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
| May 10, 2011
Solar installations on multifamily rooftops aid social change
The Los Angeles Business Council's study on the feasibility of installing solar panels on the city’s multifamily buildings shows there's tremendous rooftop capacity, and that a significant portion of that rooftop capacity comes from buildings in economically depressed neighborhoods. Solar installations could therefore be used to create jobs, lower utility costs, and improve conditions for residents in these neighborhood.
| May 3, 2011
North Carolina State University partners with Schneider Electric, targets energy efficiency
Schneider Electric is partnering with North Carolina State University on energy efficiency projects for 1.6 million square feet of building space across 13 campus facilities. As part of the $20 million project, the university will implement 89 separate energy conservation measures that will save the school approximately 10,137,668 kilowatt hours of electricity and 68,785 decatherms of natural gas annually.
| Apr 19, 2011
America’s energy use, in one handy chart
The Grist takes a look at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's famed energy flow charts and tells us what we’re wasting and what we’re doing well. Turns out, commercial buildings account for the smallest amounts of energy use.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Mar 17, 2011
Carbon footprint of public sector buildings in England and Wales to be released
The energy usage of 40,146 public buildings—including schools, hospitals, and offices—in England and Wales is being released to the public.
| Mar 8, 2011
Building, energy performance rating site launched
The Institute for Market Transformation and the Natural Resources Defense Council announced the launch of BuildingRating.org, the world’s first comprehensive resource on energy performance rating and disclosure policies for commercial buildings and homes.
| Mar 2, 2011
New ASHRAE standard may be too broad for the Canadian market
New Standard 189.1 from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), which goes beyond energy efficiency to include provisions that affect construction, post-occupancy monitoring, and site control, may be too much for the Canadian market—at least for now.
| Mar 1, 2011
Honeywell to implement China’s first smart grid project for managing energy use in commercial buildings
Honeywell announced it was selected to develop and implement China’s first smart grid pilot project and feasibility study for managing energy use in commercial buildings, also known as demand-side management. The project is part of a grant agreement signed today between the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (SGEPRI), sponsor of the project and a subsidiary of State Grid Corp. of China.
