Over a five-day stretch last December, students at the Carroll School in Lincoln, Mass., witnessed the installation of a modular classroom building like no other.
The new 950-sf structure, which will serve as the school's tutoring offices for the next few years, is loaded with sustainable features like sun-tunnel skylights, doubled-insulated low-e glazing, a cool roof, light shelves, bamboo trim, low-VOC materials, daylight and occupancy sensors, and a quiet, high-efficiency ventilation system.
The relocatable classroom, named SmartSpace by its creators, is one of a number of high-performance modular classrooms to emerge on the market during the last few years, and it's the first LEED-level unit to be installed in the U.S.
“With SmartSpace, we wanted to rethink typical modular design and construction approaches for classroom buildings,” says Mark N. Dolny, AIA, senior associate with ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, which teamed with modular manufacturer NRB Inc., Ephrata, Pa., and Littleton, Mass.-based modular leasing company Triumph Leasing Corp. to develop the SmartSpace design.
Dolny says simple additions like a double-door entry vestibule and expansive exterior glazing (6x16 feet) go a long way toward reducing energy consumption and improving the interior classroom environment.
“Most modular classrooms don't have vestibules, so conditioned air instantly leaks out when people come and go,” says Dolny. A recent energy study of SmartSpace conducted by The Hickory Consortium, Harvard, Mass., confirms the team's theory on the importance of vestibules: “It was one of the biggest factors in the energy study,” says Dolny, adding that the unit beat Massachusetts state energy code by 56% during testing.
The SmartSpace team was careful to keep the concept “realistic and reasonable” as it pertains to first cost, shipping logistics, and constructability, according to Philip L. Laird, AIA, principal with ARC, who collaborated on the design.
“We wanted to make sure this was a doable project and not just a pretty poster that got stuck in a drawer somewhere,” says Laird. “The solution had to be something that NRB could easily build in its shop and ship to the site.”
To that point, the design team worked closely with NRB and Triumph to stay within the size constraints and material specifications for a typical modular classroom. Common materials such as corrugated steel siding, medium-density fiberboard walls, and TPO roofing were specified over more complicated, labor-intensive solutions, like vegetated roofing. Also, dimensions were limited to 25 feet wide, 38 feet long, and 15 feet high to ease shipping to the site and installation. The building is shipped in two pieces. Once connected, the structure is strong enough to permit relocation of the classroom in one piece.
The team also excluded exotic technologies like solar and wind power for fear that school districts would balk at the higher first cost.
“We played with the idea of taking the building completely off the grid with photovoltaics, but PVs are still an expensive technology,” says Dolny. The fact that many modular classrooms are leased works against solar and wind power, he says. “If school districts are leasing, they don't have a 20-year payback to work with, and they can't get tax credits or grants to help pay for the systems.”
Project FROG makes leaps in California
In California, another high-performance modular classroom venture, Project FROG (BD+C May 2006, p. 9), is making inroads of its own.
The company is working on its first installation, a 9,500-sf child development center at the City College of San Francisco, to be completed this summer. The development will incorporate 10 of the firm's Dragonfly and Turtle “green” modular units interconnected to form a campus with classrooms, work areas, office space, reading rooms, a preschool, and motor skills areas for both preschoolers and toddlers.
Project FROG spokesperson Nikki Tankursley says the company is in talks with several other colleges about building similar child development centers. “We've also gotten calls from major Silicon Valley corporations looking to build child development centers for their employees,” says Tankursley. “I think we're on to a nice market here.”
In addition, the company received news late last month that its modular units are now “pre-check” approved by the Division of the State Architect. That means that school districts and community colleges that wish to install Project FROG modules will get expedited permitting and approvals from the DSA.
“Having DSA PC approval tells administrators these buildings meet tough structural, life safety, and environmental standards,” said Leela Gill, COO with Project FROG, a collaboration between San Francisco-based design firm MKThink and B&H Engineering, a San Carlos, Calif.-based manufacturing firm.
The company's modular units, which range in size from 1,000 sf to 1,700 sf, also meet the high-performance school requirements of California's Collaborative for High Performance Schools program, exceed the state's Title 24 energy requirements, and are LEED certifiable. Green features include abundant daylight (up to 800 sf of glass in a single module), T5 or T8 high-efficiency fluorescent lighting, occupancy and daylight sensors, recycled acoustical ceiling tiles with a minimum NRC of 0.60, no-VOC carpet, and recycled rubber flooring.
Related Stories
| Feb 23, 2011
The library is dead, long live the library
The Society for College and University Planning asked its members to voice their thoughts on the possible death of academic libraries. And many did. The good news? It's not all bad news. A summary of their members' comments appears on the SCUP blog.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
Research facility separates but also connects lab spaces
California State University, Northridge, consolidated its graduate and undergraduate biology and mathematics programs into one 90,000-sf research facility. Architect of record Cannon Design worked on the new Chaparral Hall, creating a four-story facility with two distinct spaces that separate research and teaching areas; these are linked by faculty offices to create collaborative spaces. The building houses wet research, teaching, and computational research labs, a 5,000-sf vivarium, classrooms, and administrative offices. A four-story outdoor lobby and plaza and an outdoor staircase provide orientation. A covered walkway links the new facility with the existing science complex. Saiful/Bouquet served as structural engineer, Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers served as MEP, and Research Facilities Design was laboratory consultant.
| Feb 11, 2011
A feast of dining options at University of Colorado community center, but hold the buffalo stew
The University of Colorado, Boulder, cooked up something different with its new $84.4 million Center for Community building, whose 900-seat foodservice area consists of 12 micro-restaurants, each with its own food options and décor. Centerbrook Architects of Connecticut collaborated with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects and foodservice designer Baker Group of Grand Rapids, Mich., on the 323,000-sf facility, which also includes space for a career center, international education, and counseling and psychological services. Exterior walls of rough-hewn, variegated sandstone and a terra cotta roof help the new facility blend with existing campus buildings. Target: LEED Gold.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Apartment complex caters to University of Minnesota students
Twin Cities firm Elness Swenson Graham Architects designed the new Stadium Village Flats, in the University of Minnesota’s East Bank Campus, with students in mind. The $30 million, six-story residential/retail complex will include 120 furnished apartments with fitness rooms and lounges on each floor. More than 5,000 sf of first-floor retail space and two levels of below-ground parking will complete the complex. Opus AE Group Inc., based in Minneapolis, will provide structural engineering services.
| Feb 11, 2011
Four-story library at Salem State will hold half a million—get this—books!
Salem State University in Massachusetts broke ground on a new library and learning center in December. The new four-story library will include instructional labs, group study rooms, and a testing center. The modern, 124,000-sf design by Boston-based Shepley Bulfinch includes space for 500,000 books and study space for up to a thousand students. Sustainable features include geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting, and low-flow plumbing fixtures.
| Jan 21, 2011
Primate research facility at Duke improves life for lemurs
Dozens of lemurs have new homes in two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in Raleigh, N.C. The Releasable Building connects to a 69-acre fenced forest for free-ranging lemurs, while the Semi-Releasable Building is for lemurs with limited-range privileges.
| Jan 21, 2011
Nothing dinky about these residences for Golden Gophers
The Sydney Hall Student Apartments combines 125 student residences with 15,000 sf of retail space in the University of Minnesota’s historic Dinkytown neighborhood, in Minneapolis.
| Jan 21, 2011
Virginia community college completes LEED Silver science building
The new 60,000-sf science building at John Tyler Community College in Midlothian, Va., just earned LEED Silver, the first facility in the Commonwealth’s community college system to earn this recognition. The facility, designed by Burt Hill with Gilbane Building Co. as construction manager, houses an entire floor of laboratory classrooms, plus a new library, student lounge, and bookstore.
