The Center for Sustainability at Johnson County Community College (JCCC), Overland Park, Kansas, set aggressive goals for the College, including becoming a 100% renewable energy campus by 2050. This commitment affected every building project on campus, including Galileo’s Pavilion, a 3,000-square-foot academic building. Super-efficient practices and products, including Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) technology, have made Galileo’s Pavilion a true showcase of sustainability and earned LEED® Platinum certification.
The JCCC contacted Studio 804, a not-for-profit in Lawrence, Kansas, comprised of KU School of Architecture, Design and Planning graduate students. These students design and construct technologically sophisticated, green buildings under the direction of Dan Rockhill, distinguished architecture professor and Studio 804 founder. Rockhill said, “We designed Galileo’s Pavilion using our current knowledge of sustainable design. We took advantage of the daily and seasonal cycles of nature to passively cool, heat and daylight the building, as well as supply electricity and utility water.”
For HVAC, Rockhill said, “We had three distinctly separate spaces. Although they’re in the same building, the loading on them is different. So that resulted in three separate air-conditioning and heating solutions” – or, zoning. “We pride ourselves on promoting sustainable everything, so HVAC is no exception.” VRF was the clear choice.
Rockhill had been impressed with Mitsubishi Electric VRF on a recent project. “Mitsubishi [Electric] is a leader in its field. Many of the others follow, but Mitsubishi [Electric] developed the variable refrigerant concept. For Galileo’s Pavilion, we wanted the most technologically advanced equipment in the industry. So VRF and its capacity to simultaneously cool and heat all of the spaces within the building was a fit.”
He continued, “Mitsubishi [Electric] was also very generous in working on the engineering aspect of the Center for Design Research. Mitsubishi [Electric] gets passive solar, and gets that it’s the sum of the total of all the parts that makes the systems positive. And there was never any pushback from them. It was always, “Yeah, that’s great.”
“Installation went quite well. The Mitsubishi [Electric] units are compact and easy enough to install that the whole thing really was pretty simple,” said Rockhill.
“The school monitors the whole thing,” explained Michael Rea, JCCC’s sustainability project manager, “through our building automation system. The Mitsubishi [Electric] system is integrated so we can see humidity or change set points, for example.”
He continued, “Everything with the Mitsubishi [Electric] system has been going well. No compressor failures, no leaks, no fan problems, nothing. Our maintenance is easy, too – just changing the filters and making sure the condensers are clean.”
Another sign of success: LEED Platinum certification. Rea said, “For us in the Center, we were excited to get above Silver, our current standard. Galileo’s Pavilion is a showcase about what a sustainable building can be on a campus. We were also honored to receive the 2013 CSI Kansas City Chapter Innovation in Sustainability Award for the building.”
Related Stories
| Feb 4, 2011
U.S. Green Building Council applauds President Obama’s Green Building Initiative
The U.S. Green Building Council applauded a key element of President Obama’s plan to “win the future” by making America’s commercial buildings more energy- and resource-efficient over the next decade. The President’s plan, entitled Better Buildings Initiative, catalyzes private-sector investment through a series of incentives to upgrade offices, stores, schools and universities, hospitals and other commercial and municipal buildings.
| Feb 4, 2011
President Obama: 20% improvement in energy efficiency will save $40 billion
President Obama’s Better Buildings Initiative, announced February 3, 2011, aims to achieve a 20% improvement in energy efficiency in commercial buildings by 2020, improvements that will save American businesses $40 billion a year.
| Jan 25, 2011
Bloomberg launches NYC Urban Tech Innovation Center
To promote the development and commercialization of green building technologies in New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has launched the NYC Urban Technology Innovation Center. This initiative will connect academic institutions conducting underlying research, companies creating the associated products, and building owners who will use those technologies.
| Jan 25, 2011
InterContinental Hotels Group gets LEED pre-certification
InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced that its in-house sustainability system Green Engage has been awarded LEED volume pre-certification established from the USGBC and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. IHG is the first hotel company to receive this award for an existing hotels program.
| Jan 21, 2011
Combination credit union and USO center earns LEED Silver
After the Army announced plans to expand Fort Bliss, in Texas, by up to 30,000 troops, FirstLight Federal Credit Union contracted NewGround (as CM) to build a new 16,000-sf facility, allocating 6,000 sf for a USO center with an Internet café, gaming stations, and theater.
| Jan 21, 2011
Manufacturing plant transformed into LEED Platinum Clif Bar headquarters
Clif Bar & Co.’s new 115,000-sf headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., is one of the first buildings in the state to meet the 2008 California Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The structure has the largest smart solar array in North America, which will provide nearly all of its electrical energy needs.
| Jan 21, 2011
Primate research facility at Duke improves life for lemurs
Dozens of lemurs have new homes in two new facilities at the Duke Lemur Center in Raleigh, N.C. The Releasable Building connects to a 69-acre fenced forest for free-ranging lemurs, while the Semi-Releasable Building is for lemurs with limited-range privileges.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 21, 2011
Virginia community college completes LEED Silver science building
The new 60,000-sf science building at John Tyler Community College in Midlothian, Va., just earned LEED Silver, the first facility in the Commonwealth’s community college system to earn this recognition. The facility, designed by Burt Hill with Gilbane Building Co. as construction manager, houses an entire floor of laboratory classrooms, plus a new library, student lounge, and bookstore.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
