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Although a proactive design team and clear LEED credit application narratives helped, project team commitment and partnership are and will continue to be at the core of the project's success.

Water and Life

Our story begins with MWD excavating Diamond Valley in the early 1990s in preparation for reservoir construction. Howard Rosenthal, chairman of the board of the Western Center Museum, recalls that "MWD studies did not expect to hit upon anything, but they actually found the opposite: buried evidence of a trading ground between desert and coastal tribes."

"The museum and its location emanated out of this found collection of over one million fossils and 200,000 Native American artifacts," explains Richard Giese, executive director of the Western Center Museum. "Our mission is half museum and half educational, a perfect fit for sustainable buildings with an awareness of their environment."

Rosenthal agrees, though he notes that "green" design was not on the forefront of their priorities in the beginning. "We knew that we wanted a water component to the museum, as that is what made life possible in this area, but it was the involvement of the MWD and the seductiveness of the design team that led us to accept the additional cost involved in making this a LEED project."

Making the Case

Michael Lehrer, FAIA, of Lehrer + Gangi carefully explains, "I believe this to be true: As architects, we were leaders on this project. We took the lead on pushing sustainability, and the clients became believers on the basis of cost-benefit analysis. Our work was to listen, lead and convince."

Some systems were easier to quantify than others, such as the drip irrigation system that uses recycled water, supplied by MWD, to irrigate the entire site.

Furthering site sustainability, educational gardens with interactive learning stations contain pervious decomposed granite paths winding beneath the occasional shade tree, amidst climatically appropriate disease-resistant and infestation-resistant plants, and around sculptural bedrock stones surreptitiously salvaged from the reservoir construction.

Other systems required more speculative effort. Running cost-benefit analyses on their own dime, the team — notably mechanical engineers IBE Consulting Engineers and electrical/ solar engineers Vector Delta Design Group — used facts and figures to show the energy savings in operational dollars of the project's radiant heating, forced-air units, displacement ventilation, and the 540-kilowatt photovoltaic system. The project's energy model combined these moves, a single-ply cool roof, and efficient lighting to calculate over 65 percent energy savings as compared to California Title 24 requirements (2001 Standards).

The key to continued success seems to be that once the client agreed to pursue LEED certification, the entire team — designer, client, and construction manager – truly worked together to achieve it. "Lehrer + Gangi's approach was one of partnership, which trickled down into the design process itself," remarked Rosenthal. "There was never fighting over whose project it was."

Greening the Museums

Heading into construction with the goal of LEED Silver, how did the team propel the project to LEED Platinum? Again, through teamwork and smart documentation.

"We found after doing the documentation at the beginning of construction that we were designing the building to achieve LEED Gold despite ourselves," recalls Lehrer.

"Achieving those last seven points was accomplished by vetting remaining possibilities," he says. "Getting to Platinum was a lot harder than getting to Gold."

For example, Lehrer explains that when the programmatic need for view trumped maximizing energy savings in determining the building's north-south orientation, they immediately nestled translucent graphic banners between the iconic towers to act as curtain-wall sunscreens. Subsequently, the team found that these panels not only lessened heat gain, but also allowed daylight and view into critical visual task areas.

Outlining this approach in a narrative allowed them to achieve LEED credits for both daylight and view without impacting the black-box exhibit areas.

In explaining the late push of credits, Rosenthal and Lehrer both laud a smooth transition from design to construction, facilitated by having teammate Frank Gangi, MBA, as the construction manager for a multi-prime bid.

In fact, Lehrer + Gangi Design + Build was created by Lehrer, of Lehrer Architects, and Frank Gangi and Mark Gangi, AIA, of Gangi Development, for this project and for this reason. Lehrer notes that "the answer to any question during construction was never 'we can't do that,' but was instead 'how can we do that?'"   >>>

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Translucent banners screen the glazing that stands between enclosed exhibit spaces. Photo: Tom Lamb Extra Large Image Screened walkways roofed in photovoltaic panels shade the sides of the Water + Life Museums. Photo: Benny Chan Extra Large Image South elevation of the northern building, housing the Center for Water Education. Photo: Benny Chan Extra Large Image Site plan drawing of the Water + Life Museums. Image: Lehrer Architects Extra Large Image Axonometric drawing. Image: Lehrer Architects Extra Large Image The Water + Life Museums are located near Diamond Valley Lake, where archaeological and paleontological artifacts were uncovered during excavation for the reservoir. Photo: Michael B. Lehrer Extra Large Image Heating and cooling are managed by a complex mechanical system of radiant flooring and forced-air units. Photo: Michael B. Lehrer Extra Large Image Recycled water is used for irrigation at the Water + Life Museums. Photo: Tom Lamb Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.