“The energy savings for Hipp Hall is roughly 30 percent more when compared to a similar building on campus. We are saving approximately $10,000 per year,” says Jeff Redderson, director of facilities services for Furman University.

Redderson explains that Johnson Controls, who had been providing the University with building management systems since 1996, conducted some comparisons to John’s Hall, another similar building on campus in the late 1990s, to determine how the building was performing. “The board of trustees wanted to see results. They were skeptical at first because years ago green buildings didn’t have the same reputation that they do now. The misconception was that it had to be an unusual building and not typical architecture,” says Redderson. “The University needed to build in keeping with its existing architectural style, but at the same time, it needed to be innovative with the use of modern building technology to get the desired energy savings.”

Redderson says that the University designed an energy model to look at factors such as daylight penetration and the role that the building envelope played in heating and cooling. “After several years of seeing reports on how the building was performing, the trustees were so happy with the results they insisted that all buildings on campus be built according to LEED standards,” says Redderson.

Completed in 2003, Hipp Hall is a three story, 30,000-square-foot facility designed by Greenville-based Craig Gaulden Davis Architects.

“We had the opportunity to specify high-performance materials, which gave us the reason to specify particular products that otherwise would have been optional,” says David Moore, a partner with Craig Gaulden Davis Architects and a LEED AP Allied Performance Professional. “The choices were there before and the reality is we could have specified these materials anyway but LEED was a way to formalize this,” he says.

Graham Architectural Products based in York, Pa., supplied 76 window units for the building. The Graham Series 2200 single hung windows are approximately 43 inches wide and 75 inches high, double lite, 1-inch insulating glass units with a fixed upper sash and an operable lower sash.

Hipp Hall achieved 40 points out of a possible 69 to achieve the LEED Version 2 Gold Certification Level with eight points credited under the Energy and Atmosphere category for optimized energy performance. The glass on the northeast face is insulating clear glass and the glass on the southwest face is insulating low-E glass with a green tint.

According to Bruce Croak, the technical services manager for Graham Architectural Products, 66 of the building’s window units had ¼-inch thick green tinted glass on the exterior sheet, with an air space, and a ¼-inch clear glass with hard coat low-E on the #3 surface. While the other ten window units have a ¼-inch thick clear exterior sheet, with an air space, and a ¼-inch hard coat low-E on the #3 surface. The solar heat gain coefficient for the tinted windows is 0.33 with a visible transmittance of 43 percent. The clear glass windows have a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.58 and a visible transmittance of 58 percent. The windows’ overall U-value is 0.57.

To help give the windows their high degree of thermal performance, Keymark Corporation utilized a pour and debridge technology by Azon USA, a manufacturer of specialty chemicals and equipment based in Kalamazoo, Mich. According to information from the company, a thermal barrier can provide an energy-saving option to economically deliver the desired level of energy conservation. Structural thermal barrier technology is applied to the production of aluminum fenestration systems, as well as warm edge spacers for thermally improved insulating glass units.

Patrick Muessig, vice president of global technical operations, says Azon provides molds for customers to fill with liquid, two-component polymer, which results in a solid plaque. The plaque is then forwarded to the Azon research department for evaluation. Using multiple samples cut from the customer’s poured plaque, the Azon lab technicians evaluate the cured polymer for strength and permanency. The goal is to help extruders to produce a structural, thermal barrier polymer that meets or exceeds industry standards.

Redderson adds that the university’s objectives were to minimize the building’s environmental footprint and to pursue the latest technologies in terms of energy conservation and building operational efficiency.

The building will receive awards for its ornamental metal and glass railing work in the Simone McDonough Atrium and Lohrfink Auditorium completed by Tate Ornamental; the woodwork in the atrium, auditorium, and caserooms completed by Fetzer; the Terrazzo floor and steps in the atrium completed by David Allen; and the paining and wall covering work throughout the building completed by Precision Walltech.

The Craftsmanship Awards recognize the outstanding skill and achievement of individual craftsmen in the local construction community. This year, the Washington Building Congress received 314 nominations this year for awards in 10 categories. The awards will be given during a banquet on Friday, March 26.

The Rafik B. Hariri Building at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business is a 179,000 square foot structure that opened in June 2009. It houses all of the school’s business education programs. Major gifts from alumni funded the design and construction of the $82.5 million facility.

The competition received submissions from 46 different schools and universities throughout the United States, with at least 11 universities adopting the competition as a class project. Participants were required to research, respond to and highlight the unique aspects of designing a municipal courthouse that embodied the surrounding community’s history, religious and secular beliefs, and cultural differences. Additionally, participants were challenged to utilize green building principles throughout the design process, including consideration of the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building standards. Competition objectives included developing knowledge about materials, products and installation, as well as creating a secure facility that looks to fulfill the civic, cultural and service needs of the community – today and in the future.

Submissions were evaluated based on ingenuity and originality, as well as appropriate use of sustainable products and design clarity. The designer (or team) was able to select any site from one of five metropolitan areas across the U.S.: Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Diego or Washington.

Prizes were awarded as follows:

First Place: Eric Laine – Ball State University, “Justice Center”

Laine’s design revealed a building that was not only iconic, but provided a real landmark feel for the City of Portland. His creative use of space and organization throughout the floor plan offered a combination of aesthetics and functionality. The courthouse incorporated Kawneer’s 1600 Wall System® curtainwall, which was selected by Laine for its stability and flexibility. The curtainwall was modified to include horizontal louvers on all exposed southern glazing, designed to be deep enough to prohibit solar angles in the summer months yet shallow enough to allow the benefits of solar heat gain in the winter months.

Second Place: Hugh Bitzer – University of Oregon, “Visions of Justice”

With a vision of transparency, this innovative and “mature” design was inspired by the desire to expose and understand the judicial system. Using a range of Kawneer curtainwall and sunshade systems, Bitzer was able to create a dynamic outer skin that incorporated daylighting and sustainability.

Third place: Greg Hittler – Ball State University, “HeterogeneousStitching”

Non-traditional in its use of materials, this uniquely designed courthouse had a visual continuity that established its presence as a symbol of authority for the city. Hittler’s design investigated the idea of curtainwall, combining heavy and light elements. Jurors commented on the mature feel of the space, as well as the circulation plan that demonstrated a level of creative investigation.

The jury awarded Honorable Mentions to Lauren Comes and James Moehring (Ball State University, “Portland Municipal Courthouse”), Kelly Goffiney (Ball State University, “Convergence”) and Jessie Rabideau and Jonathon Meier (Ball State University, “Transformation”).

The winning projects will be featured at the 2010 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition in Miami, June 10 – 12, 2010. The top three submissions will also be featured in the Spring 2010 issue of Crit, the Journal of the AIAS. In addition, the AIAS chapter at each school will receive a cash grant.

CLICK HERE to view the winning projects.

The Midland Memorial Hospital addition will be constructed with a concrete frame and the façade will consist of metal studs, an aluminum curtainwall, metal wall panels and an exterior insulation finish system (EIFS). The interior of the new addition will have accents of stone and wood in the lobby entrance area and the patient rooms will have a mixture of vinyl tile and sheet goods used in the flooring.

“We are thrilled Midland Memorial has selected McCarthy to complete the renovation and build the new hospital addition,” says Mike McWay, McCarthy’s Texas Division President. “We look forward to getting started on this significant healthcare project, helping Midland Memorial achieve its vision of a state-of-the-art hospital while continuously working to minimize disruption to current hospital operations.”

“We’ve used BIM in all its manifestations,” Simpson said, this includes visualization, simulation, coordination of the documents and quantification of what’s inside the building. “We remain convinced that this is a fundamentally different way of doing business, a fundamentally way of doing design, and, most importantly, a way of linking up all the brainpower of all the team members it takes to do a job successfully.”

Simpson described BIM as the connective tissue that allows everybody to communicate his or her information and input from a common platform.

“It’s everyone working together … developing ideas on a common project. This changes the sociology of design,” said Simpson. “From design to documentation to fabrication and installation, the BIM system allows us to do all these things from one platform of information.”

One advantage of BIM, according to Simpson, is that it helps improve communication. He explained that for many years architects and engineers “tortured their clients and tortured the construction industry by asking them to interpret our intent through the means of plans, section, and elevations … in our abstract, mystical language of how we communicate design intent.” However, with BIM, “we can show the 3-D implications of the design decisions-the colors, the surfaces, the materials, the light … we can simulate how the acoustics will perform … how much things will cost, how they will look, feel behave, etc.,” said Simpson. “This is an incredibly powerful tool for us to make our clients true partners in the design process. I am a big believer that the more brainpower you get involved in the design process the better it’s going to be.”

Working with BIM requires a new way of behaving and approaching design, so there are some behavioral barriers that must be overcome.

“When we get successful at doing something we get comfortable doing things the same way over and over,” said Simpson. “BIM challenges that because it gives us ways of doing things differently.”

Likewise, he pointed out that with any new process or technology there are always early adopters and skeptics; both are important.

“You need the early adopters to try new things out, but you need the skeptics to push back and say ‘Wait a minute. Maybe not so fast. It isn’t working quite right.’ So, you need a very active dialogue and you have to be brave enough to have those dialogues between the early adopters and the skeptics. If the whole industry is going to move in this direction we have to pay attention to the skeptics and help them understand the value of it.”

He continued, “With BIM we have the opportunity to behave differently; to share ideas and be less concerned about authorship, less concerned about ownership and more concerned about collaborative effort, and about outcome; less concerned about protecting our backsides and be more open to different ways of risk management.”

Simpson explained that when the project team is working to make decisions together and everyone is working collaboratively to make those decisions it’s very hard later on to blame someone for their mistakes because everyone is making the same mistake at the same time.

There are also some technical barriers that have to be accounted for. These can include the cost of the equipment, hardware and software, as well as training.

“It takes time and energy to learn this stuff. It took our firm about seven to ten months for everyone to get into it and have everyone trained and then another year or so before everyone was fully conversant,” said Simpson. “But then, everyone was really excited about it. After a short amount of time, once we all became converts, BIM became like breathing to us. It’s what we do and how we do business.”

Simpson also shared some of what he views as “the brave new world of BIM.” This includes seeing every project [industry wide] being done on BIM; the whole process becoming like a video game design with everyone together working around one work space for a true collaborative effort; all documentation being done in 3-D and 4-D formats; all projects being done in a year or less; a world with no change orders.

“I can see a lot of exciting things happening,” Simpson said.

Looking ahead, he added, “As we come out of this recession, tomorrow’s success will not look like yesterday’s success. It will be a different way of doing business and the smart firms will take these new tools and procedures and come out of this recession with a whole new business model.”

Johnson Controls, a provider of energy efficient and sustainable products, services and solutions, selected Serious Materials to “super-insulate” the windows. Serious Materials is providing its SeriousGlass™ technology through a sustainable production process designed to directly reduce energy costs by more than $400,000 per year. The new units will increase the thermal performance of the windows by up to four times their current thermal performance and will also reduce solar heat gain by more than 50 percent compared to the older windows.

“We are removing the dual pane windows that are (about) R2 center of glass and replacing them with R5 through R8 depending on where they are in the building and what direction they are facing,” says Kevin Surace, chief executive officer of Serious Materials. “We are re-using all of the glass, and we’re not buying any new glass.” He adds that the current windows were originally supplied by Traco in the 1990s.

“All of that glass is coming out, but it’s not going to be crushed and it’s not going to be thrown away. We are unsealing/un-glazing [the IG units], then scraping and cleaning the glass and then re-using it. We have done this successfully before; you can absolutely re-use glass where it’s going back into the same frame, for instance … this is uncoated, clear glass,” Surace adds of the approximate 26,000 panes of glass in the 6,514 windows.

And just where did the company come up with the idea to re-use the glass? It goes back to environmental awareness.

“The building owner had these windows put in not long ago, and he is also very sensitive to environmental issues. He loved the fact that he could save over $400,000 a year just attributable to the window change, but what he did not like was the fact that all the glass would have to be tossed away,” says Surace. “So our team came up with a unique solution to re-use the glass and do it on-site. It’s a heck of a point for sustainability that the glass can be re-used.”

Surace continues, “In these days of focusing on sustainability and cradle to cradle, there is no reason to throw out glass that’s [not very old].”

He also says he hopes that other companies will be inspired to also take on similar projects.

“Sustainability is good for all of us and everybody should be looking at how we can re-use things. I think a lot of companies, though, would not have the flexibility that we have had; we’re very innovative and willing to innovate business models as well, which can be tough for a larger company to do. For us going forward we will certainly look for other opportunities to use this model.”

The company is not only reusing all existing glass, but it is also fabricating all of the units within a 5,000-square-foot processing space on the fifth floor of the Empire State Building.

“It is very unusual and was difficult because we had to choose equipment that we could fit into the elevators or that we could take apart and fit in the freight elevator to get onto the fifth floor and lay it out,” explains Surace. “We were given a portion of the fifth floor that had water access, drainage, and also had electrical requirements.”

Removal and re-installation of the glass will occur during evening hours to avoid any disruption to building tenants and occupants. By reusing existing glass and producing the new glass on-site, the process will help eliminate virtually all waste, save energy and reduce replacement costs.

Installation will be done by Kilroy Architectural Windows Inc., the firm contracted by the Empire State Building to handle replacements, repairs, etc., and will begin within the next 30-45 days. Completion is expected by November of this year.

Johnson Controls is overseeing the full retrofit project, with a team of energy efficiency experts including the Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle and Rocky Mountain Institute. The window upgrade process is one of eight individual measures that are expected to reduce energy use by 38 percent, save $4.4 million per year in energy costs, and save 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years.

Designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, Aqua intersperses undulating balconies with flat glassy planes to create a wavy facade in keeping with its nautical theme. Because each balcony’s perimeter varies slightly from the one below, contractors James McHugh Construction Co. employed a flexible mold in coordination with GPS. Gang says the effect has been compared to a rippled curtain or the striated limestone formations common to the Great Lakes region.

The developer Magellan Development Group LLC has applied for LEED certification. Viracon supplied the low-E coated insulating glass in all windows. Frit patterned glass was also used in the railings to help prevent bird strikes.

Aqua is the third-tallest building in the world designed by a woman – surpassed only by the two Emirates Towers in Dubai – and is currently the 40th tallest building in the United States. Aqua has a height of 249.7 meters (819.34 feet) measured from its main entrance.

According to the announcement, embers of the jury praised Aqua for having a fascinating shape and appearance that change dramatically depending on the perspective. It was also cited as a “brilliant technical achievement” for the precision of its construction, and lauded as an application of green design innovations to an extremely large building project.

Ware Malcomb provided architectural design services for this two-story, 21,690 square feet multi- tenant, Class “A” office building. The property was built on an existing site that was under developed and the new building is located near the Orange County, John Wayne Airport.

Dove Street Office Building was designed to complement an adjacent existing office building. The contemporary design style is characterized by a steel frame, with a glass and metal panel curtainwall. There is a double height lobby and entry feature stair that links the ground entry with the second floor lobby.

KieranTimberlake’s design met the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century. Their concept most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. According to the announcement, the concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design.

The process began with 37 architectural submissions, which the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations narrowed down to a shortlist of nine firms. A distinguished jury of both American and British leaders in the fields of architecture, academia and diplomacy selected four firms for the final phase of the competition.

The four firms explored the symbolism of the embassy, its presence and position in the cityscape of London. Their goal was to create a building and site complex with a timeless quality to appropriately represent the United States of America in the United Kingdom.

In addition to KieranTimberlake, the other competing firms were Morphosis Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Richard Meier & Partners. All worked for nearly a year and made presentations to the jury, which then recommended the winning design.

Moving forward with the design of the building, the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations and KieranTimberlake will be actively engaged in the consultation and planning process involving the Mayor’s office, the Wandsworth Borough Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, as well as residents in the area to ensure that the new embassy provides an appropriate home for the United States of America in London.

The anticipated ground breaking on this landmark embassy will be in 2013 with a goal to complete the construction in 2017.

The pool pavilion features an exposed, custom-designed timber frame built with reclaimed antique beams. Steel-and-glass doors open on three sides of the building to catch breezes and take full advantage of the changing light throughout the day. When seen from a distance, the project resembles a group of farm buildings, but with the sliding doors open, the pavilion has a streamlined, modern flair.

“Our designs always strive to be sensitive to both the site and local traditions, while providing the modern amenities clients want,” says James Dixon, AIA, principal of the firm.

The Design Excellence Award was presented earlier this month at a ceremony in Troy, New York hosted by Patrick J. Quinn, the distinguished Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic. A total of 12 awards were presented, including five Awards of Merit and four Honorable Mentions.

“It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers, and we’re honored to receive this award from the American Institute of Architects,” says Dixon. “We had a great team of consultants, and together we created a project that our clients are extremely happy with.”

The custom steel and glass doors were hand built by Peter Kirkiles of PKDF in Kent, Conn. “Peter was terrific,” adds Dixon. “Some of the doors are 16 feet high, not something one can just pick up at a local hardware store. He transformed our ideas into tangible works of art.”