From Green CE
www.greence.com

The new building provides a home for the school’s remarkable and unique Outdoor Classroom Project, a middle school science curriculum based on the principles of permaculture. Students combine classroom learning with hands on learning through activities such as cultivating food in a garden, harvesting and cooking the food and selling it at an on-site open market. In keeping with the concept of permaculture, it was important for the building to be a showpiece of sustainable ideas and a teaching tool for the students. This led to a desire to create a net-zero-energy building for which the students could track and budget energy use. The school was a 2012 AIATop Ten award winner for Schools. GreenCE is producing a documentary about the design and construction of this innovative school.

The creation of beautiful, sustainable, low energy buildings is the hallmark of the Living Building Challenge (LBC), an environmental design paradigm which has evolved through the Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the International Living Future Institute, both based in Oregon, USA.

One of the first buildings certified under this rigorous design methodology is Painters Hall, a community centre originally built in the 1930s. Located on a 32 acre mixed use site in Salem, Oregon, the upgraded building has achieved zero energy status, the LEED platinum standard and LBC ‘Petal’ recognition.

The reference to petal recognition evolves from the structural format of the LBC energy primer, which utilises a flower as a metaphor for truly sustainable buildings- self-contained and reflective of the carrying capacity of their site. The LBC allocates markings across a range of ‘petals’ including site usage, water, energy, health, materials, equity and beauty – overall a challenging heptagon of sorts. In the case of Painters Hall, energy, equity and beauty were the targeted recognitions.

The building’s original name evolved from the previous use of the site as a training centre. The intention is to retain its educational links by becoming a meeting and low energy educational centre to reflect the aspirations of the Pringle Creek community as a whole.

The centre uses approximately 20,000kWh of energy per year, but produces 26,000kWh from its roof mounted PV array. A communal geothermal heat pump serves the primary heating heeds of the facility. For water conservation, low flush and dual flush fittings combined with grey water harvesting contribute to an annual saving in water usage of 12,000 gallons.

Practitioners and contractors should note that during the renovations almost 90% of material waste was diverted from landfill, while a quarter of the materials (by cost) used in the building resulted from active recycling. Additionally all paints, adhesives, and composite wood products used on the project were designated as being low VOC (volatile organic compounds).

A number of environmental imperatives arise from the LBC petals which had to be considered in the design process of the project. The energy petal gave rise to the net zero energy imperative which was focused on the mantra that a kilowatt hour saved on site was less expensive than one produced on site. To this end the walls, floor and roof were upgraded to a high thermal performance using blown cellulose, finished in light internal colours to reduce electrical lighting loads. These strategies were combined with careful selection of light fittings, occupancy detectors, and dimming overrides. At a cost of $300 worth of hardware, a building energy management system, TED, measures total building energy consumption, photovoltaic energy production and individual circuit loads. This device and its software can communicate with web-based programs so that owners can access an energy dashboard via the internet at any time, sharing data with others and receiving weekly summaries by e-mail that compare usage trends.

As is the hallmark of all the buildings in this selection, the attention to detail is paramount. It renders the question poised by the Living Building Challenge: What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place? It’s a rhetorical question; because in the case of this building they do.

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— Article written by Opsis’ Chris Brown, AIA; and Interface Engineering’s Andy Frichtl, PE, Associate Member ASHRAE —

Students at Hood River Middle School don’t just read about science; they touch and experience it every day. Projects such as working with an electrician to install a solar panel, connecting pipes for a water filtration system, and growing, cooking and selling produce provide opportunities for exploring and applying science, math, writing and social issues. All of these activities take place in the campus’ new Music and Science Building, which opened in 2010 and is operat­ing on a net zero energy basis. The building also is providing insight into how occupant behavior impacts building energy use.

The Music and Science Building demonstrates that net zero can be affordable under con­ventional budgets. Government and utility incentives help reduce the LEED Platinum project’s costs for a 20-year or less payback. Also, the building was part of the nonprofit / industry supported Energy Trust of Oregon Path to Net-Zero Pilot Project that aims to refine design strategies to achieve net zero onsite building energy use. Because the Music and Science Building is situated adjacent to the historic main school building, the designers had two primary objec­tives: to create a public building that fuses sustainable design with the sustainability curriculum and to carefully integrate the facility into the existing National Historic Landmark site. The design uses gabled roof forms, brick and precast details to reflect the original school building constructed in 1927.
A 2008 construction bond, which funded the project, aimed to accom­modate an increasing school popula­tion that had forced the music pro­gram into an old bus barn outbuilding and to replace the existing outdated science labs with facilities that reflect changes in science teaching technol­ogy. The new freestanding building houses a state-of-the-art music facil­ity, a fully integrated science lab, and greenhouse for teaching environmen­tal science programs.

Read the full article in the Winter 2013 issue of High Performance Buildings Magazine

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The Asphalt Pavement Alliance is pointing to Pringle Creek asphalt’s performance during last winter’s heavy rainfall as an example of the technology’s worth. “It was a true ‘watershed’ moment in time when January’s epic storm flooded roads and rivers all over the Salem area, while Pringle Creek experienced nothing more than a puddle or two,” the alliance reported Monday in a press release.

The alliance reports that Pringle Creek’s example set the stage for several dozen porous pavement projects that were installed all over the country including installations in Buffalo, New York and the New York City of Queens. The organization on Monday released a report highlighting the benefits of porous pavement.

In April, Pringle Creek’s new community center earned the first net-zero certification under a program launched by the International Living Future Institute in 2011.

Read the original article on Sustainable Business Oregon.

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The Hood River Middle School Case Study from Energy Trust of Oregon on Vimeo. More information about the program and this exciting project can be found on the Energy Trust of Oregon’s Path to Net Zero page

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Net Zero, It’s About Perspective
To earn Net Zero Energy Building Certification, a program of the International Living Future Institute, a building of any size must achieve the energy and beauty petals of the Living Building Challenge as well as the Limits to Growth and Rights to Nature Imperatives. While the main focus of this certification is related to energy (one hundred percent of the building’s energy needs on a net annual basis must be supplied by on-site renewable energy), the most attractive quality about net zero is not about data hunting, it is the search for beauty and inspiration. Since the launch of the Net Zero Energy Building Certification program in late 2011 two projects have achieved certification, the Ideas Z2 Design Facility in San Jose, CA and the Painters Hall Community Center at Pringle Creek in Salem, OR. …

> Download the full article on PDF here: The Beauty of Zero
> Read the full magazine here: Trim Tab – Summer 2012

Three ways green schools are reconnecting children with their environment.

Like many of us who were children more than 30 years ago, Judy Wherry, principal of an environmentally themed LEED Platinum public school in Ontario, spent much of her childhood roaming in nature. “We saw the seasons change, and what came along with that, the snakes and bugs and birds,” she says. But over the years, as a teacher and then as a principal, Wherry has observed a shift in how and where children spend their time. “Children have lost the connection with nature,” she says.

When the visionary leadership of the University of Oregon’s Alumni Association conceived of their new Center, a new paradigm was born. While most university alumni centers are heritage repositories celebrating the past, the Ford Alumni Center equally cultivates the future. As the new front door to the university, this dynamic building welcomes all visitors and immerses them in the pioneering spirit that defines the University of Oregon, providing equal parts inspiration and information.

As the launching point for campus tours, thousands of prospective students will get their first impression of the Oregon experience in the Interpretive Center—a 2,000-square-foot space filled with media installations that fuel soaring dreams and invigorate appreciation for the history that defined this innovative institution’s culture. Nine towering “Oregon Cascades” serve stories, information, and artifacts; a large interactive “Alumni Table” recognizes every alum in the school’s history, and the “Entry Wall” reveals the day’s campus events while recognizing those whose contributions made the Ford Center possible.

http://secondstory.com/project/university-of-oregon

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Newport artist Rick Bartow’s ‘pole sculptures’ will stand in place of honor in Washington, D.C.

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2012, 3:10 PM     Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2012, 2:55 PM
— by Lori Tobias

NEWPORT — In a single-story building, in a space known to grow so cold in the winter, noses drip and fingers stiffen, Rick Bartow sculpts the work he calls “the cherry on his lifetime cake.”

“We Were Always Here” is a pair of 20-feet-plus tall wooden poles chiseled and carved and coaxed for nearly a year, now ready for their debut next month at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

They will face the Washington Monument overlooking the National Mall on Jefferson Drive, says Eileen Maxwell, museum spokeswoman.

“You have the Washington Monument at one end of the mall and Rick Bartow’s poles at the other end of the mall,” she says. “It’s designed that way. It’s a signal. It’s a welcoming pole, which is a tradition in Native American culture.”

Bartow is no stranger to acclaim. His drawings, prints and mixed-media sculptures have been shown worldwide and his Cedar Mill Pole was displayed in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House in 1997-1998.

But how this Newport artist came to win the bid to create the book-end to the most prominent landmark in D.C. is “a lot of magic and a lot of mystery and a whole lot of spirit,” says Bartow, 65. “But first of all, it is a real scary job.”

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The story begins a few years ago with a humbled Bartow returning from D.C. after being invited to take part in a competition at the museum. He made the short list, but failed, in his words, to win the cake. The hotels, the travel, the time, all for naught.

He moved on. But then Bartow got a call.

While his work hadn’t won the prize, the maquette — or small model of his work — had caught the eye of the museum staff.

“We’re always looking for the opportunity to work with Rick,” said David Penney, associate director of museum scholarship. “What’s appealing about Rick’s work is it has a very broad range. It’s very accessible. We appreciate his animals and figures, they have character, identity. He uses a kind of indigenous vernacular in using animals, although it’s very much his own language. The larger issue is about the fact that from an indigenous perspective, animals are our relations. That plays to the mission we have here of reminding people of the values indigenous people bring to the world.”

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And so there was Bartow — still recovering from a stroke he suffered about a year and a half ago — with this amazing opportunity, but also a massive quandary to go with it:

Where would he get the wood and how was he going to pay for it? While the Smithsonian commissioned the piece for $200,000, they hadn’t paid him yet, and Bartow had to move fast.

“It’s a goofy process where somebody makes an offer and you say yes and then try to figure out how to make yes happen,” says Bartow.

Bartow’s partner, Nancy Blair, also an artist, put out a call to friend and renowned carver Loren White, who in turned called Duane Pasco,  also a highly regarded artist. Pasco just so happened to have a 350-year-old tree he’d bought from the S’Klallam Tribe near Olympia.

“We didn’t have any money,” Bartow recalls, “but on a lick and a promise were able to get a 20-foot tree.”

But they still needed more wood to make the center plates for the back of the poles. White made another call, and there it was, wood from a 1,200-year-old tree, found at a mill in Vashon Island.

“1,200 years old,” says Bartow. “We’ll never see that again. It’s just amazing wood.”

Now, to get the logs home. Calls to commercial trucking firms were fruitless. Then Bartow’s assistant, Jon Paden,  showed up. “He said, ‘Oh, I can do that.’”

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Nearly a year later, the carvings await only the finishing touches. They are 22 and 27 feet tall, and weigh, by Bartow’s guess, about 1,200 pounds each. The name on the work will be Bartow’s, but it will be infused with the spirit of a tapestry of friends.

White and Pasco helped dress and shape the 350-year-old tree into two pieces. Joe
David, whose whale design adorns the tail of the British Airway jets, rough-cut the salmon carvings and Japanese printmaker Seiichi Hiroshima prepped one of the poles.

“The community came in, friends and family came in, and at one time we had 10 people working on this log, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers,” says Bartow.

“Jon became indispensable because his mind is good at engineering and he is also young and strong and everything I am not. He was able to take my ideas and manipulate them. He was aware of climate, wind shear, of water and snow, things that would shorten its life span.”

By the time the work is done, all the money has “pretty much all been spent, buying a $12,000 tree an $5,000 for the back pieces and for other materials and artists …”

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They aren’t totem poles, but “pole sculptures,” says Bartow, a member of the Wiyot Tribe in Northern California.

“We didn’t want a totem pole. There is a predetermined idea of what that is going to look like, a built-in iconography. There are traditions. It reflects family stories, lineages. I have no lineage right to that … and it would be stupid of me, who is not Haida or Tlingit … to pretend like I was all of the sudden just for this job. It would look like hell, frankly.”

Ultimately, the poles are about water, says Bartow.

“Water is so very misunderstood, so necessary for life, but very crudely used as a resource. It is more appropriately one of our greatest medicines. The waste and misuse of our water resources is criminal as its impact falls to our children and grandchildren.

One pole represents the bear — the original doctor in native beliefs; the other the raven, and both feature salmon. There is also an eagle, which in native lore, flies closest to the face of the creator.

“We have the sun and the moon and we chose the raven — the trickster, rascal, comedian,” Bartow says. “But also in many Western mythologies, native stories and beliefs, the raven is concerned with the West and the water, the ocean, lightning, thunder, energy. Also, we chose the raven just as kind of as a symbol of the West, seeing how we’re going to go east.”

Around Labor Day, Paden will set out with the poles for Washington, D.C. People invited to the Sept. 21 dedication include President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, the Oregon congressional delegation, Hillary Clinton, various Oregon VIPS and — of equal import, at least in Bartow’s mind — his blues/folk-rock band, The Backseat Drivers.

“I can’t believe it,” says Bartow. “There is no reason why somebody should give a rip about the way I work, but they did and here we go and it’s the top of the heap. I just have to say thank you from this point on, I guess. Like my mother said, ‘Just say thank you.’ It’s a thank you of a magnitude I’ve never known.”

Newport sculptor Rick Bartow talks about his $200,000 job to design two poles (don’t call them totems) for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Watch video:

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A Photo Essay of Rick Bartow’s studio: http://photos.oregonlive.com/photo-essay/2012/08/rick_bartows_sculptures_to_gra.html

The article above originally appeared on Oregon Live.

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Profile: Opsis Architecture

By Deane Madsen

To delve deeper into our coverage of the 2012 COTE Top Ten Awards, ECO-STRUCTURE asked the winning firms to detail their experiences with sustainable design. These offices didn’t just happen upon a winning scheme—rather, they’re all well-versed in making high-performance strategies an integral part of each project. Below we take a closer look at some of the core values that shape each firm’s ethos.

Location: Portland, OR
Principals: Alec Holser, Jim Kalvelege, James Meyer
Founded: 1999
Size: 27
Little-known fact: “We thought it would be good to walk the talk, so we went out a bought a 20,000-square-foot, 1910 horse stables that we converted to a LEED Gold–certified studio for Opsis Architecture. Last year honey bees that live on our rooftop made a gallon of honey for us. Recently, we covered the exterior of our building with paint formulated after the chemistry found in the lotus blossom. Our building is now ‘self-cleaning’ through the use of biomimcry.”

What was the biggest lesson you learned from your 2012 COTE Top Ten project, the Music and Science Building at Hood River Middle School?
Alec Holser: Creating a net-zero-energy building required setting a goal early, and keeping it at the forefront of the process. Among the myriad design decisions that an architect makes about aesthetics, function, program, cost, materials, systems, and so on, energy use was not always the most important factor, but it was always something that needed to be considered. This meant that the design team needed to put in a lot of extra effort modeling different design scenarios and energy-efficiency measures so that decisions were based on actual modeled data. For example, numerous configurations of skylights and clerestory windows were run through both the energy model and the daylighting model so that a solution that balanced the needs of both could be found. Not only did the models sometimes yield results that led to decisions that were not intuitive, they also were useful in giving the design team confidence in defending decisions when value-engineering options were considered.

We discovered that user education and commitment is one of the most important performance criteria to attain and maximize high-performance buildings. The project included a personally committed science teacher who integrated performance and curriculum. With everyone on board and understanding the goals, we met and exceeded project aspirations.

What insights from this and other sustainable projects would you share with other professionals?
We learned that everything matters when your aspirations are true net-zero energy. No component is too small to maximize and leverage its value to the project. In addition, all decisions should be thought of holistically, as every part is a piece of the total building performance. As noted above, education should be an integral part of every sustainable project.

While creating sustainable buildings can sometimes involve the use of cutting-edge technologies or systems, a much greater portion of what makes most buildings sustainable is simply good design—traditional systems put to use in a thoughtful way.

The use of an integrated design approach is necessary for a successful sustainable project. Appropriate stakeholders and decision-makers need to become involved at the beginning to set project goals such as LEED certification or energy use. This allows the design team to organize the steps to achieve these goals in an effective manner. An integrated design team is also essential; having architects and engineers at the table in beginning saves time and money along the way. The most sustainable design solutions often involve several systems working together. By having the correct players at the table at the right time solves many problems that would otherwise show themselves later on. If coordinated properly, this type of design doesn’t have to mean more meetings and email, just more upfront preparation by the parties involved.

In addition, the design itself needs to be integrated. Operating on a limited budget and with lofty sustainable goals in mind, it is important that building systems work together, and materials are used for more than one purpose. For example, a radiant slab can be a heating and cooling delivery system, a structural floor, and a finish floor all at one time. Finally, the construction team should be integrated and on board with the project goals. Construction details need to be thoroughly thought out, drawn up, and executed. Their role is essential because a building that leaks air and water, despite how good the design is, will ultimately fail in its sustainable goals.

What is your firm’s philosophy on sustainable design?
We approach each project with a simple set of beliefs that sustainability is integral to the design process. It is never an additional component. As integrators, we offer projects that seamlessly exceed aspirations. We believe simple solutions are the best, and we seek them first in every project.

What kinds of sustainable solutions are non-negotiable for your firm? What are the baseline standards your firm aims to meet with every project?
We have been resistant to set standards. Each of our projects offers a divergent set of variables unique to its own set of criteria. That being said, we are registered and dedicated to the 2030 Challenge, and integrate the key criteria for building performance into each project. Opsis Architecture finds creative ways to integrate sustainable solutions without additional costs, often finding a balancing point of achieving owners needs and fulfilling our responsibilities to the planet. Because sustainable design is essential to our practice, our enthusiasm inspires others to think beyond the norm. We have multiple LEED Platinum–certified projects, and we currently are certifying a pilot commercial project with the Earth Advantage Small Commercial Efficiency Pilot (SCEP) at a Gold level certification. We also have two projects that have met a net-zero-energy goal, one of which has received Petal Recognition and Net-Zero-Energy Certification under the Living Building Challenge.

How do you think these types of innovative green solutions might become standard?
The implementation of highly sustainable projects is directly linked to a verification of high-performance buildings. Case studies and post-occupancy evaluations are critical to a broad understanding of the successful design of innovative green solutions. I see the solutions becoming standards when metrics for their performance have been confirmed and operations understood to not be overly complex.

More information about the Music and Science Building at Hood River Middle School is available here.

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View the original article here: http://www.architectmagazine.com/award-winners/2012-cote-top-ten-green-project-firm-opsis-architecture.aspx?rssLink=2012+COTE+Top+Ten+Green+Project+Firm%3A+Opsis+Architecture

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