| $600 Million
of Green
Phoenix Convention Center Expands
by
David M. Brown A cooperative effort between the city and the state
will nearly triple the size of the Phoenix Convention Center, including 872,000
sq. ft. of rentable space and areas such as kitchens, service corridors, hallways
and truck docks.
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Tourism officials had argued that the previous
580,000 sq. ft. of total convention and meeting facilities was inadequate to compete
with cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
In June 2003, the state
approved $300 million for the project, matching the $300 million allocation approved
by Phoenix voters two years earlier. The convention center is located between
Monroe and Jefferson streets and Third and Fifth streets.
The four-level
phase one, which will open in July and is built on the former Symphony Terrace,
will include an atrium connecting to Symphony Hall. Leo A. Daly/HOK Venue/van
Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky designed the project.
Phase two of the project
will also be four levels and will replace the existing North Building. It will
connect with phase one both underground and via a skybridge.
Designed
by St. Louis-based HOK Venue and SmithGroup of Phoenix, the second phase should
be complete by 2008 and ready for events by 2009.
Recycle and Recover
Throughout
the planning, the city and its construction team led by Hunt-Russell-Alvarado,
a tri-venture of Hunt Construction Group of Scottsdale, Denver's Alvarado Construction
and Atlanta-based Russell Construction, stressed environmentally friendly technology
and building procedures.
Scott Sumners, deputy director of the Phoenix
Convention Center, said the building's central city site, which is close to public
transportation and existing parking garages, helped cut the amount of construction
needed to bring services to the building.
He added that the construction
plan included green techniques. "We recycled 270,000 cu. yds. of excavated
material," Sumners added. "The material was screened to separate the
cobble, and the cobble was crushed to make concrete that will be used for other
construction projects throughout the state. We also developed and implemented
a construction waste management plan.
"In addition, we used local
materials as much as possible to reduce the amount of fuel and energy used in
getting the materials to the site. We used local labor. Ninety-three percent of
the work was performed by Arizona residents."
Sumners said a building
management system was part of the design.
"We built an energy recovery
system into the HVAC system - essentially, evaporative precoolers on the front
end of the air conditioners to reduce the need to cool the hot summer air with
conventional cooling," he added. "We used native, low-water use plant
materials throughout the site. We included dual-flush toilets as part of the design,
which will substantially reduce our water consumption."
There also
is a recycling program in the existing building that will continue in the new
building, Sumners said. "We will implement a robust education program to
let visitors know about the green building aspects of our project," he added.
"We will be using environmentally sensitive cleaning agents in the operation
and maintenance of our building."
The exterior design includes desert
shade trees, covered walkways, overhanging trellises and shade canopies to protect
pedestrians from the sun.
Taking the LEED A member
of the phase one design team is Phoenix-based Green Ideas, an environmental building
consultant that the city brought on to ensure that phase one meets U.S. Green
Building Council guidelines for LEED certification. Green Ideas met with the design
and construction team to define the LEED green building strategy; then worked
to implement sustainable strategies and gathered the documentation required to
be submitted to the USGBC for LEED certification.
"I believe that
the team has done quite well on this project, especially considering the fact
that we started rather late in the process with the commitment to pursue LEED,"
said Mark D. Wilhelm, one of the founders of Green Ideas and the chair of the
U.S. Green Building Council's Arizona chapter. "We have had some significant
successes with a relatively small impact on cost."
"The plumbing
fixtures selected for the project, such as low-flow urinals, dual-flush water
closets, and low-flow lavatory faucets, will conserve nearly 43 percent of the
water used by conventional fixtures and will save over 2,100 acre-feet of water
- equivalent to one-third of the water in Tempe Town Lake every year."
The building will save an estimated 1,325,000 kWh per year due to energy-efficient
design and technology, according to Wilhelm. An additional 723,000 kWh per year
will be saved due to the water-efficient technology. In addition, 200,000 kWh
will be produced each year by an APS-owned, roof-mounted photovoltaic system.
In addition, 84 percent of construction waste had been diverted from landfills
by the end of 2005, according to Wilhelm. Up On the Rooftop That
APS photovoltaic system will sit on the roof of the new West Building (phase one),
covering approximately 20,000 sq. ft. (about one-third to one-half of the roof).
Funded by Arizona Public Service, the system will generate 100kW - enough power
for 50 homes - which will go back into the APS grid.
"This project demonstrates
how individuals, companies and government entities can utilize the empty spaces
found on the top of most rooftops for the clean and environmentally friendly generation
of power," said David L. Sutton, solar service engineer for APS, a subsidiary
of Phoenix-based Pinnacle West.
"This will be highly visible from the
surrounding buildings, and we hope that by being so visible it will peak or at
least renew interest in renewable energy as an alternate source of energy."
In
the basement, Northwind Phoenix, a subsidiary of APS Energy Services, is constructing
a chilled water plant under Third Street, adjacent to the lower-level exhibition
hall and immediately east of Symphony Hall.
The plant will connect into
the Northwind's existing network of pipes throughout Phoenix, a network that serves
17 buildings in downtown Phoenix. Larry Russell, account manager for Northwind
Phoenix, said the benefits of district cooling are wide-ranging.
"Electricity
is decreased by having one central plant performing the work of many independently
operated plants," he added.
"Water consumption is considerably less in
a district cooling system, and ice storage (enabling electricity use to be shifted
to off-peak periods) reduces the amount of emissions and the number of power plants."
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