For their integration of energy efficiency with outstanding architectural design, three nonresidential projects have received Awards of Honor as the culmination of the 2004 Savings By Design Energy Efficiency Integration Awards Competition.

“This year’s winning projects truly advance the edge of the energy-efficient design practice,” commented Grant Duhon, Savings By Design Senior Program Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric. “They not only provide beautiful building forms and conserve energy resources, but also serve as community centers that inspire, educate, and celebrate the cultures that provide their context.”

The jurors cited the projects’ masterful use of design to overcome constrained sites and orientation and seamlessly integrate energy efficiency into elegant building design.

Cesar E. Chavez Education Center
Oakland, California

Architect: VBN Architects
Electrical Engineering: Pete O. Lapid & Associates, Inc.
Mechanical Engineering: Raymond Brooks Engineers, Inc.
Owner: Oakland Unified School District

Credit: Michael Bruk, Bruk Studios (Click to enlarge)

In Oakland’s densely populated Fruitvale/San Antonio area, the design of the Cesar E. Chavez Education Center responds to Oakland Unified School District’s mission to raise student academic performance and provide equal opportunities for all children to succeed. It synthesizes school and community goals into a strong set of design criteria. This elementary school embraces its surrounding diverse urban community by creating a true neighborhood center through educational and childcare programs, and providing much-needed recreational and joint/dedicated community use spaces.

The core of the 672-student public elementary school is 25 classrooms, each with outdoor learning patios or shared decks, conceived in two-story, fully day lit wings to form two “small schools.” The facility’s program supports small class sizes of 20 for K-3 and team teaching. The project encompasses 95,647 square feet on a 7.85-acre site. It was certified by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools program with a score of 36 points for high-performance design, including 10 points for environmental quality, 11 for energy efficiency, and 10 for site design. It exceeds Title 24 margins by 25 to 30 percent.

The entire site layout and specific academic areas maximize natural daylighting through a combination of controlled south glazing with sunscreens, diffuse north-facing glazing and translucent sandwich panel skylights. Maximum natural ventilation, passive heating and cooling (with air conditioning only in the multipurpose room and library) and a well-integrated efficient lighting and control system help achieve the energy analysis of 30 percent energy savings over minimum state standards. Utilizing DOE-2 computer energy analysis and physical modeling using a heliodon, the academic classroom and corridors were designed to need supplemental electric lighting only on the innermost portions of the lower floor classrooms.

Credit: Michael Bruk, Bruk Studios (Click to enlarge)

The school’s fenestration is designed to maximize natural daylight for little or no additional cost, particularly in classrooms and hallways where it best reduces electric lighting usage. In general, glazing is oriented as much as possible to the due-north or due-south to control heat gain. East- and west-facing glazing was minimized and treated with cut-off shading devices. The south-facing glazing utilized a high-louvered or clerestory combined with view glazing below horizontal shading. Light well openings in the second floor allow natural light to penetrate down to the ground floor spaces and corridors, minimizing the need for electric lighting during daytime hours.

The jurors were impressed by the efforts made to bring the best of energy-efficient, sustainable design to a tough, constrained urban site. They particularly noted the effort to align the classrooms on a north/south axis for maximum use of daylighting despite the site’s orientation--and the delightful building forms that resulted from this effort. The control of south-facing glazing with shading and the project’s 30 percent energy savings over minimum state standards further convinced the jurors of the project’s award-winning potential. They also cited its flexible layout, energy-efficient lighting system, and use of ENERGY STAR^®-rated appliances. “This really is an oasis,” the jurors exclaimed. “It makes a compelling argument for dealing with cultures and context and it embodies the success of the Collaborative for High Performance Schools program. If schools should be centers of the community, this project supplies an outstanding example.”

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Credit: Arden Photography (Click to enlarge)

The project is the first tennis center in South Los Angeles and was designed to be a long-life, low-maintenance green facility with respect for the well-being of children occupants.

The 53,600-square foot site consists of four tennis courts and a 3,500-square foot tennis club that includes a large clubroom for multipurpose indoor activities, an office, and a snack bar. The structure also contain bleachers and viewing stands on the ground floor and on the roof deck to provide the audience with places to sit and enjoy the tennis matches. The multi-purpose room has windows on both sides so that the users can connect to any game or tournament. Viewing can also take place from the shaded bleachers located on the roof or a few bleachers below the glass of the multi-purpose room. The stairs to the roof bleachers are an integral part of the design of the project. The front stair is a winding, playful form that wraps around the outdoor setting/dining area.

Credit: Arden Photography (Click to enlarge)

The energy efficiency strategies embedded in the design include proper building orientation and aspect ratio to maximize use of daylighting; the use of natural ventilation via operable windows positioned to capture the summer prevailing winds; an open indoor space with ceiling fans to enhance indoor air circulation; thermal mass on the floor and walls to shift cooling load in the summer and enhance passive solar heating in the winter; an optimized building envelope that includes high insulation value in the walls and roof, insulated doors, and double glazed windows with wood frames; a high-efficiency downsized furnace and ENERGY STAR-rated kitchen and office appliances; use of fluorescent lighting throughout the facility controlled by photo and motion sensors; and shading of east/west windows and of the club roof by a photovoltaic solar array that also provides a portion of the energy used by the building.

Credit: Arden Photography (Click to enlarge)

The jurors were impressed by the broad-based number of sustainable goals included in this project and its achievement of 60 percent energy savings beyond 2001 Title 24 standards. They believed that its function and energy-efficient features are elegantly integrated and presented. “The project’s scale is right for the neighborhood, and its design makes a convincing argument for the building’s program,” they commented. “This project takes a holistic view of the role of the building in its community. For a modest building, this takes large steps toward energy efficiency and sustainable design.”

(Click to enlarge)

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Lake View Terrace Branch Library
Los Angeles, California

Architect/Engineer Team: Fields Devereaux Architects & Engineers with Greenworks
Sustainability/Energy Consultant: Greenworks
Lighting Consultant: Lighting Design Alliance
Owner: City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Public Library

Credit: RMA Photography, Inc. (Click to enlarge)

Lake View Terrace Branch Library in the city of Los Angeles is a model of environmentally sustainable design and a civic landmark. The program for the facility called for a LEED Platinum certified building and it is the first project by the city to attempt this level of certification. The 10,700-square foot building includes the library, a community room, environmental display gallery, and exterior courtyard.

The building plan responds to the community’s desire for a library that reflects the rancho tradition of the region, with interior spaces organized around an open central courtyard. A spacious main reading room stretches along an east/west axis and enjoys dramatic views of the park to the south. The orientation of the building and shaping of its forms protects the interior spaces from direct sunlight, controlling heat gain and preventing glare while maximizing daylight and views. Light shelves, overhangs, recesses, fins, louvers, and spectrally selective glazing shape sunlight for superior interior light quality. A passive evaporative cooling tower marks the building entry and captures prevailing winds, delivering cooler air into the library lobby and courtyard. The building’s arched forms enhance cross ventilation of interior volumes through pressure differentials created on either side of these spaces.

Credit: James Weiner, AIA (Click to enlarge)

The library’s energy performance is over 40 percent more efficient than California standards. The design of the structure provides nearly 100 percent shading of glazing during operating hours and the building shell is high mass CMU with exterior insulation to allow night venting. The exterior skin is well-insulated and includes an ENERGY STAR-compliant high-emissivity roofing. Building-integrated photovoltaics on the community room roof and at the entry trellis generate 14 percent of the building’s energy use. During a typical day, all public areas including book stacks (93 percent of the building) achieve target lighting levels without electric lighting. Typical fixtures include dimmable ballasts controlled by photocells in daylight zones and occupancy sensors and timers where appropriate. Approximately 80 percent of the building is naturally ventilated with mechanically interlocked windows controlled by the building’s energy management system. Window location and interior volume shape maximize ventilation. HVAC systems with variable speed drives and pumps use non-HCFC refrigerants.

Energy efficient design strategies included load analysis and reduction, utilization and control of available site resources, and specification of right-sized equipment using advanced control technologies.

“This is an elegant building and a delightful space that makes sense--and contributes to its community and to the practice of sustainable design as an outstanding example,” the jurors declared. “Its clarity is its strength. The daylighting design helps to orient building users and it has a nice rhythm inside and out. It incorporates a very intelligent electric lighting design to complement its daylighting design.” They also cited its energy performance exceeding California standards by more than 40 percent. According to the jurors, all experts in energy-efficient and sustainable design, it was obvious that this project truly embodies sustainable design.

(Click to enlarge)

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