Two Midwest Buildings Get LEED Platinum

Buildings in Baraboo, Wis., and St. Louis have received LEED Platinum certification, the highest in the green building rating system.

They comprise the William A. Kerr Family Foundation—reportedly the first facility in the city limits of St. Louis to get platinum—and the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center.
The Leopold center has saved so much in energy costs that earned $650 by selling energy to the local utility.

In fact, the building is the first “net zero energy” building in the state and the first carbon neutral building certified by LEED. The building’s annual energy demand is matched by the output of clean, renewable energy systems on site.

A writer, forester and ecologist, Leopold died in 1948 but his book, A Sand County Almanac, has sold more than 2 million copies. It documents Leopold’s experimental efforts to restore an abandoned farm. In the 1930s and 40s, the Leopold family planted thousands of trees to protect the farm’s eroding soil, to improve wildlife habitat, and to demonstrate care and respect for the land.

Leopold’s mission was to return his 40 acres from worn-out farmland to the natural pines and mixed deciduous tree forest common to Wisconsin. Over the years, he and his children planted tens of thousands of trees and, 70 years later, the forest needed thinning.

In winter 2006, Leopold’s trees were logged to provide structural support for the building that holds his legacy. The trees were milled on site and are the primary structural skeleton and interior detailing in the building.

Instrumentation collects data on systems but also monitors how fast the air moves through the earth tubes or the temperature of the water in the in-floor heating system to keep the building at a net-zero level.

The project was led by Milwaukee-based The Kubala-Washatko Architects, and Appleton-based Boldt Co. provided construction management.

In St. Louis, Kerr is an 8-year-old, nonprofit that provides charitable funding. The foundation purchased a 112-year-old former bathhouse, which sits atop a natural spring, because the trustees saw potential in how the building could communicate the foundation’s mission and support the community.

The formerly dilapidated, 5,200-sq-ft building earned 58 points in six categories.
Specific features included dual flush water closets and no potable water used for irrigation; low-flow showers and lavatories; and active solar and wind-generated power that contributes nearly 25% of the building’s annual energy needs.

In addition to serving as the office space for the trustees, the building will also accommodate local bicycle enthusiasts by providing a space for secure storage and a changing area. The owners of the building also encourage other groups to come to the foundation and learn about sustainability.

St. Louis-based Trumpet Builders LLC was the general contractor, and St. Louis-based Vertegy was the sustainability consultant.

First-ever Architecture Textbook For High Schoolers Published

The Architecture Handbook: A Student Guide to Understanding Buildings has been published by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. It is a college-prep book for students planning an architecture career and students looking to learn the fundamentals of architectural design and technical drawing.

Created by the nonprofit CAF with a private/public/non-profit partnership consortium of architects, Chicago Public School teachers and students, the 400-page textbook connects architecture and design, urban planning, landscape architecture, interior design and structural engineering and construction.

“CAF’s mission is to advance public interest and education in architecture and design—and developing this book has given us the chance to touch so many students with tools for the 21st century workplace,” said Lynn Osmond, CEO and president of the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

Sustainability and green architecture are woven throughout the entire book. A sustainable ‘green’ home serves as the book’s case study, while students also investigate their own home and 10 well-known residential buildings throughout the world. Designed for 10th-11th graders, The Architecture Handbook integrates architecture into academic subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science and other core subjects.

The book is available in the CAF Shop and online through the Website. A 600-page teacher edition includes a CD-ROM with more than 60 hands-on activities. For more information, visit www.architecture.org/archhandbook.

HOK Gets Award for Wrigley Center Enclosure

St. Louis-based Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum was named the winner of the 2007 Novum Design Excellence Award for its work on the Wrigley Global Innovation Center in Chicago.

This award is given to the architectural firm that most creatively used architectural enclosure systems to solve design challenges. As part of the award, Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Novum, a contractor of spatial enclosures, is providing a $10,000 academic scholarship to an architectural/engineering student to commemorate HOK’s achievement.

William Wrigley Jr., after an in-depth global search, selected Gyo Obata, a partner at HOK, to design a center built to inspire new innovations for the Wrigley Co. Key to the design was a glass covered, “green” atrium space which was to house abundant plant life on the building floor.

“The whole design was a wintergarden in the heart of the project. The goal was no obstructions and the lightest looking structure possible,” Obata said.

Cannon Powers Up With New Office

St. Louis-based Cannon Design has announced the purchase of the Power House at 1106 Clark St. downtown for the relocation of the firm’s offices.

The structure is part of The Municipal Service Building complex, which is listed on the National Historic Register as locally significant.

Cannon plans an $8 million adaptive reuse. The project will create a three-story tall interior gallery, an exterior 3,500-sq-ft urban garden and attain a LEED Silver Rating.
The exterior will be restored, the windows replaced in a historically accurate manner maintaining the original masonry openings, and the interior space completely rehabilitated. The interior has no HVAC, plumbing or electrical infrastructure.

Two partial levels will be constructed, adding to the existing two floors and rooftop penthouse, resulting in a total of 32,000 sq ft of office and conference space. The design takes care to set the new floors back from the spectacular windows on the primary facades to maintain the sense of openness and volume.

The Municipal Service Building complex occupies a city block. It is easily recognized by its tall, round arched windows on three of the streets.

The entrance, articulated with finely detailed terra cotta, is located on Clark Street. Flanking the windows are two terra cotta medallions with symbolic low-relief images of a steamboat and a bearded head of Hercules as a metaphor for the purpose of the building: power and strength.

The complex was constructed in 1927-28 for use as a parking garage for city vehicles, a fire department facility, an electric substation for street lighting and a power house to generate steam heat for municipal buildings. The 19,000-sq-ft building remains in an unaltered condition with only minor alterations to the exterior.

The Power House was originally built to supply steam heat to four new public buildings and eight additional city buildings.

Construction was scheduled to begin August with move-in slated for May.

Architecture Billings Return to Modest Growth Level

After three months of substantial growth, the Architecture Billings Index in August receded to a figure in line with the scores seen throughout the spring.

A score above 50 indicates an increase in billings, and the August ABI was 53.9, down significantly from the near record 60.0 in July. This is the biggest drop since September 2006 when the Index dropped from 59.4 to 52.1.

Inquiries for new projects was 60.5. The Midwest score was Midwest 52.2.

“The apprehension in the industry is based around reports that growing default rates among subprime borrowers in the residential market has made credit more difficult to secure for nonresidential construction projects,” said Kermit Baker the AIA economist who released the data.

RATIO Opens Studio In Carmel

Indianapolis-based RATIO Architects Inc. has opened its third studio in Carmel, Ind. at The Village of WestClay. The location will better serve clients outside Indianapolis’ traditional boundaries, as well as pave the way for future design opportunities, the firm says.