GreenClips.218 07.02.03 RENOVATED WAREHOUSE USES SAN FRANCISCO BAY FOR HEATING & COOLING Converting San Francisco's Pier 1, a former sugar warehouse built in 1933, to high-end office space began with an impetus to preserve a unique edifice and turned into a stellar example of energy-efficient design. Project architects SMWM won landmark status for the building, and by adhering to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, they preserved the building's original character and qualified for tax credits. The preservation requirements led to an innovative heating and cooling system: there was no place to put a cooling tower on the building's highly visible roof, so SMWM and project engineers Flack & Kurtz settled on a system that engineer Clark Bisel describes as "a bay water-coupled cooling system." Bisel explains, "We put a heat exchanger in the bay. The cold water in the bay provides a way to transfer the heat from the building to some other source." The project team ascertained that the heat transferred to the bay would not significantly disrupt the local ecology, since the water regularly flushes itself out and would restore its own natural temperature. The bay water supports a radiant floor system that both heats and cools. The 140,000-square-foot, $45 million project has garnered several awards including AIA Committee on the Environment's 2002 Top 10 Green Projects. Other green features include non-offgassing materials, channel glass made of recycled bottles, a natural ventilation system, operable windows, and personal fans. Architecture, June 2003, p 11, by Anna Holtzman, and Contract, April 2003, p 85, by Diana Mosher. [More: http://www.smwm.com ] VERMONT GROUP INTRODUCES COMPREHENSIVE GREEN HOME CERTIFICATION This summer, Builders for Social Responsibility, a group of Vermont builders and other experts, is piloting a residential green building program called Vermont Built Green (VBG). The program is built around a combination of 54 required measures and another 226 green features for which more than 430 points are available. To become VBG-certified, a home must achieve all required measures and earn at least 100 points. VBG's most unique feature is its emphasis on house size. For smaller-than-average houses, points are awarded; for larger-than-average houses, points are subtracted. In the current version, one could gain VBG certification solely by meeting the program's minimum requirements and building a very small house. A two-bedroom house, for example, would earn 100 points if the size were kept to 1,000 square feet. But a four-bedroom, 5,200-square-foot house would lose 100 points, meaning that it would have to earn 200 points for VBG certification, rather than 100. Points in the VBG system are distributed among siting/land use, building design, quality/durability, energy use, resource impacts, occupant health/IAQ, and occupant education/operation & maintenance issues. More: http://www.bsr-vt.org Environmental Building News, July 2003, p 4, by Alex Wilson. NEW FUND FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS WILL HELP DEFRAY EDUCATION COSTS The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Foundation has established a Sustainable Design Education Fund to reimburse members of the interior-design community for taking classes, undergoing LEED accreditation, and participating in other activities related to sustainable design. The fund is made possible by the Maharam textile company. Funding requests will be considered beginning this fall. For details, contact IIDA senior director Dennis Krause (email: dkrause@adelphia.net). Environmental Building News, July 2003, p 7. CALIFORNIA STUDY FINDS AIR-QUALITY PROBLEMS IN PORTABLE CLASSROOMS The air in portable classrooms used by more than 2 million California children is more likely to contain harmful levels of toxic chemicals than permanent classrooms, according to a new state study. Half the portable classrooms exceeded health guidelines for eight-hour indoor exposure to formaldehyde, and one-hour exposure levels were 10 times as likely to exceed health guidelines as were permanent classrooms. Both levels are defined as those needed to "protect sensitive individuals against eye irritation and effects on the respiratory and immune systems resulting from acute, short-term exposures." The report noted that similar levels often are found in homes and offices. A lawsuit in 2000 by the public interest law firm As You Sow persuaded manufacturers to switch to a less toxic form of formaldehyde and improve ventilation. But problems remain in all but the most recently installed of the 80,000 portables used in California. Nearly a third of the state's classrooms are portables as schools struggle with growing enrollments and shrinking budgets. The state report recommended redesigning new portable classrooms and retiring old ones. The study notes part of the problem stemmed from teachers shutting off the units' air conditioning and ventilation system and lack of proper maintenance. The report says specific state standards are needed for construction and ventilation. Tri-Valley Herald, 3 July 2003, by Don Thompson (Associated Press). [More: http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/indoor/pcs/pcs.htm ] UK DESIGN EDUCATION RARELY CONSIDERS SUSTAINABILITY, SURVEY REVEALS Architecture schools are failing to teach students the importance of sustainability in building design, according to a new survey of the United Kingdom's 36 architecture schools. The report, by the government-funded Centre for Education in the Built Environment, finds that sustainability is rarely considered in the design curriculum. Also, the majority of schools have "only one or two lone individuals" who teach sustainable design features such as energy efficiency and materials that cause minimal harm to the environment. The only schools the report commends for their approach to sustainability are Cardiff, the Mackintosh in Glasgow, Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Westminster. Jeremy Till, head of the school of architecture at Sheffield, rejected the criticism: "Schools face a whole series of conflicting demands," he said. "It is a value judgement whether sustainability should be the driving force for architecture education." Building Design, 30 May 2003, p 7. [More: http://cebe.cf.ac.uk/learning/sig/sustainability/index.html] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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