’re finally at the point where it is going to happen. I really think we have critical mass and are going to see high-performance spaces that are no longer viewed as those dirty relocatables of the past.
Any other considerations? A number of states are now faced with consolidation issues where, instead of expanding and building new schools, they’re going through the issue of how to close schools and consolidate school districts. Several CHPS districts are going through very severe issues as a result of declining enrollments. I think that’s a new variation on things. They are having to decide which schools to keep open, and there are a number of considerations — political, local, community— and facility condition is an important part of that discussion. In April, CHPS released the Operations Report Card. What is this and how does it work? The Operations Report Card (ORC) is a benchmarking and continual improvement tool for all existing schools, not just high-performance schools. It is a combination of field measurements and post-occupancy surveys. It looks at energy performance, thermal comfort, acoustics, indoor air quality, and lighting and daylighting. Essentially, it’s a tool that is designed so that a school’s facility person can take field measurements, send out postoccupancy surveys, and input the information they gather into our website. The system then generates a report card scoring the school on a 100-point scale in each of the five domains mentioned earlier. The report card also includes suggested improvements that are tiered-based on the level of difficulty and the associated cost, so there is low-hanging fruit on one end and things that may require capital investment on the other. Schools also may be recognized for their scores. If the school’s score is greater than 70 in each of the five categories, it is eligible for recognition as a high-performance operations school. All schools, regardless of their scores, can be recognized as high-improvement schools if they improve their scores in at least three categories over time. I think [the ORC] is a valuable tool for existing schools, some of which are now using it in conjunction with their master planning efforts. Some schools are using it to help develop support for local bond issues, others are using it to determine possible energy improvements and savings, and others are using it as a centerpiece to evaluate their high-performing schools. It’s a stand-alone tool, but CHPS also is looking to undertake a national performance study, and we’re looking at using the ORC as a tool for collecting much of that information. We’re also working on developing a student and teacher engagement component. While it was originally designed for use by facilities staff, we’ve received questions as to why it’s not set up for students to conduct the field measurements and surveys. That way, they’re invested in the condition of their school and also are developing green-job skills. ▪
CIRCLE NO. 31 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
For more information on CHPS, its programs, publications, and tools, visit chps.net.
WHAT IS A HIGHPERFORMANCE SCHOOL? According to CHPS, a high-performance school is healthy; thermally, visually, and acoustically comfortable; efficient in its use of energy, materials, and water; easy to maintain and operate; environmentally responsive; commissioned; a teaching tool; safe and secure; a community resource; an example of stimulating architecture; and adaptable to changing needs. To help schools meet these goals, CHPS has published a five-volume best practices resource manual. The volumes are Planning for High Performance Schools; Design for High Performance Schools; Criteria for High Performance Schools; Maintenance and Operations of High Performance Schools; Commissioning of High Performance Schools; and High Performance Relocatable Classrooms. On a brick-and-mortar level, CHPS recommends that particular attention be paid to an integrated design process and features that affect occupant health and performance, such as lighting and daylighting for visual comfort and operable windows for thermal comfort. It also recommends focusing on features that affect resource efficiency, such a HVAC sizing and water-efficient appliances, and processes that reduce waste and environmental degradations, such as using rapidly renewable materials and maximizing construction waste recycling.
CIRCLE NO. 19 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
On a bigger scale, working off of recommendations in Criteria for High Performance Schools, CHPS developed the CHPS Criteria, a series of benchmarks that emphasize integrated design processes and have been thus far been adopted in in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, the Northeast (New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont), Texas, and Washington. How CHPS criteria are integrated into state school construction programs varies by state, as do the specific program prerequisites and potential credits. CHPS also is working on a pilot program to create a high-performance national standard for K–12 schools.
Build a more efficient school at an equally efficient price. You can achieve twice the energy efficiency of commonly used conventional materials in an attractive building system that won’t break your budget. To learn more, call Butler Manufacturing™ at 800-250-5596 or visit butlermfg.com/energy.
©2010 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc.
CIRCLE NO. 8 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com _
_
_
Circle no. 33 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
FLASHBACK
1 (Before)
2
3
Extra Credit
WHEN A GREEN ROOF FAILS TO PERFORM, A SCHOOL STARTS OVER WITH A NEW, MORE APPROPRIATE, DESIGN.
The original green roof at Sidwell Friends Middle School (1, as seen in August 2009) did not take root as anticipated and began to sprout weeds. In replanting the green roof, Furbish Co. started over with a new mix of sedums (2) that were chosen over the original perennials. The sedums’ metabolism allows them to survive long periods of drought, and thus makes them well-suited to a hot, dry, and windy green roof. The designers also worked with a new growing medium (3) that offered a more consistent particle size and was rigorously tested. It was mounded up to provide more depth and support for the plants.
1,2: Edmund Snodgrass; 3: Furbish Co.
Text Linda McIntyre
The plants on most green roofs aren’t there just to look nice. They contribute to the roof ’s performance and help knit the components of the assembly together. But to provide these benefits over the life of the roof—and to provide the owner with an aesthetic return on investment— the plants have to survive the strong heat, light, and wind conditions found on top of even low buildings. That’s a tall order for most plants, and also for many designers. Selecting plants for green roofs, and the horticultural components that support them, is often a counterintuitive process that requires setting aside most of what you know about plants when they are planted at grade.
The plant palette originally chosen for the green roof at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C.—native flowering perennials— was in keeping with other landscape features in the school’s sustainability-focused master plan. But while these species are beautiful and, on the ground, relatively carefree, they don’t work on a basic green roof assembly such as the one on the school, which had a thin layer of mineral-based growing medium (composed of mineral aggregates) and no irrigation. In this environment, the specified plants died, leaving the medium exposed and, soon, sprouting a motley assortment of weeds. “We quickly saw that the plants couldn’t take the D.C. summers,” says SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 31
LESSONS LEARNED • A green roof isn’t a garden, and no plant is native to a roof. Unless the owner wants to invest in a complex design that includes irrigation and deep soil, stick with tried-and-true green roof plants for most of the roof area. Try accent plants in protected areas or those where the medium can be mounded to provide more soil depth, not all over the roof. • Shortcuts are often shortsighted. Green roof growing medium from an established supplier might seem expensive, but it’s been formulated and tested to support plants on a roof and stay physically and chemically stable over time. It’s also generally inhospitable to weeds. • Maintenance, especially right after installation, can make or break a green roof. An experienced team can often spot and deal with problems before they spin out of control. • Embrace the learning process. The school has had some setbacks in its ambitious effort to green the campus. “But we were prepared for that,” says plant manager Steve Sawyer. “When you push the envelope, sometimes it pushes back. Six or seven thousand people have seen this project, we don’t hide that some things have gone wrong, and we’re making it easier for others.”
COOL ROOF
WHAT MAKES ONE ROOFING MATERIAL COOLER THAN ANOTHER? High solar reflectance + High thermal emittance = Lower energy demand AIA and CSI members: earn Sustainable Design
Do your part to reduce the urban
credit online with “Cool Roofing: A Solution to
heat island effect. Learn more at
National Energy and Environmental Challenges”
WWW.VINYLROOFS.ORG
CIRCLE NO. 71 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
plant manager and head of buildings and grounds Steve Sawyer. And Sawyer’s small grounds crew, charged with maintaining the roof as well as the rest of the campus landscape, had no maintenance plan to guide them through the situation. The school administration brought in Furbish Co., a Baltimore-based design/build firm with considerable green roof experience, to try a different approach. The new roof “is a more conventional extensive green roof, mostly a sedum meadow with some accent plants,” says owner and founder Michael Furbish. The Furbish team started with new growing medium; the medium in the earlier installation was extremely coarse. Working with it would have required a lot of amendment, and killing the bank of weed seeds in the system would have taken years. After laying down a new course of lightweight medium specially blended for extensive green roofs, Furbish’s team planted a mix of tough, drought-tolerant plants, mostly Sedum species. In comparison to the flowering perennials previously planted on the roof, the Sedum species conserve water in their cells, which allows them to survive long periods of drought and makes them better suited to the hot, dry, windy roof environment. In some areas, the medium was mounded a few inches higher than the typical 4-inch depth to support some flowering accent plants. Installed in spring of 2010, the plants are growing in well, despite this year’s scorching summer. Perhaps most important to the new roof is that the Furbish team maintains all of its installations for two years. Furbish team members will conduct site visits, with more checks frontloaded during the growing season to ensure the plants are well-established. As a result, they are able to catch any problems early and swap out plants that are struggling. After each visit, the team will send reports, along with photos, to Sawyer. In addition, he is building an archive of maintenance reports for future reference. ▪ Linda McIntyre is co-author of The Green Roof Manual: A Professional Guide to Design, Installation, and Maintenance, published in August 2010 by Timber Press.
This is your show—the industry’s ONLY annual international event dedicated to the commercial concrete and masonry construction industries. When it comes to discovering the machinery, technology, resources and new ideas you need to sustain and grow your business, nothing compares to World of Concrete.
January 18-21, 2011 • Seminars January 17-21 Las Vegas Convention Center • Las Vegas, Nevada
START YOUR YEAR OFF RIGHT: www.worldofconcrete.com 079 SOURCE CODE: XX
NOW
NEW PVC.
AVAILABLE IN GREEN.
We’re proud to be the first manufacturer to offer you an NSF-listed PVC Schedule 40 product made with a minimum of 30% recycled content and manufactured to ASTM F 1760. RePVC is perfect for LEED ® and government projects, or any other non-pressure application that requires DWV pipe with recycled content. Specify RePVC for your next job and help give old PVC a new life in green construction. www.charlottepipe.com
Circle no. 69 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hybrid water heater consumes up to 62 percent less energy than a standard electric water heater. A compressor and evaporator are integrated into the top of the unit and draw ambient heat from surrounding areas using variable speed fans. Coils wrap the internal tank to secure it to the bottom and transfer the heat to the water. It features four operating modes: E-heat, Hybrid, High Demand, and Standard. geappliances.com; 800.626.2005. Circle 100 ecostructure.hotims.com
Products Text Laurie Grant
Each Sensitile Systems Scintilla panel is constructed to have thousands of light-conducting channels. These optical pathways activate the panels to give them an interactive surface that responds to shadows, movements, light, and colors. The core composition is polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and cladding composition PMMA, tempered glass, polycarbonate, and 100 percent recycled PETG. More than 500 color compositions are available. Total panel thickness is 3/4 or 1 1/4 inches. sensitile.com; 313.872.6314. Circle 101 ecostructure.hotims.com SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 35
Dri-Design’s Ombrae Imaging Technology uses an advanced computer software system to cut 3D images into panels. Any image, such as graphic designs, corporate logos, or photographs, can be created. The technology breaks an image down to individual pixels, then each pixel’s optimal reflective position is calculated and punched into the wall panels. The 3D pixels act as reflectors to catch light or cast a shadow, and can be made from a variety of materials, including Kynar-painted and anodized aluminum, zinc, copper, and stainless steel. They are 100 percent recyclable. dri-design.com; 616.355.2970. Circle 102 ecostructure.hotims.com
Metals Tubelite now manufactures all of its architectural, extrudedaluminum products with EcoLuminum, a high recycledcontent aluminum billet composition with environmentally friendly finishes. The composition contains a minimum of 80 percent reclaimed aluminum; this incorporates a postconsumer average of 34 percent. Products with this new material include the Max/Block daylight control sunshade system and the Therml=Block 300ES Curtainwall. tubeliteinc.com; 800.866.2227. Circle 103 ecostructure .hotims.com
36 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
GBv2_HanleyWood.pdf
1
8/24/10
1:23 PM
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Circle no. 61 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
PRODUCTS
Metals, by Amtico International, features a rippled, beaten texture and six metal shades: gold leaf, coin, fuse (pictured here), foil, tin, and shot. The flooring collection is available in 12-inch-by-12-inch, 12-inch-by-18-inch, 18-inch-by-18-inch, and 12-inch-by-24-inch tiles with beveled edges and a urethane coating. The low-VOC products are FloorScore certified. Amtico uses a closed-loop manufacturing process to recycle 100 percent of scrap material back into new product layers. Products include 36 percent recycled content from Amtico scrap and other post-industrial waste. amtico.com; 800.268.4260. Circle 104 ecostructure.hotims.com
Strength | Beauty | Flexibility ...in perfect balance
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
MCA-Improved:Layout 1 7/8/10 10:41 AM Page 1
IMProved
Insulative Properties
Choose IMPs (Insulated Metal Panels) to achieve high R-values of 14 to 48, exceed energy code requirements, and help create a building that is energy efficient and may qualify for energy tax credits. IMPs offer long-term thermal stability, low maintenance and less installation time vs. multi-component assemblies. They are available in a wide variety of sizes and colors.
Circle no. 34 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
For more information on IMPs, visit www.insulatedmetalpanels.org
Armstrong has increased the total recycled content of its Cirrus High Recycled Content (HRC) Square Lay-In and Cirrus HRC Tegular ceiling panels to 82 percent, while the Ultima HRC Tegular (pictured here) has a total recycled content of 80 percent. Its Optima fiberglass ceiling products now have from 40 to 75 percent recycled content. Armstrong has also increased the recycled content of its metal suspension systems from 25 to 30 percent, and 23 percent of that recycled content is post-consumer. In addition, special HRC suspension systems contain 63 percent total recycled content, 53 percent of which is post-consumer. armstrong.com; 877.276.7876. Circle 105 ecostructure.hotims.com
Ceilings WHY METRO? WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED – from any angle, with
Tile, Shake & Shingle profiles as well as innovative stone-coated accessory flashings only from Metro. With the market leading stone-coat panel, Roman Tile, you’ll win every time, due to its timeless high-profile barrel look that can be installed on battens or batten-less. Both methods meet the strict Florida150-mph *HVHZ wind codes for a secure long-life roof. Call us for a FREE copy of the WHY METAL – WHY METRO? Sales DVD.
TOLL FREE (866) METRO 4U (638-7648)
www.smartroofs.com
* High Velocity Hurricane Zone
METRO SHAKE
METRO TILE
METRO SHINGLE
METRO ROMAN TILE
CIRCLE NO. 37 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Techstyle Canvas from Hunter Douglas Contract is an acoustical ceiling tile system. The company’s digital design library offers thousands of factory-applied solid colors and color matching to major paint manufacturers, in addition to textures and surface patterns. Tiles are available for standard lay-in installation or with hidden clips. The coloring process uses 25 times less coloring agent than conventional on-site paint methods and it does not add any VOCs. hunterdouglascontract.com; 800.727.8953. Circle 106 ecostructure.hotims.com
“Our work is driven by a collective vision that we build with our clients.”
Daniel S. Pearl, Architect, Montreal, Canada: Winner of the Global Holcim Awards Bronze 2006.
Develop new perspectives for our future: 3 rd International Holcim Awards competition for projects in sustainable construction. Prize money totals USD 2 million. www.holcimawards.org In partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA; Tongji University, Shanghai, China; Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City; and the Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Casablanca, Morocco. The universities lead the independent juries in five regions of the world. Entries at www.holcimawards.org close March 23, 2011. The Holcim Awards competition is an initiative of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Based in Switzerland, the foundation is supported by Holcim Ltd and its Group companies and affiliates in more than 70 countries. Holcim is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates as well as further activities such as ready-mix concrete and asphalt including services.
Circle no. 20 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
LESSONS LEARNING ABOUT RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION IS A BREEZE AT HAWAII PREPARATORY ACADEMY’S ENERGY LAB.
Building Section
Text David Sokol Photos Matthew Millman
Both man and nature have bestowed gifts on Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA). With money raised by one of the school’s founders, Geoffrey Clive Davies, Vladimir Ossipoff crafted Davies Memorial Chapel from the massive trunks of indigenous ohia trees, sand, and igneous rock in 1966, and this campus icon is acknowledged as one of the Russian-born architect’s most distinctive buildings. Forty-four years later, Boston-based firm Flansburgh Architects has finished the coeducational school’s Energy Laboratory. Funded by an HPA parent with experience in green energy utilities who challenged HPA to power the building alternatively, the 6,000-square-foot facility is shaped by the trade winds that rush through this corner of Hawaii’s Big Island, is powered by wind and sun, and engages its site in a way that honors the rustic modernism of Ossipoff ’s chapel. According to its director Bill Wiecking, the Energy Lab’s three missions include “education, community outreach, and research,” allowing HPA students to observe different renewable-energy technologies at work—for instance, bifacial photovoltaic (PV) panels as well as PVs with internal inverters — and to conduct their own experiments with, say, biofuels derived from native plants. “We hoped by putting this away from other buildings, its tabula rasa quality would open people’s minds to all kinds of field projects,” Wiecking says of the site, which the school had previously used as a dumping ground for construction waste. “Bill also selected the site for fear of dirty wind [wind made turbulent by interaction with trees],” Chris Brown, a Flansburgh associate and the project architect, says of its position above the treeline. The Energy Lab forms the apex in HPA’s triangular campus master plan, and it sits within a small saddle of a south-facing hill that focuses the northeasterly wind that predominantly turns its 5kW vertical-axis wind turbine. The design is composed of three volumes terracing down the hillside. “This is a bigger building than Ossipoff ’s, which are mostly one classroom wide with a lanai,” Flansburgh principal David Croteau says of the multiple academic buildings Ossipoff created for HPA. “By having a building deep in section and sliding the bars by one another, we could create volumes, courtyards, and outdoor classrooms at a scale that made sense with the other buildings on campus.” Moving downhill, the most elevated bar is dedicated to idea generation, the building’s middle has computer stations to facilitate design and run simulations, and the lowest volume is programmed as a workshop. Students then roll their prototypes onto a southernmost porch for testing. The building was first oriented due south to maximize solar gain, “but it didn’t feel right,” Brown says. Now it faces slightly southeast, in order to not seriously compromise the electricity produced by its 27kW photovoltaic installation. Croteau initially conceived the building’s three parts as curvilinear volumes, and as an “intuitive” response to the trade winds. “It was very different from the design we ended up with,” he says, noting that the realized building hems more closely to HPA’s midcentury architectural vocabulary. That ultimate design also abides the client’s ambition, determined early on, that the building should be net-zero energy and a strong candidate for LEED Platinum and Living Building Challenge certifications.
Roof Plan
The Energy Lab is composed of three long volumes that step down the site’s hillside. The top level (previous spread) features a white corrugated roof that angles up from the ground and out to the south to help directs the site’s dominant northwest tradewinds up and over the structure. The form shelters outdoor instructional spaces from the wind while automated louvers bring in enough fresh air for it to remain entirely naturally ventilated. Fresh air is filtered in through ground-level louver controls on the north and released through clerestory-level exhausts to the south. The southern exposure also optimizes solar-thermal and photovoltaic-panel performance and the roof supports an array of renewable technologies including corrugated fiberglass skylights, radiant cooling panels, solar hot water, standard PV arrays, and bifacial PV panels (detailed above). To meet Living Building Challenge material requirements, a range of local materials (left) were used, such as ohia, a native Hawaiian wood, and board-formed concrete that uses local aggregate. SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 45
1
2
3
4
Anticipated Energy Use, Photovoltaic Analysis
Energy Lab Water Use (estimate)
Estimated AC energy from 30kW PV array 3,500
6% misc.
3,350
46% cleaning/mop sinks
18% toilets
3,200 3,050 kWh
2,900
8% urinals
2,750 2,600 2,450 2,300 2,150 2,000
22% sinks
J F M A M J J A S O N D
In this regard, engineering firm Buro Happold, which began collaborating on the Energy Lab project in October 2007, played an important role in determining the building’s shape as well as its orientation. The designers decided to use the trade winds to their advantage, harnessing the site’s wind for natural ventilation in order to minimize the Energy Lab’s mechanical systems. Matt Herman, who led Buro Happold’s computational simulation team, explains that it began massaging the first scheme with dynamic thermal modeling and airflow network simulations. “One of the challenges the architects brought to us was to provide wind shelter and natural ventilation, so that papers weren’t blowing across desks,” he says. For greater specificity, Buro Happold then applied a computational fluid dynamics model to its efforts, and layered daylight-penetration and heat-gain analyses into its models. The final shape reconciles Buro Happold’s data with ease of construction. Prevailing winds strike the Galvalume-clad two-pitched roof of the Energy Lab’s uppermost volume, traveling underneath the roofline through horizontally mounted manually operable louvers and up its interior ceiling via laminar flow. Air skirts the top of the facility, so that an internal courtyard is shielded from the buffeting and noise of the constant breeze. The upward movement of the air also creates negative pressure that coaxes stale interior air out of that uppermost volume’s transom windows. Just as digital tools were vital to sculpting the Energy Lab’s response to the elements, its passive-design strategies are made active by high technology. Wiecking, a physics teacher, created 380 building-integrated sensors and, with a programmer, wrote 35,000 lines of code to actuate building responses to temperature, carbon dioxide, and humidity readings. The transom windows, for example, will open when interior carbon dioxide reaches 1.5 times atmospheric average, while other sensors detecting wind speed adjust the aperture. If the system doesn’t resolve conditions, sensors prompt purge fans, then air conditioners, into action. “I wanted to make sure people feel comfortable in the building in ways that could be automated and invisible, and that the things occupants wanted to control are easily accessible.” All of this delicate choreography is programmed in XML, so that the resulting data can be monitored online at elab.hpa.edu. Currently Wiecking is conjuring up strategies for the building to predict weather conditions, and to preadjust its settings accordingly. Yet not all of the Energy Lab’s helpmates are so invented. Others are adapted, such as the 19 absorber panels installed on the uppermost roof. Normally used to heat swimming pools, here Flansburgh is circulating water from a 2,500-gallon tank through them in the evening to get cool from the wind. By day this naturally chilled water circulates through a radiant cooling system that, Croteau says, “buys us a few degrees of comfort before having to turn on the air conditioning.” With passive and active elements working in tandem, in January commissioners found that the Energy Lab used only 8 percent of the energy generated on site. Several months later the facility was consuming only 30 percent of the site’s production, despite summertime temperatures and the added electrical load of additional computers in the facility. ▪
Ample daylight in interior spaces such as the workstation area (1) and workshops (2, 3) allow the lab to keep its lighting loads low. In fact, the project must be net-zero energy to meet the Living Building Challenge. As such, the lab has a 5kW vertical-axis windmill for testing emerging wind technologies, and a 23kW photovoltaic array. These renewable energy systems are so successful that at press time, the facility was meeting all of its needs by using only 8 percent of the energy being produced on site. The Living Building Challenge requires that all of the water used in a structure be captured off of its roof. To store this water, the design team nestled a 10,000 gallon water tank (bottom left in photo 4) under one of the building’s levels. From there, the captured water is filtered for potable drinking water and is used for waste systems. Water needs are further reduced with the use of low-flow fixtures.
David Sokol writes about architecture and design from Beacon, N.Y.. To see a slide show of additional images of HPA’s Energy Lab, visit eco-structure.com. SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 47
CONTINUITY
C ONTINUITY & CONTRAST
Text KJ Fields Photos Charles Ingram (except where noted)
REVEALING A SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY.
1
2 Shattuck Hall’s original structure, including the neoclassical brick façade from 1915 (1), was preserved and used as a central design element in the renovation. In the interior studios (previous spread), the mechanical systems are left exposed so that the architecture students studying below can use them as learning tools. Playing off of the rough texture of the building’s frame, large pivoting steel doors give spaces such as the second-floor architecture faculty offices (2) flexibility, as does the custom-crafted metal paneling that adds definition to the faculty offices in the open-plan space. In the hallways (3), glazed glass walls allow daylight to flood in from the perimeter.
Photo 2: Kelly James. 50 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
In the fall of 2008, a renovated Shattuck Hall at Portland State University (PSU) in Portland, Ore., opened its doors to expose much more than hallways and classrooms. The 66,000-square-foot building houses the School of Fine & Performing Arts’ Department of Architecture, and the project peeled away the existing building fabric to unveil a blend of existing systems and passive technology for student instruction. Now, the concrete bones of the original 1915 structure, a network of concentric arcs of the original ductwork, and state-of-the-art radiant heat and cooling panels are easily visible. “Rather than slide in state-of-the-art sustainability behind the scenes, we wanted to reveal how a 100-year-old building could be reinvigorated into a contemporary school of architecture,” notes Clive Knights, chair of PSU’s Department of Architecture. Shattuck Hall initially opened as an elementary school, but the three-story structure became part of the PSU campus in 1969. A $13 million deferred maintenance budget was approved in 2006 to retrofit the mechanical and electrical systems, improve seismic performance, and provide better ADA access by 2008. Architects at Portland’s SRG Partnership orchestrated the renovation and employed passive design strategies to capitalize on project elements and stretch the allotted funds further. Two fan rooms serve every classroom with mechanical supply and return through a comprehensive series of metal ducts. Although the network was inadequate for heating and cooling, it was perfect for ventilation. “The system is a work of art that students can now see,” says SRG principal Kent Duffy. “We suspended radiant heating and cooling panels from the ceilings to take the load off the ducts and retained the system to bring fresh air into every classroom.” The radiant panels provide additional benefits as acoustic treatments and reflectors of indirect light. The designers grouped the 3-foot-by-5-foot panels together, leaving gaps between the panels that allow lights and fans to hang down. The radiant panels operate from a closed-loop system. Water passes through a heat exchanger in the building that either heats or cools the water depending on the season and sends it to the ceiling system. In the student lounge, the panels are flipped upside down so students can view the copper tubing through which the water circulates. With the new ceiling fans, the exposed thermal mass of the concrete and brick structure, and the building’s operable windows, the team was able to expand the occupants’ comfort range by 5 degrees. Most designs assume an average range of 68 F to 73 F. In Shattuck Hall, the upper limit of the comfort range has been increased to 78 F. Duffy attributes this success to the use of ceiling fans, as good air circulation has a huge effect on people’s comfort levels. The current operational efficiency has an Energy Use Index (EUI) of less than 46. EUI is calculated by dividing by the building’s gross square footage by the annual consumption of all fuels in Btu; a typical academic facility’s EUI is up to three times that of Shattuck Hall. Financially, the efficient system is saving the university $13,500 per year in operational costs. Other efficiency measures in the LEED Gold–certified building include occupancy-sensor lighting, timed shut-offs, daylight sensors, a new telecommunications distribution network, and waterless urinals and lowflow fixtures. More than 95 percent of the building materials were reused or recycled during the renovation. A previous renovation filled in one of two original light wells with an elevator shaft. This time, the design team relocated that elevator and uncovered the light well that had been filled, to bring more daylight into the building’s upper two levels as well as into a partially below-grade first floor. Fundraising supported creative features to serve student needs. “We were constrained by the budget for existing system upgrades, but $500,000 of donor money helped us add items like skylight improvements, moveable tackboard walls, steel panels creating casework, and two large pivoting interior doors,” says Barbara Sestak, dean of fine and performing arts at PSU. Each pivoting door of 1/2-inch-thick steel and glass can be moved at 90-, 45-, or 30-degree angles to easily join or divide space on the second floor, allowing flexible use of that area as a reading room, faculty meeting space, or room for large student gatherings. Custom-designed formed-steel panels that partition an office area from the flexible space display etched laser lines that show where each cut and fold was intended. “They serve as a 3D set of working drawings for students,” says Duffy. “The exposure of the systems and materials throughout helps architecture and fine art students become informed about the aspects of design to plan and create with those in mind.” ▪ KJ Fields writes about sustainability and architecture from Portland, Ore. To see a slide show of this project, visit eco-structure.com.
3
1 The open-plan studios (1) are designed to be both workspaces and gallery spaces for student and professional work. In the hallways outside of the third-ďŹ&#x201A;oor studios (2), tackable, movable panels provide space for additional display or critiques. In terms of the mechanical systems, upgrades to the building included installing radiant heating and cooling panels which, in the student resource room (3), are purposefully on display overhead. In the hallways, skylights help ďŹ&#x201A;ood the interiors with natural light, ramps were added for accessibility, and the cable trays were left exposed to showcase the technologies used. (All three of these, as well as the radiant heating and cooling panels in the student resource room, are highlighted in red in the cross sectional diagram, far right.) Throughout the space, the merging of concrete, glass, and steel (4) emphasizes the juxtaposition of old and new. Photo 2: Kelly James
2
3
Drawing Head
First Floor Construction Plan
Third Floor Crit Space and Second Floor Corridor Sectional
4
SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 53
Text David R. Macaulay Photos Mark Herboth
BRANCHING OUT
A NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY GIVES A DOWNTOWN D.C. NEIGHBORHOOD AN ANCHOR FOR THE FUTURE.
SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 55
56 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
When Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia Neighborhood Library closed in 2004, the local neighborhood temporarily lost a vital community asset. Anacostia lies just east of its namesake river, and its downtown area, located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, is recognized as a National Historic District. It was one of the first suburbs of Washington, D.C., and was home to prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Predominately low income and African-American, this portion of the city’s Ward 7 also includes a high ratio of children, so parks, playgrounds, and other community venues have served an essential role in family life for many residents. However, in the 1990s, Anacostia also became widely known for its high drug trade, crime rates, and poverty. This coincided with a decline in area development. When the Anacostia Neighborhood Library, in dire need of repairs and funding for staff and operations, shut its doors amid protests in 2004, however, it was also done so with the promise to rebuild. Enter Ginnie Cooper in 2006, recruited from the Brooklyn Public Library in New York and, before that, the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Ore., to be the new D.C. chief librarian. Her charge: Set a new course for 21st century libraries in the nation’s capital. Her mandate: “Good libraries are civic and cultural centers, places where neighborhood groups hold meetings and where residents gather for special events, such as readings, speakers, or exhibits. Good library service is about providing access to information, to 1 knowledge, to growth.” With capital funding from the D.C. government, as well as support from then-mayor Anthony Williams, current mayor Adrian Fenty, and the city council, Cooper proceeded with the immense task of repairing and/or rebuilding many of the city’s 25 libraries — beginning with the Anacostia branch. The D.C. Library System also made a commitment to achieve LEED Silver certification, or better, for all new construction. Through an extensive RFP process, the system selected the Freelon Group, a multidisciplinary firm based in Durham, N.C., as the design architect and architect of record, along with R. McGhee & Associates as the associate architect. Freelon’s award-winning portfolio concentrates on sustainable design, particularly for museums, higher education, science and technology facilities, and libraries. “We were very intrigued that we could be a part of rebuilding the system there,” observes Zena Howard, Freelon’s associate principal and senior project manager for the Anacostia project. A community design process, spanning several meetings in 2007 and 2008, led to final concept and schematic designs for the project. Residents’ input focused on strong security measures, community rooms, spaces for adult literacy, and places for youth to study after school. In addition, they said, the new library design should complement the existing neighborhood, with good lighting and plenty of windows that look out on green space featuring a playground, picnic tables, and benches. The resulting $14.7 million Anacostia Neighborhood Library sits squarely on the site of the old library, surrounded by native landscaping that requires no irrigation and bordering a bioretention pond that treats rainwater runoff before it flows into the river. In the parking lot across the site from the bioretention pond, a biosaver filter under the parking lot also helps filter storm water. Overhead, a TPO white roof reflects sunlight to manage solar heat gain, while solar hot water collectors heat the water for the building. Reminiscent of the leaves of the oak trees that shade the western exposure of the building, a perforated green metal shade stretches out to connect the library’s pavilions, which were scaled with the surrounding neighborhood residences in mind, and also filters daylight to the spaces below. Exterior glazing and multiple skylights fill the interior with daylight; occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, and automatic dimming controls regulate energy use. Expansive 17-foot-high floor-to-ceiling windows crafted with low-E glass offer views for 90 percent or more of regularly occupied spaces. The designers also specified recycled and regionally produced materials for the building’s construction, including content in steel, masonry, glass, and concrete. Low-VOC finishes, along with high-grade filters and CO2 sensors in the HVAC systems help to improve indoor air quality. Rounding out Freelon’s design, low-flow fixtures, dual-flush toilets, and waterless urinals reduce water usage for sewage by 49.2 percent, and combined energy strategies result in 24.5 percent greater efficiency versus a comparable baseline building. With a grand opening celebration in April, residents welcomed the new Anacostia Library, which now includes conference rooms; study rooms; a public meeting room that can hold up to 100 people; more than 40,000 books, CDs, and DVDs; 40 computers accessible to the public; free Wi-Fi Internet access; and public art by Ward 7–based artists. Special attention also is given to children’s programs and collections dedicated to various age groups, as well as areas for young adults to congregate. Even with all of the sustainable attributes, Howard is most proud of the library’s new role as a civic presence. “This area, even with its significant history and strong sense of community and children, still represented probably one of the most challenged neighborhoods in which we’ve worked,” she says. “But together with residents, we were able to make this building so easy to use and comfortable while integrating it architecturally, socially, respectfully into its surroundings — truly a place to read, grow, and educate.” ▪
1
2 Wide expanses of glass provide extensive views out to the surrounding neighborhood at the new Anacostia Branch Library (previous spread). In reference to the canopies of the oak trees on the western side of the site, a vibrant green, scrimlike metal roof (left) arches over the building’s pavilions. It also helps filter daylight, provide shade, and reduce indoor glare. Recycled materials were used where possible and the building’s steel, masonry, glass, and concrete (1, seen from the north entry) contain recycled content. A bioretention pond (2) on the western side of the library helps manage stormwater runoff.
David R. Macaulay is the author of Integrated Design: Mithun and the blog Green ArchiTEXT, greenarchitext.com. To view a slide show of the Anacostia Branch Library, visit eco-structure.com. 1. Public Hearing, Committee on Education, Libraries, and Recreation, Bill 16-734, the “Library Transformation Act of 2006”, June 15, 2006. rrc.dc.gov/rrc/lib/rrc/GC_LTA_Testimony_6_15_06_FINAL.pdf
SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 57
Site Plan
Bioretention pond
Biosaver filtration
Solar hot water collectors
TPO white roofing
>
Skylights
N
Main Level
58 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
Lower Level
2
3 Inside, a highly efficient HVAC system conditions the space from underneath a raised floor system, and CO2 sensors help regular air circulation. In addition to the main reading area (1, 2), the library features spaces dedicated to specific ages, such as the children’s reading area (3). Through all these spaces, lighting controls such as occupancy sensors, daylight sensors, and automatic dimming controls help regulate energy use.
1
SEPTEMBER 2010 ECO-STRUCTURE 59
SPECS
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, SHATTUCK HALL
Landscape architect: Lappas + Havener, lhpa-nc.com Lighting designer, daylighting consultant: Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design, hlblighting.com Energy modeling: EMSI
GREEN TEAM
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
Architect, interior designer: SRG Partnership,
Acoustical system: Draper, draperinc.com
srgpartnership.com
Adhesives, coatings, and sealants: Pecora Corp.,
Client, owner: Portland State University, pdx.edu
pecora.com; Dow, dow.com
Mechanical engineer, electrical engineer: PAE Consulting
Appliances: GE Appliances, geappliances.com
Engineers, pae-engineers.com
Building management systems and services:
Structural engineer: Catena Consulting Engineers,
Johnson Controls, johnsoncontrols.com
catenaengineers.com
Carpet: Shaw Industries Group, shawfloors.com
Geotechnical engineer: Geotechnical & Environmental
Ceilings: Armstrong
Consultants
Cladding: Morin, morincorp.com
Construction manager, general contractor: Howard S.
Curtain walls: EFCO
Wright Construction Co., hswcompanies.com
Exterior wall systems: Georgia-Pacific, gp.com;
Landscape architect: GreenWorks,
Bakor, bakor.com
greenworkspc.wordpress.com
Flooring: Armstrong; Davis Colors, daviscolors.com;
Lighting designer: Luma Lighting Design, lumald.com
Haworth, haworth.com
Architect, interior designer: Flansburgh Architects,
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
vitra.com; Stylex, stylexseating.com; Bernhardt Furniture Co.,
faiarchitects.com
Acoustical system: Tectum, tectum.com
bernhardt.com; KI, ki.com; Spacesaver, spacesaver.com
Client, owner: Hawaii Preparatory Academy, hpa.edu
Building management systems and services:
Glass: JE Berkowitz, www.jeberkowitz.com
Mechanical engineer: Hakalau Engineering
Siemens, siemens.com
HVAC: York, york.com; Johnson Controls; Titus,
Structural engineer: Walter Vorfeld & Associates
Carpet: Interface, interfaceglobal.com
titus-hvac.com; A.O. Smith Corp., aosmith.com
Electrical engineer: Wallace T. Oki
Ceilings: Armstrong; TWA Panel Systems, twapanels.ca
Insulation: Johns Manville; Dow
Civil engineer: Belt Collins Hawaii, beltcollins.com
Flooring: Mannington Mills, mannington.com;
Interior walls: National Gypsum Co.,
Surveyor: Pattison Land Surveying
Nora Systems, nora.com
nationalgypsum.com
Construction manager: Paâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ahana Enterprises
Interior walls: Bobrick, bobrick.com
Lighting control systems: Lutron Electronics Co.,
General contractor: Quality Builders
Lighting control systems: Lighting Control & Design,
lutron.com
Consulting engineer: Buro Happold, burohappold.com
lightingcontrols.com
Lighting: Sistemalux, sistemalux.com; Pace Lighting,
Roofing: Johns Manville, jm.com
pacelighting.com; Spring City, springcity.com; Hydrel,
MORE AT ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
HAWAII PREPARATORY ACADEMY ENERGY LAB GREEN TEAM
Furniture: Izzy+, izzyplus.com; Knoll, knoll.com; Vitra,
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
Wallcoverings: Forbo, forbo.com
hydrel.com; Lightolier, lightolier.com; Prudential Lighting,
Appliances: GE Appliances, geappliances.com
Windows: EFCO, efcocorp.com
prulite.com; Selux, selux.com
Carpet: Bentley Prince Street, bentleyprincestreet.com Ceilings: Armstrong, armstrong.com Cladding: James Hardie Building Products, jameshardie.com Curtain walls: Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, oldcastlebe.com
Masonry, concrete, and stone: Ernest Maier Block,
ANACOSTIA NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARY
Glass: PPG Industries, ppg.com
emcoblock.com Metal: M.R. Metals, mrmetalsinc.com Millwork: Columbia Woodworking, cwwcorp.com; 3Form, 3-form.com
HVAC: Sanyo, us.sanyo.com/hvac.com
GREEN TEAM
Paints and finishes: ICI Paints, icipaints.com
Insulation: BioBased Insulation, biobased.net
Architect, interior designer: The Freelon Group, freelon
Plumbing and water systems: Toto USA, totousa.com;
Interior walls: Hufcor, hufcor.com
.com, Philip G. Freelon, principal in charge, Zena Howard,
American Standard, americanstandard.com; Sloan Valve Co.,
Lighting control systems: Lutron Electronics Co.,
senior project manager, Michael Rantilla, project architect,
sloanvalve.com; Kohler Co., kohler.com; Elkay Manufacturing
lutron.com
and Kathryn Taylor, interior designer; in association with
Co., elkay.com; Acorn Engineering Co., acornengineering.com;
Lighting: The Lighting Quotient, elliptipar.com
R. McGhee & Associates, rmc-architects.com
Delta Faucet Co., deltafaucet.com; Dayton; Zurn, zurn.com;
Paints and finishes: Sherwin-Williams, sherwin-williams.com
Client, owner: District of Columbia Public Library,
Bobrick; Excel Dryer, exceldryer.com
Photovoltaics: Sanyo, us.sanyo.com/solar
dclibrary.org
Renewable energy systems (excluding photovolatics):
Plumbing and water systems: Solahart, solahart.com
Mechanical engineer: John J. Christie & Associates,
Solar Skies, solarskies.com
Roofing: Steelscape, steelscape.com; Dura Coat Products,
johnjchristie.com
Roofing: Firestone Building Products,
duracoatproducts.com
Structural engineer: Stewart Engineering, stewart-eng.com
www.firestonebpco.com
Signage: Active Safety, activesafety.com
Electrical engineers: John J. Christie & Associates; Setty &
Signage: Anderson Krygier, andersonkrygier.com
Windows and doors: Pacific Wood Laminates,
Associates Ltd., setty.com
Site and landscape products: HessAmerica,
pacificwoodlaminates.com
Civil engineer: Delon Hampton & Associates,
hessamerica.com; Concord Industries, concordindustries.com
Ceramic tile: Sonoma Tilemakers, sonomatilemakers.com
delonhampton.com
Structural systems: Canatal Industries, canatal.net
HVAC ductwork: Knauf Insulation, knaufusa.com
Geotechnical engineer: Professional Consulting Corp.,
Wallcoverings: Onix, onixmosaic.com; Aarco Products,
Rolling library ladder: Alaco Ladder Co., alacoladder.com
professionalconsulting.com
aarcoproducts.com
Sliding glass doors: Oceanside Aluminum,
Construction manager: Hill International, hillintl.com
Windows and doors: Eggers Industries, eggersindustries
oceansidealuminum.com
General contractor: Forrester Construction Co.,
.com; de La Fontaine, www.delafontaine.com; EFCO;
Jalousie louvres: Breezway Australia, breezway.com.au
forresterconstruction.com
Wasco Skylights, wascoskylights.com
60 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
Circle no. 64 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Resource
SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
Accelerate Build Time … Decelerate Energy Costs The accel-E™ Steel Thermal Efficient Panel (S.T.E.P.) from ACCELERATED Building Technologies is a thermally resistant, high performance building panel that’s strong, lightweight and energy efficient. Combining the strength and performance of cold-formed steel framing with the superior insulation properties of expanded polystyrene, the accel-E™ STEP wall system simplifies framing, insulation and sheathing to one process.
888.9.accelE www.accel-E.com
PAC SOLAR SERIES ROOF SYSTEM The PAC Solar Series from Petersen Aluminum integrates cutting-edge photovoltaic technology with the durability of a standing seam roof system. Thin-film solar laminate is fused to the surface of the metal panel substrate to create a green solution for energy generation. PAC Solar Series is available on these Petersen profiles: Snap-Clad, Redi-Roof, Tite-Loc, Tite-Loc HS and Tite-Loc Plus. Solar Series roofs provide payback in 10 years or less and offer a 20-year warranty. Call 800-PAC-CLAD or visit www.pacgreeninfo.com.
The 3rd International Holcim Awards competition is now open. The Holcim Awards is an international competition recognizing innovative projects and future-oriented concepts. A total of $2 million in prize money is awarded in each threeyear cycle. The competition seeks projects demonstrating an ability to stretch conventional notions about sustainable building while balancing environmental, social and economic performance while exemplifying architectural excellence.
www.holcimawards.org
VARI-Cool Coatings
DURANAR® VARI-CoolTM Coatings by PPG blend IR-reflective pigments that keep buildings cool with color-shifting pigments that give them new dimensions of color, depth and texture. PPG also has more thatn 250 ULTRA-Cool® colors registered with the Cool Roof Ratings Council to provide architects with a colorful array of sustainable building solutions.
888.PPGIDEA PPGIdeaScapes.com
ADVERTISERS
ACCELERATED BUILDING
KAWNEER
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
Page 26 Circle No. 1 www.accel-E.com (888) 922-2353
Page17 Circle No. 67 www.kawneer.com
Page 5 Circle No. 6 www.sereply.com (800) 789-7038
AKZO NOBEL
Page 25 Circle No. 89 www.TheLightingQuotient.com
Page 1 Circle No. 73 www.akzonobel.com/ccna
AMERICAN HYDROTECH Page 18 Circle No. 3 www.hydrotechusa.com (800) 877-6125
BUTLER Page 29 Circle No. 8 www.butlermfg.com/energy (800) 250-5596
CENTRIA Page 13 Circle No. 11 www.eco.CENTRIA.com (800) 759-7474
CHARLOTTE PIPE
THE LIGHTING QUOTIENT
LIVEROOFS Page 4 Circle No. 29 www.LiveRoof.com (800) 875-1392
MAJOR INDUSTRIES
VP Page 3 Circle No. 62 www.vp.com (800) 238-3246
MBCI
VT
Page 30 Circle No. 33 www.mbci.com/ecos
Page 22 Circle No. 63 www.vtindustries.com
METAL CONSTRUCTION ASSN.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Page 39 Circle No. 34 www.insulatedpanels.org
Page C4 Circle No. 32 www.wm.com/construction (877) 731-0118
METL-SPAN
CONSTRUCTION SPECIALTIES
Page 14 Circle No. 36 www.metlspan.com/corevalues (877) 585-9969
COSELLA DORKEN Page 11 Circle No. 12 www.delta-dry.com (888) 4DELTA4
EFCO Page 41 Circle No. 88 www.efcocorp.com (800) 221-4169
HEADWATERS Page 29 Circle No. 19 www.flyash.com (888) 236-6236
HOLCIM
MP GLOBAL PRODUCTS
XERXES Page 18 Circle No. 66 www.xerxes.com (952) 887-1890
NORA RUBBER FLOORING Page C3 Circle No. 43 www.nora.com/us/education20 (800) 332-NORA
NUDURA
INSULATED PANEL SYSTEMS
KALWALL Page 4 Circle No. 75 www.kalwall.com (800) 258-9777
ebuild is the destination for construction pros searching for information about building products. ebuild is a source of unbiased coverage of new products, trends and news. Pros visit ebuild to learn how to do their jobs faster, safer and easier. ebuild connects pros to product manufacturers, experts and peers.
Page 20 Circle No. 44 www.nudura.com
PETERSEN ALUMINUM INC.
INVISIBLE STRUCTURES
WORLD OF CONCRETE Page 33 www.worldofconcrete.com
Page 24 Circle No. 82 www.quietwalk.com (888) 379-9695
Page 6 Circle No. 79 www.PAC-CLAD.com (800) PAC-CLAD
Page 38 Circle No. 24 www.invisiblestructures.com (800) 233-1510
WESTERN RED CEDAR Page 61 Circle No. 64 www.wrcla.org (866) 778-9096
search. source. learn. connect. ebuild.
METRO ROOF PRODUCTS Page 40 Circle No. 37 www.smartroofs.com (866) METRO 4U
Page41 Circle No. 20 www.holcimawards.org
Page 2 Circle No. 25 www.insulated-panels.com (800) 729-9324
VINYL ROOFING Page 32 Circle No. 71 www.vinylroofs.org
Page 28 Circle No. 31 www.majorskylights.com (888) 759-2678
Page 34 Circle No. 69 www.charlottepipe.com
Page 9 Circle No. 90 www.c-sgroup.com (800) 631-7379
USGBC Page 37 Circle No. 61 www.greenbuildexpo.org
PPG Page C2 Circle No. 46 www.ppgideascapes.com (888) PPG-IDEA
a 360 degree view of product information
S-5! Page 16 Circle No. 35 www.s-5-solar.com/eco (888) 825-3432
ebuild.com
ECOCENTRIC
A Big Hit ONE OF THE SMALLEST BALLPARKS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HITS THE FARTHEST HOME RUN FOR SUSTAINABILITY.
Text Lindsey M. Roberts Photos Bergerson Photography
64 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
The building site was a worst-case scenario: Eight acres were available for the future Minnesota Twins’ stadium, Target Field, in downtown Minneapolis, but architecture firm Populous needed a full 12 acres to build the programmed 40,000-seat stadium. On the site’s northeast side were light and commuter rails; on the southeast, a highway; and on the southwest, a viaduct. The northwest side bordered a municipal garbage burner with a freight-rail line —there was no room to expand the original acreage. Also, the site was once a contaminated riverbed. Mortensen Construction had to drive 3,300 10-inch-diameter steel pipes 100 feet into the bedrock just to stabilize the area for building. There wasn’t even room around the site to house the supplies or cranes for construction. Out of this disaster scene, however, Populous scored big, creating the second-ever LEED-certified Major League Baseball stadium in the country— beating the first, Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., by two points. (Both are LEED Silver.) For the $545 million stadium completed in January, the firm had to build from the inside out, staging the supplies and equipment on the future field. The firm also had to build inside out in form. As Populous associate principal Mike Donovan describes it, the stadium is shaped like “a beautiful mushroom.” From the air, one would see a stadium with what appears to be a 10.5-acre footprint, not the actual 8-acre footprint.
To achieve LEED, the firm incorporated a range of environmental measures. Reducing construction waste, building with recycled and locally sourced materials, and including radiant heating were straightforward. In addition, Populous got creative with high-efficiency field lighting and a rainwater filter system, which treats 90 percent of runoff, filtering it for use in washing down the seating bowl and irrigating the field. Populous also pipes in steam from the municipal burner as an energy source for heating the stadium’s water. If situating a ball field in the middle of the urban Minneapolis-St.Paul-area has disadvantages, it also had one big, green advantage: public transportation. The light-rail lines were extended to meet the stadium, and connect with a commuterrail line in a public transportation hub integrated into the stadium. A major bus station lies on the east corner, and fans on bikes can access the stadium via a bike trail on the south corner. Populous topped off its achievement with a giant, white boomerang of a canopy that totals 66,805 square feet. Enclosed all the way around, the canopy roof helps reduce the heat island effect. At night it glows, reminiscent of the field’s light stands. Target Field has essentially extended downtown Minneapolis by two blocks. But according to Populous senior principal, Earl Santee, the ballpark’s impact stretches beyond its slight size: “You can measure the ballpark in miles,” he says, “not just feet.” ▪
Pub EcoStructure 9" x 10.875" +0.125" bleed
WEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;VE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT EDUCATIONAL FLOORING SOLUTIONS.
From you. Designing for education is all about collaboration. Engaging you early in the design process has often inspired flooring solutions that bring a sense of purpose and energy to your project. These colorful, durable, sustainable solutions are ideal for classrooms, corridors, laboratories, cafeterias and more. Designed for the challenges of learning environments, noraÂŽ rubber flooring is long lasting, requires less maintenance, and contributes to better indoor air quality.
It all starts with you. You and your challenges. You and your world. You and nora. 800-332-NORA www.nora.com/us/education20 Circle no. 43 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
nra2374_EducaAd_ES_D8a.indd 1
7/28/10 9:13 AM
Circle no. 32 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com