SAN DIEGO—Universities are feeling the pressure to practice high levels of sustainability in their buildings, food, energy choices, transportation and in other ways, BNIM executives tell GlobeSt.com. The firm is working on a project, scheduled for completion in Spring 2018, involving the Palomar Community College District Operations and Maintenance Complex that includes design strategies that leverage site and climate for outstanding outcomes for wellness, comfort, and energy efficiency.

The complex will house facilities personnel for buildings, grounds and maintenance and also provide conference space, staff offices and shop spaces at the public college. The 28,000-square-foot project consists of a large shop building and smaller office building linked by outdoor spaces.

In an effort to achieve the college's goal of becoming a net zero university campus, the District is pursuing Petal Certification through the Living Building framework. Multiple layers of energy-efficient design strategies are incorporated throughout the project such as thermal chimneys, a passive design strategy to optimize the building envelope for natural ventilation while also improving day-lighting of interior spaces, supporting occupant health and comfort.

We spoke with principals Matthew Porreca and Steve McDowell, as well as design-team member Chad-Jamie Rigaud, about the project and why more universities are aiming for sustainability on their campuses.

GlobeSt.com: What stands out for you about this project?

Porreca: This project really is housing all of Palomar Community College's facilities groups, maintenance groups and day-to-day operations to show how future development can take on stronger sustainability goals. The challenge to us as the design/build team was can we get to net zero? This is setting new standards for how this campus is going to grow and develop; they're the prototype, and it means being able to bring faculty members to their site to show them how an office environment can be and how it can move toward the future. Community colleges had a big bond initiative passed by the community to do capital-improvement projects, and this project is showing how they're investing those dollars the community approved for their use. GlobeSt.com: Why are more universities aiming for sustainability in their campuses?

McDowell: Sustainability and better value lower the cost of operating a university. On some level, it's interesting because at Palomar, they're experimenting with the staff to see how these things really work and to see how to incorporate them across the campus to make them work better. The first sustainable campuses were built 15 to 17 years ago, and they were concerned with aligning with the pedagogy, doing more with less. In nursing schools, in particularly, the idea was building the least invasive model of healthcare, a building that was least invasive to a person's life or the economy of an organization. On some level, that's still the case. But whenever you can use the whole world we live in today to learn by doing and experience rather than through theory and other methods, buildings become part of teaching pedagogy and provide an opportunity to participate in that learning experience.

It's also pure marketing: the college age group has been successful in raising awareness of environmental concerns, of personal responsibility and energy efficiency, and universities feel the pressure, in order to be competitive as a place to go to school, to practice high levels of sustainability in buildings, food, energy choices, transportation and a lot of different ways.

GlobeSt.com: How are they achieving this goal?

Porreca: This project had strong passive design strategies: ventilation, day-lighting—all occupied spaces had 100% daylight, and two-thirds of the building has no HVAC system; it was all about airflows and precooling air. A convection was created to allow for some drop in temperature, so it's not really changing the air temperature, but the changing airflows made it feel cooler. The workplace was about how to make really healthy, innovative workspaces connected to the outdoors: garden spaces, a mixed-mode system, ventilation used 80% of the time and a solar chimney as well. A big piece of it is that originally, the university had envisioned site being taken up by operations and suites for serving campus. We were able to do this efficiently, creating a system for holding storm water on site and in above-ground tanks, so the public and students and faculty can see how these systems work.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this trend?

Porreca: Campuses, as they continue to grow and densify, are being responsible about getting funding. Sustainability is the economic driver for how campuses are going to be operating in the future, so they're getting ahead of the curve. It's about how to keep operation dollars as tight as they can so buildings can operate at much lower energy intensities and cost much lower to operate. This is a really big shift in how campuses continue to grow for the future—the public awareness piece and extending beyond communities. The president of the university is interested in how spending dollars from a bond are used. This project is pursuing a Petal Certification through the Living Building framework, and it's one of the first BNIM Living Buildings. To date, there are no community colleges that have been Petal or Living Building certified. It's an education process on campus.

McDowell: I think we're in strange times, considering the world political and US political scene, and we're working on campuses in NJ, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, California, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. The universities are under tremendous pressure to justify the resources. All of those are state universities except for Princeton, and all are under tremendous pressure to justify their expenditures and declining student enrollment. We're just in a weird cycle of history, and universities and colleges have always represented what's next; they're the incubators of where society has moved in cultural/social, science, mathematics, art and design. Projects like Palomar are critical and important; they demonstrate practical solutions for issues that every community college faces. They learn by doing and examples, and a campus can help set a positive role model and be optimistic about where the world could and should go and how every community can have a role in doing that.

Rigaud: The building is net positive. It will be producing 105% of the energy that's on the campus.

GlobeSt.com: What stands out for you about this project?

GlobeSt.com: How are they achieving this goal?

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this trend?

Rigaud: The building is net positive. It will be producing 105% of the energy that's on the campus.

Instant Insights /

How Colleges Are Competing With Sustainability

Related Stories

Recommended For You