Architecture Firm:
The Miller|Hull Partnership
Completion Date:
April 2007
Project Format (not yet built / built):
Built
Project Size (sf / site acreage):
9,453 SF
Project Location:
Seattle
Budget ($/sq Ft, optional):
($322 / SF including site cost)
Interior Designer:
n/a
General Contractor:
GLY Construction
Landscape Designer:
Weisman Design Group
Lighting Consultant:
n/a
Structural Engineer:
Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Mechanical Engineer:
Sider & Byers
Electrical Engineer:
Cierra Associates
Commissioning Agent:
Neudorfer Engineers Inc
Air Quality Consultant:
n/a
Civil Engineer:
Coughlin Porter Lundeen
Other:
LEED Consultant - O’Brien & Co., Inc.
Owner:
Bertschi School
Sustainable Sites:
By its nature as an urban infill project the Bertschi Center provides a number of sustainable site functions. The project preserves undeveloped sensitive areas and reduces sprawl. As an urban school expansion project it provides more opportunity for families to live in the city where they work and therefore it reduces transportation demands.
The Bertschi Center Project is an extension of an existing elementary school to an adjacent, previously developed site in the middle of a neighborhood of moderate density. One component of the project was the renovation of a single family home into administrative offices and a preschool classroom. The second component, a new classroom building incorporates all required parking underground to maximize green space around the project and minimize the build-up of heat from the paving. Located in the heart of an existing community, access to the site is facilitated by 2 city bus lines within 1/3 of a mile. Bicycle commuting is encouraged by the incorporation of a bicycle rack and staff showers. A fueling station for alternative fuel vehicles is provided and walking is encouraged by the variety of community amenities within a half mile of the site. In addition to the underground parking, the project incorporates an Energy Star cap sheet on it’s membrane roofing, cool roof colors on the metal roofs and a green roof on a walkway canopy to further reduce the heat island effect.
Unlike the typical school program, compact and efficient indoor and outdoor recreation space provide students with the opportunity for physical education with our committing large areas of resource intense land for sports fields or impervious play areas.
The collaborative and thoughtful decision to revisit the drought tolerant but non-native landscape design provided multiple benefits. Areas for outdoor education provide the students with an urban opportunity to explore native environments. Parent and staff passion for habitat influenced the decision to encourage urban wildlife and a connection to nature that is often missing on school sites.
A conscious effort was made to choose site materials that are sustainable and have the lowest long term impact on the environment. Recycled and locally available materials were used and life cycle of materials was considered.
Toward Zero Energy:
As a school, Bertschi strives to make sound environmental choices not only because it’s the right thing to do but also to inspire students and ingrain in them a philosophy of environmental stewardship. The new project incorporates photovoltaic panels which will supply 6.1% of the school’s energy. Some of these are designed into a canopy structure where they will be highly visible to all. The school has also committed to purchasing “Green Tags” from the local utility to offset the environmental impacts for their remaining electrical energy needs and to promote the advancement of alternative energy sources.
The design takes advantage of Seattle’s temperate environment and provides windows in the classrooms. The gym has an integral natural ventilation scheme which uses fresh air coming in low at the roll up doors and the natural stack effect of hot air and vents high with operable louvers in the skylights tied to a thermostat. No CFCs or HCFCs are used in the mechanical units.
The scale and proportion of the building enhance it’s ability to use daylight to illuminate the spaces. A daylighting study was used to optimize window and skylight size and placement for this use. Occupancy and daylight sensors are used to minimize the use of electric lighting.
Bertschi is installing an interactive kiosk in the lobby to help students and visitors understand all of the green features and strategies built into the project. The photovoltaic panels, for example will report the energy they generate. Bertschi will also be installing a weather station on the roof which will alsoreport to this kiosk. The students will easily be able to correlate weather patterns with building energy consumption.
Local and Sustainable Materials:
From the beginning job site recycling was employed. Soils were stockpiled to be reused as much as possible. The contractors reused their formwork where they could.
The institutional nature of the project requires durability. The material choices for the project were primarily wood and concrete and steel at the exterior. FSC certified lumber and glu laminated beams from sustainable managed forests were used throughout. The contractors made use of recycled water and fly ash in their concrete mixes to reduce use of potable water and lower the embodied energy in the concrete.
Wherever possible, rapidly renewable materials were used including wool carpeting, cotton batt insulation, wheatboard for wall panels and some casework, cork and a bamboo gym floor. For other building components, products with recycled content were sought out. This list is pretty long and includes carpet backing, floor pads, rubber wall base, rubber play tiles, synthetic turf, gypsum wall board, wood doors, plastic lumber, toilet partitions, rigid insulation, and metal products like rebar, fencing, cisterns, flashings, hollow metal frames and doors, louvers, stair nosings and aluminum storefront. Generally, preference was given to products manufactured locally and regionally.
Sustainable Water:
Traditional and innovative water use and re-use strategies were carefully considered during the design process. An innovative rainwater harvesting system captures nearly all of the water from hard surfaces on this project. This clean and free water is used to supply toilet flushing and irrigation systems, virtually eliminating the use of potable water and saving it for higher purposes. Ultra low water use irrigation systems combined with highly amended soils, drought tolerant plantings and pervious play areas ensure most of the water will stay on site and mimic natural drainage processes.
Additionally, the green roof on the canopy slows rainwater runoff and serves as a demonstration project for the children, faculty and visitors to the campus.
Opportunities to make the water reuse system visible, educational, and interactive for the students connects them to the water cycle rather than keeping everything out of site and out of mind. A cistern for hand watering the student garden areas further connects the children to their environment.
IEQ and Comfort:
The delight of daylight, the changing weather patterns and connection to the outdoors is available from every room. This is further enhanced by the ability to bring fresh air into the spaces with operable windows and louvers. The spaces are warmed visually by exposed, clear finished wood decking and wood roof structure throughout.
All paints and glues used on the project are specified to be low VOC. CO2 monitors are included within the mechanical system.
Collective Wisdom and Feedback:
The architects worked with the students to focus on sustainable strategies. There is a high degree of environmental consciousness among the children, which has been fostered by the teachers. All of the sustainable features of the building and it's systems are recorded and made available to the children as part of the curriculum thru a touch screen monitor located in the art gallery. A cut-away display in the wall, illustrates for the children “green” elements normally hidden within the wall cavity. A rain water harvesting system stores roof runoff in large cisterns; one, below grade in the parking garage and two others, above grade in galvanized steel cisterns which have become playful forms in the play areas. One of the cisterns provides water for the children to hand water their teaching gardens. Level indicators measure the amount of rainwater stored and flow meters record the amount of rain water used for toilet flushing and irrigation to the native, drought tolerant landscape. Photo voltaic panels displayed as tree-like elements are part of a renewable energy system which supplies 6.6% of the buildings energy requirements. A weather station on the roof correlates daily conditions with energy use and production. A green roof covers the entry canopy.
Regional/Community Design:
Bertschi has made choices at every turn to educate the young people coming thru their doors about wise environmental choices and opportunities for a closer connection to our natural world. It is not enough yet. But the hope is to imbed the seeds for a better, more integrated sustainable world in the hearts and minds of the young and to take the steps we can take now, to push the envelope.
