Purpose

The purpose of the renovation was to add much-needed office and classroom space to the building. In addition to an infill, a total renovation of the existing building was required to resolve maintenance issues that had accumulated over its 100-year lifetime. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing upgrades were all overdue.

The "infill" concept was used to increase facilities and classroom space without expanding the building footprint. The courtyard area in the center was filled in and a fourth floor was added to the building. These additions added approximately 20,000 square feet, increasing usable space by 20%.

Philosophy

Our "green" building plans addressed both the construction processes as well as the lifetime performance of the building. Throughout the process, we kept the following in mind:

• Construction and demolition debris comprise 25-50% of the waste stream destined for U.S. landfills.
• Building performance (in terms of conventionally-generated energy and water consumption) is traditionally lightly regulated in the U.S.
• Conventional electricity generation relies heavily on fossil resources (petroleum and coal). Since fossil fuels and water are both finite resources, we wanted to conserve these resources and employ alternatives.

Goals

Following this green philosophy, we set these goals for the renovation:

• Increase energy conservation and efficiency
• Use renewable energy (photovoltaics)
• Increase daylight use
• Improve indoor air quality
• Conserve water
• Include operation costs in selecting mechanical equipment
• Increase material efficiency (select building materials based upon their recycled content or their ability to be recycled)
• Evaluate the life cycle of all products and materials used
• Reuse and recycle components and materials from the demolition

Community Involvement

The Greening of Dana rose out of the values held by the SNRE community. We started out with a representative planning committee (including faculty, staff, and students) that reflected our participatory culture. This opened the discussion to the wider SNRE community and allowed them to express their values as environmentalists.

Community involvement and recycled components and materials from demolition were key to the success of this project