How Green Is Choate? Part I: The Building Of Choate
By Briana Fasone ‘07
Editor
The School’s capital campaign, whose launch is scheduled on November 2nd in New York City, will include fundraising for a number of campus building projects over the coming years. Already completed and dedicated early this fall are three new Faculty homes on upper campus. Community members eagerly await groundbreaking for a new $22 million dormitory on North Elm Street. Beginning with this article, The News examines aspects of environmental stewardship on our campus. Future articles will examine how we conserve energy and how the school is cleaned. – The Editors
In early November, the Board of Trustees is scheduled to convene and discuss the authorization of the new $22 million dormitory project. If all goes well, construction of the complex will commence around late November. By the summer of 2008, the school hopes to have completed a 57,000 square foot residence that will accommodate 80 students and eight faculty apartments.
In an era where organic food is sold at most grocery stores and hybrid vehicles are increasing sale levels each month, an interest in green construction is likewise intensifying. According to Environmental Action Committee President Della Wright ’07, “With the advent of the new dormitory, a lot of students are wondering if the design will take into consideration ecological issues.” Both Chief Investment Officer John Burditt and Project Manager Joe Crouse insist that the administration is taking the necessary steps to ensure the structure is sensitive to environmental questions.
According to John Burditt, who oversaw the design process as former Chief Financial Officer, “Once we found the best site and began looking at design aspects, then environmental issues immediately came to the fore.” For Burditt, who says he has advocated environmental sensitivity during his tenure as Chief Financial Officer, making sure Choate appointed the appropriate architect was important. The administration agreed that Centerbrook Architects and Planners, LLC of Centerbrook, CT., would best execute the school’s construction mission.
A document from Centerbrook to Choate lists the sustainable design elements in the new residence hall. While most of these elements concern energy and water usage, other aspects include limited soil disturbance, native plantings, and sustainable materials like brick, engineered wood flooring with high recycled content, and natural stone counters in faculty apartments.
Despite Choate’s desire to go green, it is plain that the school has not been willing to incorporate industry – wide green principles. For example, the school did not seek LEED certification for the structure. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 1998, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Rating System is the internationally approved benchmark for green constructions. LEED standards are mandated by a group of design and construction leaders dedicated to making buildings ecologically sensitive. The system is based upon a 69 - point checklist that includes reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions to conserving energy and water. Once scored, a project can receive one of four awards; certified, silver, gold, or platinum. It takes only 26 points to be awarded certification.
After last month’s announcement that the new World Trade Center structures will be designed to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards, interest in the system has grown. In recent years, colleges and universities across the nation have adopted these sustainable design standards. At Swarthmore College, for example, The Swarthmore Science Center, a $48 million project, just missed the silver rating by a few points. The Stukeman Family Building at Pennsylvania State University was recently certified for its green features, which include a façade of recycled copper, energy-saving glass, sun controlled – louvers, and a system for limiting storm-water runoff. The center is expected to use 35% less energy than any other building of a similar size. Middlebury College in Vermont is now incorporating LEED standards into part of the college’s master plan given to all consultants.
The environmental benefits of LEED certification are numerous. For example, according to the LEED website, The Registered Project Checklist takes into consideration sustainable constructions, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation and design process. Specific components range from the use rapidly renewable materials to construction waste management. Besides ecological benefits, the system offers financial advantages as well. For example, a certified building can qualify for state and local government incentives. In addition, LEED certification automatically increases the market value of a construction. More importantly, however, LEED certification represents a universal commitment to environmental stewardship.
Yale University, a leader in collegiate environmental innovation, vows to improve the environment through the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards. According to Martin Mador, a LEED - certified architect at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, a building also designed by Centerbrook Architects, “LEED and the U.S. Green Building Council have started a revolution in building in just a few years. Designing a school building so that it achieves some level of LEED certification is almost always a very good idea.” Taking its cues from such standards, some peer secondary schools have recently built LEED – certified structures. Deerfield Academy’s Koch Center for Science, Math, and Technology, slated for dedication on May 4th, 2007, is seeking a Gold LEED rating.
Why hasn’t Choate adopted these national standards of sustainable green designs?
According to John Burditt and Joe Crouse, Choate’s Project Manager the foremost reason is cost. “The only reason for our not seeking certification,” began Burditt, “is that it is a very expensive process and there did not seem a lot of benefit for it – maybe a P.R. benefit, I suppose.” Joe Crouse agrees. “Some of the things like sorting your garbage into different dumpsters and making sure all your products come from within a certain distance – there is a lot of administrative cost that go along with checking each one of those things.”
While some agree that the LEED process is costly and does not award the best eco – friendly options, Yale’s Mador notes that many people don’t understand that “[LEED certification] should only add 1 – 2% to the total cost.” According to Mador, “For LEED Silver level, the increased capital cost is now generally taken to be 1-2%. For gold or platinum, it could go much higher”. If Mador is correct in his estimation, the cost of LEED certification at the lowest level for Choate’s new dormitory would be roughly $330,000.
According to both Burditt and Crouse, the school’s greatest environmental concern in the new construction is energy usage. “Almost everything we do, in terms of green building, is taking in concern energy, ” notes Burditt.
To ameliorate the question of energy consumption, the building, says Joe Crouse, will be super-insulated, a system that uses heat predominantly by intrinsic sources of warmth (waste heat generated by appliances and the body heat of the occupants), with very small amounts of backup heat supplies. “We’ve put in a geo-thermal heating and cooling system that is extremely energy efficient,” explained Crouse. “We feel that the additional cost upfront will actually pay itself back within an eight to ten year window. After that, the school will be paying much less for energy consumption.”
Choate planners made some efforts to incorporate green elements into the construction of the dormitory. Were these efforts sincere – or were merely a way to avoid more costly alternatives?
“First of all, if you look at a building from an environmental standpoint, the best things you can do – we’re doing,” explained Crouse. “You superinsulate your buildings, you put in the most efficient heating and cooling systems you can find, you install great windows and doors. By doing those things you are looking at a long term environmental benefit.” Later, Crouse added that, “You really don’t get a lot of [LEED] – honestly.”
While the administration insists that the best green elements were considered for the design, many eco-friendly options were left out. For example, in the same document citing the current design features of the dormitory was a list of additional elements the school could have included in its design. Solar Heating panels, storm-water collectors, more permeable road paving, and longer lasting roof materials are just a few of the 14 extra elements recommended by Centerbrook.
In an email exhange, one local architect, who has done LEED design work in the past, noted, “Unfortunately many building owners are only looking at the bottom line. Sure they want to save energy, use more sustainable products, and protect the environment, but they do not want to pay for it… Being LEED certified has its merits for reasons other than financial – it is a deeper feeling of doing the right thing both socially and philosophically. It is a movement we should all be sensitive to – creating livable, workable, sustainable, environments for future generations to use, while at the same time not taking valuable resources away from our home planet.”
Charlotte Hitchcock, a LEED – certified architect at Paul B. Bailey Architects in New Haven, agreed. She insists that LEED certification is the most effective tool in sustainable design. “LEED has been a useful tool for several reason. One is that it is an attempt to quantify and define what sustainable design means. Another is that public agencies have traditionally looked for the cheapest construction cost.”
“This is frustrating for architects and engineers who would like to invest better quality construction that will save money and energy over a life cycle period,” Ms. Hitchcock told The News. “When public agencies adopt LEED certification as a requirement of their projects, it means they are recognizing the importance if the life-cycle cost, not just the initial construction cost.”
When asked if Choate’s lack of funding in comparison with other schools contributed to our not getting certified, Burditt, who recommended the school not go for LEED certification, said “[Currently], our resources are not as large as some other schools, so we just have to try doubly hard to do certain things.” Burditt continued by explaining, “At Choate we want to use every available dollar in the best possible way to further our mission of educating students and providing the finest programs and services. [LEED] adds up to a lot of money. For example, this money could buy a lot of computers and do a lot of other things…so while it was nice to do, we felt the money could be better used elsewhere. ”
