The Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, Wisconsin, designed by Hoffman LLC, has earned LEED Platinum certification. Photo: © 2009 FotoGrafix/ Courtesy Hoffman LLC Extra Large Image
Piscataway Township · 2010.0407
A renovation project has been completed at the Livingston Student Center in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University. The Biber Partnership of Summit, New Jersey, served as architect for the 62,000-square-foot (5,800-square-meter) project. The facility now includes a collaborative learning center, game room, coffee house, gathering spaces, board room, and multipurpose rooms. The original College Hall was renovated to be a flexible multipurpose theater.
The skin of the building, a calcium silicate and limestone panel, gives the structure a monolithic appearance. Double horizontal glass panels connect the limestone facade and the standing-seam metal roof. Ceramic frit glazing reduces heat gain and glare while providing daylighting and views.
Los Angeles · 2010.0401
Mark R. Nay, AIA, NCARB, has joined multidisciplinary firm STV as vice president and western region manager for the firm's buildings and facilities division. He will be based in the Los Angeles, California, office. Nay has over 25 years of experience in design and management. He previously led the design-build sector of an architectural and design firm based in California.
Middleton · 2010.0329
The Holy Wisdom Monastery (pictured above) in Middleton, Wisconsin, has received LEED Platinum certification under LEED for New Construction v2.2, earning 63 out of 69 possible points. Planning, design, and construction management firm Hoffman LLC of Appleton, Wisconsin, designed the monastery building for the Benedictine Women of Madison.
The two-story, 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-meter) facility provides space for prayer, concerts, dining, reading and administration. The building is "right-sized," with 50 percent less space than its obsolete predecessor, Benedict House, which was deconstructed responsibly, with 99.75 percent of the building recycled or reused.
Large windows throughout the new building provide daylighting and views; 85 percent of regularly occupied spaces are daylit. All but the north-facing windows transmit only 20 percent of daylight to the interior, minimizing glare and unwanted solar heat gain, and many windows are operable. Other sustainable features include a geothermal heating and cooling system, rainwater collection for irrigation, permeable concete, two roofs planted with prairie forbs and grasses, water-conserving plubing fixtures, and regionally manufactured and recycled-content materials. Ninety-five of the 130 acres (38 of 53 hectares) were restored from farmland to prairie.
Holy Wisdom Monastery was completed at a cost of $246 per square foot ($2,650 per square meter), a figure that contains all project-related costs (except land), including the deconstruction of Benedict House. Vertegy of St. Louis, Missouri, served as sustainable design consultant.
The monastery's LEED score is the highest of any LEED-NC-certified building in the United States, and tied with Dockside Green Residential Phase I (Synergy) in Victoria, Canada.
New York · 2010.0329
Ground was recently broken for a new $4.1 million convent for the Community of the Holy Spirit in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem, Manhattan. BKSK Architects LLP of New York City is the architect and interior designer for the facility, which will incorporate a number of "green" features.
The four-story, 10,600-square-foot (985-square-meter) building will house a chapel, community dining room and kitchen, silent dining room, 12 bedrooms, offices, and a library, among other spaces. The facade materials will include brick, EIFS stucco, and SwissPearl composite cement board panels. The first floor will have a conventional steel frame structure, and the remainder of the building will have a light-gauge framing system.
Sustainable features will include recycled-content and locally sourced interior finishes, FSC-certified Medex recycled board millwork, operable windows for natural ventilation, both semi-intensive and extensive green roofs, and a solar water-heating system with gas-fired backup.
The convent is slated to open in late 2010. The project team also includes general contractor ICS Builders, Inc.; structural engineer Weidlinger Associates Inc.; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineer Laszlo Bodak Engineer, P.C.; lighting designer Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design; and landscaping consultant Dennis Gray Horticulture.
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