PERMEABLE PAVING PROJECT STUDY

Photo courtesy of Unilock

Project: Glen Ellyn Metra Parking Lot
Location: Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Designer: Gary R. Weber Associates

Challenge: This 47-space commuter parking lot was planned for downtown Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with the help of a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) grant. Discussed and reviewed by the Village of Glen Ellyn and the Glen Ellyn Capital Improvements Commission (CIC), a Comprehensive Downtown Plan was developed to resurface the downtown streetscapes and Metra parking lot, while maintaining the historic character of the community. Site drainage was also a factor as the budget didn’t allow for additional infrastructure.

Solution: Permeable street pavers were selected for their aesthetic, permeability, and durability in vehicular applications. Cast from original brick street pavers, they offered an aesthetic that satisfied the historic look envisioned for this project. Permeability and the heritage style were both specified in the site plan, and this approach has become the sustainable parking lot prototype for future project phases.

FENESTRATION PROJECT STUDY

Photos courtesy of Pella EFCO Commercial Solutions

Project: Joule Apartments
Location: Seattle
Designer: Runberg Architects

Challenge: Centrally located in the heart of one of America’s most environmentally aware cities, Joule Apartments is a 294-unit mixed-use apartment building in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. As part of a very urban neighborhood, Joule is within a short walking distance of public transportation, supermarkets, coffee shops, restaurants, and many other amenities.

The architect’s goal for this project was to provide a real-world example of how climate change can be addressed through sustainable architecture, design, and construction—and to demonstrate to both consumers and other builders that living green can be functional, comfortable, and practical.

Solution: Joule Apartments exceeded the architect’s ambitious goal with a building envelope that is notably more efficient than code. It’s also a true net-zero energy, carbon neutral multifamily structure (the first in the United States) that uses 60 percent less water than comparable buildings and has a 90 percent waste recycling rate.

For energy optimization, Runberg Architects chose aluminum-clad wood awning, casement, and fixed-frame windows and sliding doors for the project. The specified products offered the ideal combination of energy efficiency, durability, and aesthetics that fit with the Joule Apartments’ sustainable vision. To help control construction costs, window manufacturer engineers designed an innovative receptor and subsill installation system that allowed the windows and doors to be installed from inside the high-rise building.

COOLING & HEATING PROJECT STUDY

Photo courtesy of Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating

Project: The Willow School
Location: Gladwell, New Jersey
Architect: Farewell Architects

Challenge: The Willow School has a proud history of green building. In 2002, it built the first LEED Gold certified school building in the United States, and, in 2007, the first LEED Platinum certified school building in New Jersey. Ever the pioneers, it wanted to up the ante for the new Health, Wellness, and Nutrition Center. This 20,000-square-foot building contains four classrooms, a faculty room, a movement area, a dining room, a commercial kitchen, health/wellness spaces, and a teaching kitchen—which further support the curriculum and mission of the school. According to cofounders Mark and Gretchen Biedron, “With this project, we were focused on taking the Living Building Challenge (LBC). Being a ‘living building’ means that everything in the building is 100 percent electric.”

Solution: Michael Farewell, head designer at Farewell Architects, Princeton, New Jersey, was one of several professionals called in to solve that challenge. He designed the foundation of Willow’s energy efficiency: a high-performance envelope that he described as “a combination of effective machinery, where all of the energy is generated by solar panels on the roof. It’s a whole package that saves energy without having to use any.” Given the generated energy, it is no surprise that Biedron and his team compared a geothermal system and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system to determine which would best meet Willow’s sustainability goals. Nitish Joy of Loring Consulting Engineers (Loring), Princeton, was the lead mechanical engineer on the project. He says the selection process included “comparative data projections for each system [geothermal vs. VRF] as paired with the super-insulated envelope. VRF was well ahead on net-zero efficiency.” Vin Farese, principal at Loring, notes that VRF solved an additional challenge: “As the LBC prohibited the use of fossil fuels in the building, the commercial kitchen had to be electric. That drove Willow towards selecting high-efficiency, electric heat pumps and using photovoltaic [panels] to offset the energy used.”

The inclusion of energy recovery ventilator (ERV) units is another way the Willow School has been able to further eliminate inefficiencies. When agreeable conditions make natural ventilation favorable—including having outdoor temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit—a controls system prompts teachers and students to open classroom windows for outside air. Otherwise, the ERVs enable this new building to recover energy from exhaust air to simultaneously cool or heat outside ventilation air as it enters the building.

For the Biedrons, the choice was more a question of environmental responsibility, especially while trying to be LBC certified. “Geothermal has an ecology all its own, and no one seemed to know what the results of introducing that to the environment would be. That whole system is underground; what goes into fixing something that’s wrong underground? The beauty of VRF is that everything is aboveground and easily accessible.”

DYNAMIC GLAZING PROJECT STUDY

Photo courtesy of SageGlass/Jeffrey Totaro, 2015

Project: Saint-Gobain Office Headquarters
Location: Malvern, Pennsylvania
Designer: Bernardon (core, shell, and lobby)

Challenge: Create a newly renovated, state-of-the-art, 190,000-square-foot headquarters for the Saint-Gobain company. In this building, the primary goal for the building owner was to create a next-generation workplace that supported cross-collaboration and a state-of-the-art environment that could attract and retain top talent. Equally important was the goal to create a high-performance building with LEED Platinum certification sought for both Core and Shell (CS) and Commercial Interiors (CI) as well as U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR certification.

Solution: A focus for the design team was how to use enough glass to achieve good daylight admission and views to the surrounding countryside without impacting energy use and occupant thermal comfort. This was especially challenging because of the fixed orientation of the pre-existing building, which has one long, west-facing facade where heat gain and glare would be major issues. In order to solve this problem, the design team installed electrochromic glazing on both west and south elevations, including the highly glazed atrium at the entrance. The design ultimately achieved the goal of LEED Platinum for both Commercial Interiors (CI) and Core and Shell (CS). The latter included points under the LEED Views credit because of the ability to provide substantial glazed area over all facades, providing 94 percent of all regularly occupied spaces with a view to the outside. Under the Energy and Atmosphere credit, 14 points were achieved by demonstrating a 34 percent reduction in energy usage over the baseline. EC glass was estimated to have contributed to a quarter of those energy savings, indicating that the energy performance was not degraded by having highly glazed facade. The project demonstrates the potential of electrochromic glass for use in office designs that support both the long-term sustainability of the planet and the long-term well-being of the humans who occupy them.

Neil B. Liebman, AIA, LEED AP, a principal of the design firm Bernardon, points out, “From the onset of this project, we knew we had a great site, a great location where we were repositioning some old tired buildings, so sustainability and achieving LEED certification was extremely important from day one. We’ve taken obsolete buildings and created a beautiful, 21st century office space, as efficient and sustainable as it is visually impressive.”