In September 2005, as construction was starting at the Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange, Texas, the property was severely damaged by Hurricane Rita. The building team led by Lake/Flato Architects salvaged storm-felled trees and incorporated the wood into the project.

Adaptive thinking by the building team is common to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Green Projects for 2009. This year’s ten selections include a private school and an affordable housing development, a town hall, and the headquarters for a regional energy utility.

Two of these ten projects, both LEED Platinum-certified, were recently covered in depth in ArchitectureWeek — the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, designed by Ross Barney Architects, was a front page story in April, and Synergy, the first phase of the Dockside Green mixed-use development in Victoria, Canada, designed by Busby Perkins + Will, was featured in October 2008.

Protecting Paradise

The Shangri La complex serves as an interpretive center for the site’s native ecosystems — including cypress and tupelo swamp, wooded uplands, and prairie lowlands — and also as a study and research facility. It received the still-rare LEED Platinum certification for new construction (LEED-NC)

Located on 252 acres (102 hectares), the nature center includes a variety of spaces for learning, from an exhibit hall and a laboratory to three outdoor classrooms located deep in the swamp. The project worked to minimized negative impacts on the ecosystems, and also included some natural area restoration.

The structures in sensitive areas use helical pier foundations designed to minimize the disruption of water flow. The buildings are largely clustered, with conditioned indoor space minimized by developing an outdoor circulation system with walkways sheltered by flat roofs of steel and wood.

Sustainable Town Center

The LEED Platinum-targeted Portola Valley Town Center in Portola Valley, California, contains a library, community center, and town hall. Co-architects Siegel & Strain Architects and Goring & Straja Architects Architects developed the design for the facility, which replaces a seismically unsafe complex, through a collaborative process with high community involvement.

The architects reduced the built footprint by 20 percent compared to the previous town center, and clustered the operational, administrative, and public spaces together in one corner of the site, allowing them to preserving existing redwood groves and oak savanna while restoring continuity between open spaces. The old complex was deconstructed, and many materials were reused as beams, paneling, countertops, and structural fill. Exterior cladding and louvers on the new building are made from salvaged wood, and the wood flooring is local eucalyptus.

Careful building orientation, in addition to daylighting, natural ventilation, sunshades, and thermal mass, reduced overall energy use and allowed for smaller mechanical systems. A 76-kilowatt photovoltaic system supplies 40 percent of the building’s electricity. A piped section of creek has been “daylighted,” and the old culvert is now used as a cistern for storing up to 40,000 gallons (150,000 liters) of rainwater.

Platinum Office Conversion

Weber Thompson designed the renovation and expansion of a Seattle industrial structure into a speculative office building with ground-floor retail. The Terry Thomas has received a LEED Platinum rating for its interiors and a Gold rating for core and shell. The building is located near a new streetcar line in the city’s burgeoning South Lake Union district, also home to the Discovery Center at South Lake Union, from the 2008 Top Ten list.

The four-story Terry Thomas building is organized around a central courtyard, something less common in the Pacific Northwest than in warmer regions of the United States. The configuration facilitates daylighting and natural ventilation; in fact, the building has no air conditioning. The castellated steel beam structure, chosen for strength, lower cost, and reduced material, was left exposed and painted white, allowing air to circulate and light to penetrate the shallow floor plates.

“From June of 2008 through March of 2009, our kBTU output has been half of what you would normally see in a Class A office building,” says Scott Thompson, a principal of Weber Thompson, which moved its offices into the building.

Much of the energy efficiency is achieved through a well-sealed building envelope. Other contributing components include efficient appliances, efficient lighting fixtures with photoelectric and occupancy sensors, and low-emissivity coated glass to reduce unwanted heat gain.

Green Affordable Housing

The Gish Family Apartments in San Jose, California, are designated for residents making 35 to 50 percent of the median income, with about a third of the units set aside for residents with developmental disabilities. OJK Architecture and Planning designed the 35-unit affordable housing complex for First Community Housing.

The transit-oriented development received LEED Gold certification under both LEED for Homes and LEED-NC. It’s also a visually compelling work of architecture, particularly with its distinctive stepped facade and the right-angled sunshade rising from its top.

The project is located on an urban brownfield site adjacent to light rail, which reduced the need for parking. That allowed the building to achieve a density of 81 units per acre (203 units per hectare) — relatively high for the area. Other sustainable features include rooftop photovoltaic solar panels that provide 30 percent of the building’s overall electricity, high-performance insulation, double-glazed windows, and high-efficiency water-heating systems.

A design-build process with a negotiated contract brought in the general contractor and most subcontractors at the beginning of the process, as well as sustainable design and financial consultants, to help identify opportunities to increase efficiency and stay below budget.

Improving Environmental Welfare

The World Headquarters for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, provides 54,000 square feet (5,000 square meters) of space for research, administration, and a worldwide data center. Designed by designLAB architects, the complex has a distinctive look, inspired by the sailboats of Cape Cod, with interwoven panels of glass and wood.

Created on a moderate budget (about $220 per square foot, or $2,400 per square meter), the project achieved LEED Gold certification. The complex’s three buildings are located at the north, east, and west edges of the site to maximize the space for a half-acre (0.2-hectare) courtyard of native grasses.

The orientation also provides protection from prevailing winds, and maximizes passive solar capability to harness warmth in winter and provide shade from summer sun, aided by adjustable louvers on the south-facing curtain wall.

The headquarters were designed to use 45 percent less energy for heating and air conditioning than codes stipulate, and 32 percent less total energy than a typical office building. The project previously received a 2009 AIA Honor Award for interiors.

Energy-Saving Utility

Maple Grove, Minnesota-based Great River Energy, a not-for-profit electric utility cooperative, sought a new headquarters that would model energy-efficient design for emulation by electric coop members across the state. The company succeeded with a building by Perkins + Will that earned LEED Platinum certification.

The 166,000-square-foot (15,400-square-meter) building achieves an estimated 47.5 percent energy cost savings compared to ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2004. The project combines underfloor displacement ventilation with a water-source heat pump and a heat recovery system to bring ultra-efficient heating and cooling.

The four-story structure has glass curtain walls over a concrete frame. To limit occupant discomfort near building perimeters due to summer heat gain and winter heat loss in Minnesota’s extreme climate, the architects located circulation near the perimeter, with all occupied workspaces concentrated inboard, daylit by a series of narrow atria.

The building gets approximately ten percent of its power from wind and three to five percent from photovoltaic panels. This combination of energy efficiency and onsite renewable energy reduces the facility’s fossil fuel use by 75 percent and cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent, meeting the 2015 goals of the 2030 Challenge.

Educational Exemplar

The Chartwell School for children with language-related learning difficulties, located in Seaside, California, achieves net-zero electricity use, aided by photovoltaic panels. EHDD Architecture’s sustainable design strategies, executed on a relatively modest budget, earned the building a LEED-NC Platinum rating,

A premium was placed on daylighting, achieved with the help of tall, north-facing windows and clerestories, along with skylights. All teaching spaces are lit naturally during daytime hours, and photo-sensors help reduce the use of electric lighting.

The building is naturally ventilated, primarily through operable windows, and cooling was avoided completely, further contributing to a reduction in energy use of 57 percent below California Title 24 energy strictures. Radiant heating eliminates the need for air ducts, reduces the size of mechanical equipment, and helps keep the learning environment quieter.

The classrooms were kept to a small 650 square feet (60 square meters) — fitting for the school’s small class sizes of eight to ten students. But to ensure flexibility of the building for future uses, classrooms are organized in pairs separated by nonstructural partitions.

To make sustainable design a visible part of the students’ education, a 9,000-gallon (34,000-liter) cistern stores rooftop rainwater runoff, which is used for flushing toilets. The outfall from the cistern waters the science garden, where students grow organic food. Rainwater otherwise infiltrates on site.

Seaside Sustainability

The Charles Hostler Student Center provides sports facilities, an auditorium, an amphitheater, and gathering spaces for students and faculty on the campus of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. VJAA tailored the facility to the Mediterranean climate, working with associate architect Samir Khairallah & Partners.

The 204,000-square-foot (19,000-square-meter) center consists of multiple building volumes connected by gardens oriented toward the sea. Solar studies informed building massing, orientation, shading, and internal daylighting strategies.

The project uses seawater cooling from below the site, with a low-energy absorption chiller that runs off a heat source, requiring only a small amount of electricity to run pumps. So, instead of adding huge chiller equipment to the electrical grid, the facility either recovers some waste heat from its own power generation, or produces steam with boilers. This system allows the center to provide chilled water and cooling for the lower campus.

In addition to emphasizing air movement, the design incorporates radiant cooling for areas of the buildings where larger gatherings occur regularly, such as the gym, pool, theater, and cafe. Solar panels heat water for the pool and for other uses.

The Hostler Center uses excess steam produced by the university to provide what little additional heating is needed in the warm Lebanese climate. The additional air system provides dehumidified, fresh air. Compared to an all-air system, this system reduces consumption significantly.

The project previously received a 2009 AIA Honor Award for architecture.

Chartwell School serves children with learning differences, including dyslexia, in grades one through eight.

At the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, the new 204,000 square foot (19,000-square-meter) Charles Hostler Student Center provides a variety of athletic facilities, an auditorium, and a cafeteria for students.
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Synergy, the LEED Platinum-rated first phase of Dockside Green in Victoria, Canada.