Top 10 Green Buildings Improve Surrounding Environment and Users’ Health
The American Institute of Architects' winning structures combine environmental sustainability with a focus on public health
Top 10 Green Buildings Improve Surrounding Environment and Users’ Health
- YIN YANG HOUSE To improve indoor air quality and minimize pollution, the Yin Yang House design team used formaldehyde-free cabinetry, paints low in volatile organic compounds, natural stone, and fluorescent lighting with low mercury content. The project retained part of an existing 1,200-square foot home built in 1963 and incorporates green roofs, an independent stormwater retention system, and drought-tolerant native plants. The Venice, Calif. project was designed as a combined home and office for a family with children, and uses a 12-kilowatt solar array (pictured) to produce 100 percent of its electricity needs on-site. Solar-ventilation chimneys, operable windows and skylights eliminate the need for mechanical cooling; operable windows are strategically placed to promote the passage of rising hot air through and out of each room. John Edward Linden
- SWENSON ENGINEERING BUILDING The Swenson Civil Engineering building, located on the north end of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus, is a two-story structure made up of faculty offices, student workspaces, classrooms and structural and hydraulics laboratories. Because the site drains into a protected trout stream, design teams used permeable paving, rain gardens and an underground storm water- retention system to capture and treat 90 percent of precipitation. Additionally, an intensive vegetated system covers almost a quarter of the roof’s surface area. Kate Joyce Studios
- SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC UTILITIES Light was a central focus point for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission building. The structure’s lighting plan includes high performance, energy efficient fixtures that supply carefully gauged levels of illumination for each space. Photovoltaic and wind sources will eventually produce up to seven percent of the building’s power needs, providing up to $118 million in energy cost savings over 75 years. Additionally, developers used low-emitting materials throughout the project to protect users’ health and ensure high indoor air quality. All of the project’s non-potable water needs are supplied by an on-site black water treatment system. Bruce Damonte
- FULL GOODS WAREHOUSE A redevelopment project over a 26-acre abandoned industrial brownfield site in San Antonia, Tex., the Full Goods Warehouse transformed the old Pearl Brewery building into a mixed-use development that is both residential and commercial. The new structure uses a rooftop photovoltaic array to supply more than a quarter of its power, a rainwater capture and reuse system that reduces its dependency on potable water by 74 percent and a network of north-oriented light monitors and ceiling fans to regulate the building’s temperature. As a reuse initiative, the project occupied 64 percent of the site’s original Pearl Brewery building. The design team also retrofitted brewery objects, like beer vats and machinery footings, and transformed them into functional components of the new structure, like rainwater cisterns. To maximize building tenants’ access to naturally ventilated areas and natural light, designers incorporated pedestrian breezeways and light monitors. Lake Flato Architects, Durand-Hollis Rupe Architects
- MERRITT SENIOR APARTMENTS Situated at the edge of Oakland’s Chinatown, this affordable senior housing development is one of the first construction projects planned near the Lake Merritt BART regional transit station, helping to ensure that residents have access to public transportation. In addition, landscapers used exclusively native vegetation, giving preference to plants that support local bird populations, providing residents with opportunities for bird watching and listening. Because the majority of Merritt’s residents are low-income, the building’s energy systems are designed to minimize energy use and, as a result, reduce residents’ energy bills. Keeping in mind its proximity to a major urban freeway, architects provided ventilation via a low-volume circulation system augmented by ceiling fans in each room. A rooftop solar water heater supplies the building with 70 percent of its heat. Also on the roof is an array of photovoltaic panels that provide light to the building’s common areas. Tim Griffith
- MARIN COUNTRY SCHOOL Because it is located within the Ring Mountain-San Francisco Bay watershed, the Marin Country School was designed to reduce runoff, restore an adjacent creek and capture roof water for reuse. The landscape is also designed to support native, drought-tolerant plants and minimize irrigation. One of five winning projects located in California, the Marin Country School illustrates the significance of aggressive state building laws, like California’s 2004 Green Building Initiative, which set a goal of reducing energy use in state-owned buildings by 20 percent by 2015, and its 2010 Green Building Standards Code, the nation’s first statewide system of regulations for water use, pollution and waste. Because it is a school, designers additionally made children’s access to natural light and air a priority. The high percentage of spaces near the building’s perimeter facilitate the flow of air; solar tube skylights funnel natural light into each classroom. Josh Partee
- FEDERAL CENTER Funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the Federal Center South Building transforms a five-acre brownfield site into the headquarters for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Northwest District in Seattle, Wash. The new structure is within the top one percent of energy-efficient office buildings across the nation and is expected to earn a perfect Energy Star score of 100. The site also uses renewable materials; the floor, built of reclaimed timbers, is the first wood composite floor system in the U.S. On-site water run-off is filtered a collection of ponds and rain gardens. A rainwater reuse system captures and treats water from the roof for reuse in toilets, irrigation, and rooftop cooling, slashing potable water use by nearly 80 percent and cutting irrigation demand by 14 percent. Benjamin Benschneider
- CLOCK SHADOW BUILDING The Clock Shadow Building in Milwaukee embraces social equity and environmental sustainability: while its design uses salvaged materials and natural heating and cooling strategies, the non-profit groups that it has as tenants furnish health services to the surrounding community. Walker’s Point Clinic, for example, located on the upper floor, provides free primary care to uninsured patients. Milwaukee’s mid-continental climate is subject to large temperature and humidity swings; as a result, the project uses thermal heating and cooling systems powered by a ground-source water heat pump. Designers worked to minimize the use of these systems, however, between the swing months of April and October, with south-facing, sun-screened operable windows that maximize solar heat gain during cooler months and allow cool air into the building in warmer months. Tricia Shay Photography
- KEELING APARTMENTS The Charles D. Keeling Apartments, named for the scientist whose research first alerted the world to the possibility of the human impact on global atmospheric carbon, are located on the southwestern edge of the University of California at San Diego campus overlooking the region’s coastal cliffs. Capitalizing on its coastal location, the building is designed with natural heating and cooling and so avoids air conditioning. While the structure and its window openings are shaped to capture ocean breezes for cooling, an interior courtyard maximizes sunlight to warm the facing rooms. Tim Griffith
- NORRIS HOUSE The Norris House is marking the 75th anniversary of the original Norris Project, a New Deal-era planned community development. In keeping with the original design, the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design maintained the development as a series of compact houses linked by footpaths and roads to a central common area. What they added, however, was an emphasis on sustainability—developers incorporated native grass and perennial meadows to these paths, which act as sponges for storm water runoff from adjacent properties and provide wildlife with food and habitat. The project’s roof area is its own innovative undertaking: rainwater is collected and treated with UV lamps and carbon filtration for use in toilets and clothes washing; grey water is discharged below ground for infiltration. Inside, developers used paint free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to protect indoor air quality and residents’ health. Ken McCown
