The John J. Sbrega Health and Science Building, which opened last fall on the Fall River, Mass., campus of Bristol Community College (BCC), claims to be the largest zero net energy (ZNE) classroom and science lab building in the Northeast.
The 50,600-sf building, whose construction cost was $31.5 million, consists of two occupied floors and a mechanical penthouse. Its teaching laboratories, community spaces and interactive classrooms, are joined by a shared atrium that serves as a “learning commons” and student living room.
The Building Team on this project included the civil engineering and construction firm Bond (GC), Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers (engineer), and Sasaki Associates (architect).
To achieve zero net energy goals in a facility with a large amount of energy consuming lab space, the design incorporates a large solar array field over the adjacent parking lot that works in tandem with a PV array on the roof of the building. The new facility is projected to use less than 20% of the new array and no fossil fuels for heating and cooling.
The Building Team also installed geothermal wells 500 feet below ground level that feed a ground source heat pump. This was coupled with an air source heat pump to provide heating and cooling to the building. In addition, 12 of the building’s 16 fume hoods filter and return air to the space, rather than exhausting it out into the atmosphere.
Significantly, the ZNE design was achieved without increasing the budget. The building will serve as an important benchmark for future campus development and a model for other institutions.
“We are especially proud of this new building for BCC, which has already received several awards for its innovative approach to sustainable construction,” said Robert Murray, Bond’s President. “It’s one of the first ZNE science laboratory buildings built in the Northeast and well equipped for the ever-changing needs of the college’s health and science curriculum.”
BCC, which was chartered in 1965, is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the Northeast. The school offers more than 150 programs that include nursing, dental hygiene, biotechnology, microbiology, chemistry, and biology. The Health and Science Building—named after BCC’s president of 16 years, John J. Sbrega, who is retiring next August—brings much-needed new space to the burgeoning campus. It is LEED Platinum certified, and can be seen as a starting point for the college’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
On its website, Bond notes that one of this project’s challenges was the installation of three prefabricated mechanical room pieces, each 10 to 15 tons, that needed to be rigged through the structure, and placed during ongoing construction. Offsite commissioning, including control testing, allowed for plug and play of the mechanical room as well as critical control sequences.
Related Stories
| Nov 25, 2014
Behnisch Architekten unveils design for energy-positive building in Boston
The multi-use building for Artists For Humanity that is slated to be the largest energy positive commercial building in New England.
| Nov 20, 2014
Survey: 84% of data center owners want more renewable energy options
The cost of producing wind and solar power has decreased 58% and 40%, respectively, during the past five years, making renewables more cost-competitive with traditional fuel sources in many markets.
| Nov 12, 2014
Chesapeake Bay Foundation completes uber-green Brock Environmental Center, targets Living Building certification
More than a decade after opening its groundbreaking Philip Merrill Environmental Center, the group is back at it with a structure designed to be net-zero water, net-zero energy, and net-zero waste.
| Oct 27, 2014
Report estimates 1.2 million people experience LEED-certified retail centers daily
The "LEED In Motion: Retail" report includes USGBC’s conceptualization of the future of retail, emphasizing the economic and social benefit of green building for retailers of all sizes and types.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Sep 15, 2014
Sustainability rating systems: Are they doomed?
None of the hundreds of existing green building rating systems is perfect. Some of them are too documentation-heavy. Some increase short-term project cost. Some aren’t rigorous enough or include contentious issues, writes HDR's Michaella Wittmann.
| Sep 7, 2014
Building the cladding palette: panels, rainscreens, and veneers [AIA course]
When it comes to cost, performance, and aesthetics—not to mention maintenance and long-term resilience—the evaluation of cladding materials and façade systems is more complex than ever. This course is worth 1.0 AIA CES HSW learning units.
| Aug 11, 2014
New guide for prevention of thermal bridging in commercial buildings
The guide aims to overcome obstacles with respect to mitigating thermal bridging to reduce energy consumption in buildings.
| Aug 4, 2014
Facebook’s prefab data center concept aims to slash construction time in half
Less than a year after opening its ultra-green, hydropowered data center facility in Luleå, Sweden, Facebook is back at it in Mother Svea with yet another novel approach to data center design.
| Jul 30, 2014
German students design rooftop solar panels that double as housing
Students at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences designed a solar panel that can double as living space for the Solar Decathlon Europe.
