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Tahoe Sustainable Research Center Takes Shape
by
Tony Illia The Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences will provide
state-of-the-art academic classrooms, laboratories, and offices for the UC Davis
Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Desert Research Institute, University of
Nevada, Reno, Carnegie Mellon University, RAND Corporation, the Scripps Institute
of Oceanography, and the other ecological researchers.
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"[Local] people are willing to give money
for construction that is environmentally conscious," said project architect
Joe Snider of Santa Fe-based Spears Architects, LEED coordinator on the project.
So
are major corporations, he added.
Snider said General Motors, Toyota and
Nike were among those willing to pay for natural lighting and less toxic materials
use because the innovations usually result in greater employee productivity.
The
$4.1 million, 20,500-sq.-ft. Prep library has enough energy- and water-saving
features to be a candidate for silver LEED certification, said project manager
Johnny Rehders of Santa-Fe-based John G. Rehders General Contractor Inc.
LEED,
or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, maintains national standards
established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Certification difficulty climbs
from certified to silver, gold and then platinum.
While such standards
were initially voluntary, the state of New Mexico and city of Albuquerque, as
well as the governments of other cities and states, are mandating that an increasing
number of new structures meet at least the silver standard.
At Prep, "An
anonymous donor paid for an environmentally conscious design from NREL [the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, headquartered in Golden, Colo.] two years ago, and
we went from there," said James W. Leonard, school principal.
The
nearly completed library has a ceiling that imitates a huge, open, hardback book
made of wood and opened to approximately its middle page. Its angles and light-colored
materials reflect light downward from 34 clerestories that ring the main library
space.
Prep science teacher and physicist Jay Shelton said his figures
show a substantial increase in light reflectivity because of the overhead structure.
Other attempts at minimizing energy for lighting include 20 solar tubes
- 2-ft.-diameter structures roughly 5 ft. high - that capture exterior light with
lenses focusing into the main library chamber. Through longer tubes encased in
columns and sidewalls, the lenses bring additional light into the building's basement
floor of classrooms and offices.
The tubes offer no view of the sky but
have neither the bulkiness nor potential heat loss of large skylights.
Conventional
electrical lights embedded in the ceiling are controlled by sensors that dim or
shut them off entirely when registering sufficient illumination.
Water
needs are cut by two cisterns - 6,000 and 8,000 gallons capacity - that use roof
runoff for landscaping needs. The system is estimated to collect 81,000 gallons
of water yearly, based on an average rainfall yearly of 14 in., Snider said. The
water will be distributed through a drip irrigation system.
Waterless urinals,
in addition to low-flush toilets, add to projected water savings.
The "environmentally
sustainable" building is made of 88 percent recyclable materials, Rehders
said. Trees standing in the way of the project, for example, were not only cut
down but turned to mulch for landscaping needs.
Paints are low toxicity.
"If you walk into a building that has been painted, [normally] you can smell
it," Rehders added. "You can't smell this."
Carpet backing
requires only pressure to stick to the floor, rather than an outgassing glue,
says Snider.
The contractor separates project waste for reuse, with bins
for different kinds of waste materials. It costs more to rent more bins, but because
the material can be reused, there are fewer hauling and dumping charges.
"Forty
percent of all U.S. landfills are construction waste," Rehders said. "We've
put out 392 tons of waste that's not going into a landfill." Interior air
is night-flushed by a fan system to bring cool air into the building at minimum
cost. Extended entrance cleaning grates minimize the strain of footwear dust on
air cleaners.
Room dividers stop approximately a foot short of the ceiling
to allow for more efficient movement of air.
The three-level, 45,500-sq.-ft.
building is situated on the Sierra Nevada College campus at the intersection of
Country Club Drive and Highway 28 in Incline Village, Nevada. Turner Construction
Co., Sacramento, is the construction manager.
Designed by Lundahl &
Associates, Reno, the center will be a model ofsustainability. Pine and fir trees,
for instance, cleared to make space for the new building, are being milled and
reused as wainscot, window sills, and floor base trim in its construction.
Rough
sawn pine is being used on the exterior walkways and porches, and the remaining
trees, bark and limbs are being chipped and recycled as landscape mulch and ground
cover.
"The facility incorporates several energy conservation and
green building technologies so that the structure itself becomes a learning tool,"
said Todd Lankenau, Lundahl's project architect. "There is even a self-guided
tour of over 40 unique building design features for visiting researchers, architects,
engineers, and facility owners."
The project uses renewable wheat
stalk wood, sunshades to control heat, and "light shelves" that reflect
natural light into the building, thereby reducing electricity bills.
There
are also two 10-ft by 4-ft. photovoltaic panels for hot water heating as well
as automatic temperature controlled ventilating skylights and a rainwater collection
and purification system for toilets. The center additionally features evaporative
cooling and cogeneration systems that reduce heating and cooling costs by over
53 percent.
"Unlike most buildings, which rely on compressors and
chillers, the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences has an evaporative cooling
system with a 12-ft. cooling tower and two 25,000-gallon underground storage tanks,"
said Peter Rumsey, president of Rumsey Engineers Inc., Oakland, Calif., the project's
mechanical engineer. "The chilled water collected during the night is used
to cool the building in the day."
The laboratories and scientific
equipment require a consistent climate, resulting in up to 12 or more air exchanges
an hour. Chilled water is drawn through a fan coil that blows cool air inside.
The center also uses a cogeneration system that works like a jet engine. Natural
gas is fed into a micro-turbine to produce electricity, and the waste is recovered
to produce hot water for the building's sinks, bathrooms, and laboratories.
RHP
Mechanical Systems, Reno, is the HVAC contractor, with ElectroTech, Sparks, as
electrical contractor.
The project is seeking LEED gold certification or
higher from the U.S. Green Building Council. Architectural Energy Corp., Boulder,
Colo., is the LEED consultant.
"The project is currently tracking
54 LEED certification points, which, if all achieved, would make it just one shy
of becoming platinum certified," said Elaine Jason, capital projects coordinator
for Sierra Nevada College.
"There are less than 15 platinum certified
buildings worldwide, and to our knowledge, it would be the first laboratory of
this level of sophistication to achieve a platinum rating."
The steel-framed
glass-and-EIFS building has an Adirondack-style architecture that resembles a
mountain ski-lodge getaway. Inside, however, it's a different story.
There
is a basement level, housing the mechanical systems, followed by a 2,000-sq.-ft.
multipurpose auditorium and an 800-sq.-ft. case study classroom above. Level one
also has a greenhouse, student lounge, field activity and preparation room, and
an executive conference room.
The central atrium area will house the Thomas
J. Long Foundation Education Center, consisting of interactive, 3-D environmental
displays on water quality, limnology, energy conservation and green building technologies.
The
second floor will contain academic classrooms, laboratories, and faculty office
space for Sierra Nevada College's undergraduate environmental science and environmental
policy program. The University of California, Davis, Tahoe Research Center, will
occupy the third floor with advanced analytical laboratories dedicated to studying
watershed and atmospheric processes, forest health, remote sensing, environmental
fluid mechanics, computer modeling and microbial ecology.
"This project
presented numerous challenges, including construction during the winter season
when snow fall exceeded 150 percent of the norm," said Tom Stoddard,
Turner's
project manager. "From the winter of 2005 through March 2006, we encountered
snow, ice, and rain that delayed construction on interior spaces until a dry spell
allowed roof closure."
The 44-ft. tall building has a structural steel
moment frame roof, with supporting concrete shear walls, reinforced concrete floor
plates, and a spread mat foundation.
Las Vegas-based Martin & Martin
Inc., (formerly Martin, Peltyn & Associates), is the structural engineer,
and Gary Davis Group, Tahoe City, is the civil engineer. It will take 600,000
tons of steel, 3,200 cu. yards of concrete and 90 trades on site to finish the
16-month project.
"The actual construction cost is $20 million, or
$440-per-sq-ft, due to the sophisticated research laboratories," said Matt
Hiser, Turner's project superintendent. "However, substantial construction
cost premiums are found when building a facility at nearly 7,000-ft. above sea
level in an area that normally receives 20-ft. of snow per year."
Despite
this, the new Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences is on track to open on
August
14, 2006. LEED certification, however, only occurs after project completion, which
can take three to five years to finish.
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