| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
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Oregon Engineering | |
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Stone Green | |
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Nottingham Hopkins | |
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Oregon Engineering Classrooms adjacent to the atrium have glazed walls so they share the abundant daylight. Indeed, the atrium and windowed exterior walls illuminate virtually all the classrooms, labs, and offices, cutting electricity consumption for lighting up to 40 percent. Many of those windows are operable, making fresh air an option for the occupants. In cooler weather, an automated system responds to a window being opened by turning off the heat supplied to that room. Also, a heat recovery system captures waste heat from the server rooms and directs it to perimeter offices. In warmer weather, the atrium acts as a chimney to exhaust warm air and draw in cool air to minimize air conditioning. Fresh-air transfer ducts provide natural ventilation to interior zones. Solar heat gain is minimized with the use of exterior sunscreens which, along with interior light shelves, control glare and improve daylighting. The roof's reflective coating reduces unwanted heat gain. In every season, the building's concrete thermal mass moderates the interior temperatures to further reduce heating and cooling loads. As the electrical engineering students take a lesson from such nontechnical approaches to environmental control, they will still have high-tech examples to learn from. They enjoy access to wireless communications, for instance, and energy-efficient direct/ indirect lighting in all office areas, classrooms, and labs. Photovoltaic panels to produce electricity and solar collectors for heating water grace the roof. Water and Health Exploiting Oregon's abundant rain as a resource, the building has a 16,500-gallon (62,000-liter) rain water collection and storage system to provide water to flush toilets and irrigate the landscape in dry months, reducing city water use by more than 60 percent. The site design also reduces storm runoff, and the rain water not collected is filtered through landscape planters to remove contaminants. In several ways, the building also contributes to the health of its inhabitants. Construction materials included formaldehyde-free wheat board, foam insulation, and carpeting; odor-free asphalt products; and zero or low-VOC paints, adhesives, and sealants. Upholstery, paints, and other finish materials were selected to eliminate off-gassing. The air conditioning refrigerant is free of chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and halons. Moreover, the city's relatively flat terrain and bus system encourage the use of alternate transportation as do the building's sheltered bicycle parking and shower rooms for bike commuters. No new automobile parking spaces were constructed for the project. Savings for Society The university administration is also projected to benefit from the building's high-performance design through lower costs of maintenance and operation. The extensive heat recovery system is expected to pay for itself in four years. Collectively, the energy-efficient systems are projected to use about 60 percent of the energy of a similar conventional building. And the water management system will save an estimated 372,000 gallons per year. To supplement the photovoltaic generation, the university purchases some of the rest of its needed electricity — already lower than in a conventional building — from renewable wind, solar, and biomass sources. Careful construction, by general contractor Skanska USA Building, Inc., contributed to the overall sustainability of the project. Over 90 percent of construction waste was recycled rather than delivered to a landfill. Many of the selected building materials had high recycled content, including steel, metal studs, gypsum board, ceiling tile, and concrete. To reduce shipping costs, many materials came from local sources, including brick, concrete, wood products, gypsum board, and furnishings. To its credit, the administration considers the well-being of construction and maintenance workers in its definition of sustainability. A "living wage" was paid to construction workers, and native, drought-tolerant plants were chosen to reduce the burden on the landscape maintenance staff. After construction, a thorough building commissioning was conducted to ensure that the mechanical and electrical systems would work as designed. In addition, a commissioning agent provided further system review and building operator training to ensure efficient ongoing operation. This LEED-Gold-rated building is projected to be 43-percent more energy efficient than code requires. And, perhaps of equal importance, it is a habitat that teaches, through its design, the future professionals who will be responsible for improving still further our standards of sustainability. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...
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