| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
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San Francisco AIA Awards 2004 | |
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Going Green in New England | |
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Learning from Pierre Koenig | |
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Going Green in New England The Natural Lands building was carefully sited to not disturb the preserve's open land. The builder tapped regional resources for building materials including steel, lumber, and roofing. The owner provided the foundation stone, which was salvaged from a local barn that had been recently demolished, and the interior wood trim was milled from fallen trees collected on their other preserves. The building's east-west linear footprint along a south-facing slope takes advantage of daylighting and passive solar gain through large expanses of energy-efficient window walls, which are protected with exterior sunshades and roof overhangs. The north facade, more vulnerable to energy loss, has smaller windows. Energy Saving at Home The Felician Sisters Convent in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, by Perkins Eastman, tied for first place in the residential category. Here, renovation was chosen over new construction. The 1932 building was fitted with a water-source heat pump and high-efficiency windows with spectrally selective glazing. While retaining the original character of the building, the architects made adaptations to reduce operating costs and to support accessible aging in place for the nuns. The site was also "renovated," and a seven-acre (2.8-hectare) lawn was converted to a meadow with indigenous plantings. The other residential project receiving top billing was "Eden," a straw bale house near Wilmington, Vermont by LineSync Architecture. The secluded property is passively solar heated and powered by electricity generated on site. Frost-protected shallow foundation technology (FPSF) minimized excavation requirements during construction and now reduces heat loss. The structure is of highly insulating straw bale walls sprayed with clay plaster and hand-coated with lime plaster. Timber for the frame construction came from sustainably harvested trees. Lessons for Life The first prize for places of learning went to the Capuano Early Childhood Center in Somerville, Massachusetts, designed by HMFH Architects, Inc. Siting the school on a public park allowed the city to provide a new school where it was needed and at the same time fund the renovation of a deteriorating park facility and the environmental cleanup of a contaminated brownfield in a crime-ridden neighborhood. The building achieves points for sustainability by being within walking distance of its population in an already dense urban setting. Low-water fixtures indoors and drip irrigation outdoors mean significant decreases in water needs compared to comparable conventional buildings. Similar decreases in electricity for lighting come through the use of occupancy sensors, multilamp switching, daylight dimming controlled by photocells, and high-efficiency light fixtures. Over half the millwork was constructed from Forest Stewardship Certified wood, and the builders recycled over 80 percent of the construction waste. The facility has many instructive green features, and a custom environmental curriculum Web site is being created for the Somerville School System. Despite these and many other sustainability measures, the architects believe the most significant high performance strategy was to design both the building and the park site to accommodate multiple uses, maximizing potential for both students and community groups. The first prize for places of work, large buildings went to the Plaza at PPL Center, Allentown, Pennsylvania by Robert A. M. Stern Architects. Anchoring one end of the city's main business district, the building provides a new city center workplace and a new public square. The transparent south facade is intended to animate the street scene, and it is hoped the building will be a catalyst for economic development. A dramatic 8-story central glass atrium brings natural light deep into the core of the building's 35,000 square foot (3250-square-meter) floors. High ceilings and outside walls constructed of continuous, nearly full-height, high-performance glass also reduce electric lighting costs and provide panoramic views of the region. Indoor air quality was also a major concern in the building's design. All paint, adhesives, sealants, carpet, and composite wood are formaldehyde-free and very low (or zero) VOC-emitting to minimize odors and indoor air contaminants. During construction, an extensive indoor air quality management plan prevented pollutants, contaminants, and moisture from entering the HVAC system and absorbent building materials . All completed spaces were flushed with 100 percent outside air for a minimum of two weeks before occupancy. The first prize for student work went to Ecotone Village, proposed for East Boston, designed by Daniel Lamb for his thesis at the Boston Architectural Center. The project is a revitalization of a contaminated industrial site. Lamb's idea is to provide a mixed use community that can support itself economically and socially and create pedestrian connections to a public waterfront. Ecotone's key sustainable design features are proximity to public transportation, ocean-thermal heating and cooling, wind turbines, green roofs, passive solar, double skin, "living machine" wastewater treatment, sun shading, and natural ventilation. Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... More detailed information on all these projects and the other prize winners is available at the NESEA Web site. Judges for this year's competition were Daniel Arons, AIA, Architerra, Inc.; green building consultant Elizabeth Cordero; Andrew Shapiro, Energy Balance Inc.; architect Donald Watson, FAIA, NCARB; and Mark Webster, PE, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.
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