CSHQA Concrete Pour - Last Look at the Radiant Floor System

Radiant floor system before the concrete pour.

Last week the second of two concrete pours covered the final section of radiant floor system at CSHQA's new offices at 2nd & Broad and marked a major milestone in this 5-month construction project.  Crews started at 6:30 am and by 10:30 the initial pour was nearly complete (to be followed by many hours of detailed finish work.) 

The yellow, lego-like substrate of interlocking panels provides built-in spacing and fastening for the PEX tubing, plus insulation for heating and cooling functions.  The system extends throughout the entire office except for a few spaces such as walls and the entryway foyer.  Nearly 5 miles of PEX were covered by approximately 2-7/8 inches of concrete.

Once connected to Boise's geothermal system the radiant system will provide low-cost heating; in warm months cold water will be pumped through for cooling.  This comfortable, energy efficient system completely replaces convential furnace and forced-air systems and the operational savings are expected to be significant. –



Pre-cut sub-structure boards are used as guides for an even pour.





Using their boots the crew works the concrete into the panel system. 



Smooth floor wall to wall.

Integrated Design + Six Tactics for Saving Energy

Energy Saving Tactics in Integrated Design

Energy efficiency has become a pre-eminent theme and yardstick of value for today’s generation of architects, engineers and builders.  Private, government and institutional owners alike are demanding buildings that exceed code, achieve energy certifications and deliver ever lower operating costs. 

The graphic above simplifies energy saving into six tactics.  In reality these tactics overlap, interact and can even be counter-productive when designed incorrectly.  The real strategy is Integrated Design. 

Integrated Design has replaced the traditional hand-off from discipline to discipline with an approach that features multi-disciplinary collaboration from concept to completion.  Although listed separately, the following tactics are each part of an interdependent system.

Reduce / Manage Loads

Consciously reduce the day to day energy demands.  A simple technique is set point management:  Set the heat a little lower and the AC a little higher.  Combine this with computerized management (much like the digital thermostat at home) and you can also manage start of day and end of day settings as well as weekends and holidays. 

Common sense lighting design with the appropriate watt/sq. ft. applied in each space reduces loads, as does the right building envelop.  Low-emissivity (Low-e ) windows, quality insulation and well-designed wall/roof/ceiling systems are required.

Passive systems

Passive systems are built into the building.  Daylight harvesting through skylights and light tubes brings in natural light and reduces the demand for artificial light.  Reflective roofing lowers cooling costs.  Better insulation reduces heating costs.  Natural ventilation often improves air quality and reduces air handling.

Active Systems

Each component of the HVAC system is evaluated for its energy efficiency rating.  Electrical systems including lighting controls and occupancy and daylight sensors help manage energy consumption.

Energy Recovery

When a by-product of energy use is a further source of energy, we call that recovered energy.  An example is the work station.  Computers use energy to function and to operate a cooling fan.  The heat expelled via the fan can be used to warm incoming air and reduce energy used for heating, or exhausted to reduce the cooling load.

Renewables

Solar, geothermal, bio-mass, wind and hydro-power energy.

Other

An example for our desert climate is the nighttime purge during hot weather.  Summer temperatures often become quite comfortable between 3 and 5 am, even after a hot day.  Automated purging, bringing in the cool outside air, pre-cools a space before the workday starts.

CSHQA began designing for energy efficiency long before it became standard ops.  It helped that we had clients who demanded buildings with low operating costs (grocers in particular); it also helped that we’ve always sought ways to design better buildings.  As CSHQA converts a 56-year-old warehouse into our new Boise office (See 1.31.13 post), check back for in-depth posts on these tactics as we learn from architects and engineers on the project.–

 

Air National Guard Goes for Gold



Kingsley Field Air National Guard

The new Security Forces Facility at Kingsley Field, Oregon designed by CSHQA's Oregon office and built by S&B James Construction Management recently received LEED Gold Certification.  I am very proud of the this project - on many levels:

A little bit because you and I helped pay for it;

More because it serves the men and women of our National Guard Services;

A little more because my team, in conjunction with S&B James designed and built an excellent facility;

Even more because we met more than a dozen sets of codes, requirements, statutes, minimums, maximums, you name it, and still came in on budget;

And finally… because it’s the first project on the Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Klamath Falls, Oregon to go through LEED or any energy certification process and it received GOLD!

The Security Forces Facility supports the 173^rd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard and houses command, administrative, Base Defense Operations Center, pass and ID stations, law enforcement, arms vault, training rooms, mobility storage areas, a mobility pallet build-up area, and locker rooms.

While it’s not a fancy building and the architecture tends toward the functional, this is a solid, thoughtful facility that earned LEED points in every category including sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy & atmosphere, materials & resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation & design process.

If you go to the US Green Building Council [www.USGBC.org] you will find:  “Overall, government owned or occupied buildings make up 27% of all LEED projects.  Federal buildings account for 450 certified projects with over 3,600 currently in process.”  That’s a lot of buildings and a good trend toward energy efficiency, sustainability and quality buildings. 

Go to http://www.cshqa.com/designNews.php to learn about the sustainability details that earned LEED Gold.  Learn more about our design/build partner at www.sbjames.com

(Photo credit:  Steve Johnson, Visual Images Gallery)

Surprise Tenant Enjoys Sustainable Design



Canadian geese make a home on Boise rooftop


The Mulvanney Medical Office Building on the St. Alphonsus Hospital campus has a surprise tenant.  This mother goose, oblivious to the stir she is creating inside the building, has settled in with a nest of native grasses and down feathers on the 2nd floor rooftop garden just two feet from the office of the building supervisor.  Our Dave Davies was on site for a tenant improvement project and took this photo through the window.  The reflective coating on the exterior of the windows may explain why she isn't bothered by the crowd.

Designed by CSHQA landscape architect Kyle Hemley, ASLA, the garden of native and low water plants is one of the sustainable design features that led to LEED Gold for the project.   The grasses are wearing their fall haircut and will begin to green up and grow in a month or so.  By that time the four eggs now in the nest will hopefully have become four baby goslings. 

Green Globes for Green Grocers



Restaurant Style Kitchen in Whole Foods Market



Since 2007 CSHQA has designed five new stores for Whole Foods Market in Utah, Colorado, and Idaho (and counting).  All five earned two or three Green Globes, the most recent coming just two days after the grand opening of the Boise, Idaho store!

Yes, we are proud of it, and we and the owner worked hard to get there.  Both of our businesses have made sustainable practices a part of our business model, including the pursuit of practical and applicable design and product knowledge.  At the same time I can tell you it’s totally within reach:  Good, sustainable design will earn two Green Globes.  Extra innovation, particularly in energy systems, can push a project up to three. 

It’s not routine.  Every store is a little different and we’re learning from each one.  One major challenge is mitigating the intensive energy consumption of cooking appliances and exhaust fans found in multiple restaurant style prep lines.  From an energy perspective, Whole Foods could be considered a restaurant with a grocery store.  Neither LEED nor Green Globes is quite adept at merging the two.  Every point earned elsewhere works to counterbalance the ‘oven’ effect.  Even the single points for bicycle repair stations (no kidding!) for Boulder, Colorado and Boise helped us in the end.

Here are lessons learned from five successive stores:

• Get everyone engaged from day one, including the contractor and subcontractors.
• Start at the beginning with good, sustainable design.
• Leverage your best assets – indoor air quality, recycling during construction, materials selection, daylighting, native landscaping. 
• Strive to manage the most difficult aspects – energy and water consumption.
• Take advantage of unique opportunities – aka challenges.
• Attend to your paperwork – Projects may be assessed as soon as construction is substantially complete, provided the paperwork and calculations are complete.
• Extra efforts do pay off!  –

Energy System Upgrades are Only Half the Story



Real Impacts on Our Environment



Commercial property owners are always looking for ways to enhance property values, reduce energy costs and attract quality tenants.  Washington Group Plaza in Boise, Idaho is a great example of what can be achieved with existing buildings when owners choose to incorporate an energy management strategy in addition to physical plant upgrades. 

Throughout the 2000’s utility-funded incentives and programs like the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act encouraged building and institutional owners throughout Idaho to make significant energy system upgrades.  Starting around 2005 the owners of Washington Group Plaza, worked with Idaho Power and others to make numerous upgrades to the heating, cooling, and electrical systems.  However, like many projects of the era, improvements at the 590,000 sf Washington Group Plaza were installed without the means to monitor or manage future energy usage. 

[It’s a bit like installing a new furnace and double-pane thermal windows while keeping the old, non-programmable thermostat.  You will save energy, but wouldn’t it be nice to have more control?]

Since 2010 CSHQA has been working with facilities management and onsite maintenance teams to design new energy management systems for two of the Washington Group buildings.  The intended purpose was to earn energy efficiency certifications.  After the required year of benchmarking – monitoring and verifying energy usage – both buildings received Energy Star ratings.  What the owner may not have expected was the additional and very sizeable savings in energy and operating costs:  In the first year the team saw a 41% reduction in electricity use for an annual savings of $360,000!

Short story:  Equipment alone is not enough.  Until CSHQA and the campus maintenance team could actively track power usage and adjust operations accordingly, part of the “program” savings were on paper only.  To realize FULL savings requires taking the next step to monitor and adjust building systems as they are actually used.  Hence, the second half of the story - the management strategy.  –

Pushing the Urban Boundary - CSHQA Moving to New Offices



CSHQA Office Rendering - Corner of 2nd & Broad Streets

When I jokingly told a friend that architects are always pushing urban boundaries because only lawyers can afford rents when areas mature, I wasn’t far off.  Urban redevelopment tends to follow the artists and creative types who are looking for unique spaces and cheap rents at the edges.  The second wave often consists of architects, designers and suppliers to the trades.  Eventually, shops, restaurants and public spaces solidify the redevelopment.

2^nd & Broad (aka 2|b) is our 54 year old warehouse that once was, literally, on the wrong side of the tracks.  It’s been a warehouse owned by the same family that built it.  Right now, it looks pretty rough around the edges and the redevelopment to office space won’t come cheap.  Yet after an exhaustive search around the valley it came out #1 on our list for potential redevelopment.

2|b offers incredible visibility, functionality and opportunity.  It sits directly across Front Street from the Ada County Courthouse; CSHQA staff will be on one floor, instead of three; and our team has a “free hand” in designing advanced energy saving and sustainable systems.  As designers, then users of the space we have an opportunity to really learn how design and operation interact to produce results.

As the project and design architect for 2|b, I have a lot of skin in this game; I am the steward of everyone’s goals, from print room to president.  But I’m not alone.  There is energy and excitement about this project and a huge emphasis on grassroots collaboration.

Over the course of construction I plan to write a few posts about the process, designing for your peers, and pursuing a high level LEED certification.  In the meantime read the news in the Idaho Business Review 1.31.13 and the Statesman http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/01/29/2429726/downtown-warehouse-to-house-cshqa.html. –