Back to the Table of Contents Page

Back to The Almanac Home Page

Classifieds

Publication Date: Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Turning green with environmentalism: Hewlett Foundation and Jasper Ridge field station are among the most 'sustainable' buildings in the state

By Jocelyn Dong

On Sand Hill Road, practically a stone's throw from one another, two buildings debuted in May and June of this year. Ordinarily the completion of a new building would not draw much notice, even in this stalled economy.

But these are no ordinary buildings. They are jewels in the environmental movement's crown, embodying many of the principles of the latest buzzword: sustainability.

Whereas conventional buildings by nature dominate landscape -- even create a new "landscape" -- these are designed to co-exist unobtrusively with their surroundings. Whereas buildings consume energy keeping their occupants comfortable, the designers of these workplaces chose features meant to both minimize energy consumption and care for employee comfort.

Although the structures look like others you'd find in the market, they are, in a range of ways, like none you've ever seen. It is hoped, say the designers, that they will serve as the prototypes for buildings you'll commonly see -- and live and work in -- in the future.


The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

"Reflecting our values"

The Road Oyl is used for the walkways as well as the parking lots. A path leads from the parking lot to the front door, amid landscaping dotted with native plants, which require less water than lush non-native gardens. Visitors quickly finds themselves at the glass front door, the mid-point of a horseshoe-shaped, two-story structure in which tinted windows and earth tones predominate.

The foundation, with its 24,000-square-foot footprint, rests on 6.8 acres leased for the next 51 years from Stanford. Sixty percent of the land has been left as open space. In spite of its Menlo Park address, the land is part of unincorporated San Mateo County.

According to Jo Conover, the project manager, the foundation's board had always wanted the organization to have its own building. Supporters of the idea included directors Walter Hewlett and Mary Hewlett Jaffe and senior staff. One of the reasons was entirely practical: The staff was outgrowing the office buildings they were leasing on Middlefield Road. So a planning process began in 1998.

But a building and a green building are two entirely different animals. Ms. Conover notes that the desire to build an environmentally friendly building came from the foundation's mission and work. In a brochure about the building, Ms. Jaffe explains: "With the foundation's long-standing interest in the environment, our goal was to create a building that reflects our values by supporting the emerging green-building industry and by providing a healthy and productive workplace."

For the work, the foundation pulled in project-management firm Bennington/Connover & Associates of Cupertino; architects B.H. Bocook, Architects, Inc. of Palo Alto (exterior) and Hawley Peterson & Snyder Architects of Mountain View (interiors); general contractor Vance Brown Builders; environmental building consultants Simon & Associates of San Francisco; and the Office of Cheryl Barton for landscaping.

The project broke ground in January 2000 and was completed in May 2002.

It is the first building in California to be certified at the "gold" level by the U.S. Green Building Council, a national organization that promotes green building. In effect, it has been assessed as one of the greenest buildings in the state, and is one of only six such intensely sustainable buildings in the nation. (A building at the University of California at Santa Barbara, completed in January, was the first and only structure certified at the higher platinum level under a previous version of the USGBC rating system, known as LEED -- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.)

In November, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution honoring the foundation for "leadership and proven commitment to the betterment of the environment" through its building.
Saving energy, minimizing impact

Features of the foundation's headquarters can be summarized in four areas: minimizing environmental impact; energy and water efficiency; indoor environmental quality; and innovation.

One main way in which the building has less environmental impact than so-called "market" buildings lies in the materials it's made of. Eighty-three percent of the wood came from responsibly managed forests. Sixty-four percent of the building materials have recycled content. For example, the wall insulation is made of recycled post-industrial denim. That's right -- blue-jean fabric.

The designers also chose materials that are rapidly renewable, such as cork, linoleum and bamboo. Countertops in meeting rooms and workrooms are made of soy and wheat composites, although they resemble granite.

The foundation also tries to reduce the impact its employees have on the environment by endorsing alternative transportation. The site itself is close to three bus routes, and bike racks and showers encourage self-powered travelers. Carpoolers get special spots in the underground parking garage.

When it comes to energy efficiency, the building is full of subtle features. Project architect and Portola Valley resident Sharon Refvem recalls that when she was in school, green buildings evoked images of oil drums catching rainwater. Not so here.

True, there's the proven water-saver, drought-tolerant landscaping. But there are also low-flow fixtures and mini-dishwashers in the break rooms, which use about half the water of a normal dishwasher. And then there are the waterless urinals in the men's restrooms.

David Lorey, director of the foundation's Latin America program, recalls there was a steady stream of curious visitors to the men's room when the building first opened.

The urinals use gravity and a chemical seal to get the job done. One visitor recently noted that they smell more like disinfectant than anything else. Overall, Ms. Conover estimates that the foundation building will use 15 percent less water than a conventional office.

Perhaps the most notable energy-saving strategies the foundation has are its use of ice tanks and window glazing. The six tanks freeze water at night, and during the summer days, warm air is cooled by the ice rather than by expensive, peak-hour electricity.

Upstairs in the office space, clerestory windows and plenty of interior glass allow natural lighting to pour into the building. The plethora of windows, treated with a glazing that rejects a lot of the sun's heat, saves on the electricity needed both to light the offices and to cool them.

Together with other energy-saving schemes such as solar panels, the structure exceeds the California Title 24 energy-performance standards by 35 percent.

The LEED standards of sustainability are concerned not just with the building's impact on the world outside, but on the quality of the environment inside as well. That includes air quality, lighting, temperature, emissions of toxic compounds and other factors. In this category, the foundation earned maximum LEED points.

"We got every credit there is in indoor environmental quality, to make sure we never had to deal with mold or other sick-building issues," Ms. Conover says.

Visually, the interiors are pleasing, recalling a modern library with vaulted ceilings, clerestory windows, and sunlight streaming in through two-story-tall light wells.

Every now and then, the floor creaks when someone walks across it. One wouldn't know it by looking at the perfectly laid-out carpet, but the floor is actually a grid of 2-foot squares. The tiles form the top of an 18-inch-tall under-floor air system in which air from the outside is pumped into the offices through circular grates in the floor. Ms. Conover affectionately refers to the grating units as "salad spinners."

This method of ventilation saves energy and increases comfort, Ms. Conover notes. With an under-floor "plenum," air comes through the floor at the temperature people desire and is exhausted through the ceiling. It is more efficient than the standard method in which air at more extreme temperatures is pumped in at the ceiling and forced down to where the people are.

Each office also comes with windows that staff can open themselves, to increase comfort and reduce energy consumption. An automated red light/green light system tells workers when the heating or cooling system is on, and they should not open the windows. The building is also equipped with carbon dioxide monitors to keep the air quality at healthful levels.

To keep hazardous compounds out of people's lungs, workrooms and janitors' closets have direct ventilation to the outside. The maintenance company hired, Ace Building Maintenance of Sunnyvale, uses only non-toxic cleaning products.

Finally, the building project received points for innovations: the Road Oyl, the green maintenance, the certified wood, and the use of the building for educational purposes. For the lattermost feature, the foundation decided to open its doors to others interested in building green by offering lectures and tours. Ms. Conover and Ms. Refvem have made presentations to engineering classes, architectural firms, interior design associations and the staff of nearby cities.
Costs and benefits

People frequently ask whether it costs more to build green. Ms. Conover admits that it's about 15 to 20 percent more expensive in upfront costs to construct a gold-certified sustainable building than a conventional one. But those costs need to be balanced against the savings in water and energy that occur over time, she notes.

A recent study by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, in collaboration with Hawley Peterson & Snyder Architects, BNIM Architects, Keen Engineering, and Oppenheim Lewis, showed that the energy consumed by a "market" building is three times that of a gold-certified building, and nearly twice that of a building certified at the lowest LEED level.

A green building also carries other benefits, Ms. Conover says. "There's an element that's hard to measure. If you can do anything to improve productivity and have healthier, happier people, that goes to the bottom line. People costs are over 80 percent of doing business. Those are some of the intangibles."

Mr. Lorey, for one, says he is enjoying his surroundings. He's been with the foundation six years and says the previous buildings had heating and cooling systems that were never right. Plus, he adds, they suffered from a lack of "character."

"We breathe nice fresh air here. We can open our windows. The light of the world streams in here and illuminates our work," he says.

The biggest impact he noticed occurred within a few days of moving in: People were staying later. He attributes it to a more comfortable environment.

"You don't notice time going by. The eye fatigue that sets in and the feeling of being in an uncomfortable environment is not here. It's a dramatic change. I've worked in a lot of different places," Mr. Lorey says.

For those who worked on the building, its completion has brought a feeling of success. Finding out that they'd achieved a gold rating was icing on the cake.

"Personally, doing LEED we thought we were pretty solidly in the gold (level)," Ms. Refvem says. "When the phone call came, we were like, 'Yahoo!' I was surprised by how exciting it was. It was really satisfying."

Ms. Refvem also believes the project was a success in demonstrating what can be done by following principles of green construction. "It's important that the building show it can be done by others. It's important that the space be beautiful," she says, noting that not many people want to replicate a functional but unattractive structure.

"I'm glad to say that it's quite a beautiful project. Lots of things you do in green (design) are good design in the first place, like including lots of natural light."

Both Ms. Conover and Ms. Refvem hope that other green builders will learn from their experiences. Among their recommendations: Put a team together early in the project to share in the common vision, and allow time to think about the project with a fresh perspective, looking for greener ways to get things done.

Coming back from a recent U.S. Green Building Council convention in Texas attended by 3,500 people, Ms. Conover noted that 500 additional buildings are currently undergoing the LEED-certification process. And there will be more to come.

"This is going to absolutely change the way we build buildings," she says.

For information about the Hewlett Foundation, call (650) 234-4500 or visit www.hewlett.org.

The Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station at Jasper Ridge It's green -- and it's cool

In July, when temperatures soared to 100 degrees at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Philippe Cohen started to worry.

Mr. Cohen, the preserve director, and his staff had just moved into the new Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station in June, and the time had come to test the building's ability to stay cool -- without benefit of an electricity-guzzling air-conditioning system. Instead, Mr. Cohen was relying on thermally efficient windows, insulated aluminum window-casings that would not transfer heat from the outside, and shading from a row of strategically placed solar panels.

One hot day, Mr. Cohen recalls, he and preserve caretaker Leonard Robinson were standing outside when the moment of truth arrived. They walked indoors. It was a cool 76 degrees. Mr. Robinson asked, "Boss, what do you have the air conditioner set to?"

"Leonard," Mr. Cohen replied gleefully, "there is no air-conditioning!"

Mr. Cohen recounts the incident recently with enthusiasm. "It was like magic. It was really neat."

The windows are just one way in which the 9,800-square-foot field station, named in honor of a former docent and Atherton resident, has been designed to be sustainable. Like the Hewlett Foundation building, the field station, located just southwest of Interstate 280, features native landscaping, non-asphalt driveways, recycled insulation, waterless urinals, and certified wood. Unlike the foundation building, the Jasper Ridge structure is made in part with salvaged materials.

Fifty-year-old redwood tongue-and-groove siding came from a Woodside residence and some Escondido Village apartments that were being torn down. Bricks laid in the patio started out at Jane and Leland Stanford's country home, and originally came over from Scotland as ship ballast. Bathroom fixtures, cabinetry and a cold-storage room all had previous lives.

"The American waste-stream is filled with riches," Mr. Cohen says. "The issue is not finding the stuff, it's letting the word out to get to it in time."

The field station is not as polished-looking as the foundation. It didn't need to be, Mr. Cohen says. The station serves as a research and education facility and includes a lab, offices, two classrooms and storage areas.

One of the field station's most distinctive engineering features is the truss-and-cable support system that replaces load-bearing walls. Steel columns support the building's weight. This design feature reduced the amount of lumber needed and also freed up interior space, so the footprint of the building could be minimized. The technology has been heavily used in ships.

Another design innovation involved putting insulation on the top of the roof instead of inside the ceiling, which reduces thermal leaks. Just outside the building's front door, a concrete slab has been made of a mix of fly ash and cement, rather than all cement. The new recipe helps reduce the global carbon emissions that are produced in the manufacturing of cement.

And what would a green building be if it didn't have solar panels? The field station's 20-kilowatt system is sufficient for the building's electrical needs, and then some, says Mr. Cohen. Even on a cool November day, the meter was spinning backwards -- indicating that the station was sending power back to the grid.

Another way the station's roof is used environmentally stems from its unusual shape. Whereas the Hewlett Foundation has vaulted ceilings, the field station's roof is shaped like a V -- all the better to collect rainwater with. The rainwater runs off and is stored in a 25,000-gallon cistern. Staff and students are examining ways to use the water.

From the sea-worthy trusses to rainwater collection, "a lot of (green) technology is not ground-breaking technology," Mr. Cohen says. "You just have to be willing to do the thinking upfront."

In fact, he says, planning ahead and thinking of all the possible uses of the building is "the least sexy but most essential thing." Doing so enabled his project team to minimize costs in the end and even reduce the footprint of the building from 12,000 to 9,800 square feet.

Deciding on the most sustainable choice is not always obvious, Mr. Cohen says. He had to choose between buying recycled steel from overseas or newly forged steel from the eastern United States. Both options had their advantages and disadvantages. (He went with the recycled steel.)

Although Mr. Cohen used the LEED standards as guidelines for how to approach building a green structure, he has not registered the building for LEED certification. Doing so could cost $30,000 to $50,000, and Mr. Cohen says he wanted the $5 million project to come in under budget, which it did. He estimates, however, that the field station could earn the highest rating, platinum.

"Everyone's convinced that it costs more money (to build green). I don't think it's true," Mr. Cohen says, adding that two comparable Stanford buildings completed this year cost about the same amount. The field station, he adds, will require "half the cost to maintain as a conventional building."

In addition to Mr. Cohen, the field station was designed and constructed by architect Rob Wellington Quigley and W. L. Butler Construction Inc. The Capital Planning and Management Department of Stanford University was also instrumental in the project.

Tours of the field station are available. Call 327-2277. For information about Jasper Ridge, visit http://jasper1.stanford.edu.

A Green Primer

If the vocabulary of the green-building industry leaves you scratching your head, here are some definitions to clear the confusion.

LEED. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a framework developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for measuring a building's performance and sustainability. Based on well-founded scientific standards, the LEED rating system assesses a building in five categories: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. LEED recognizes achievements and promotes expertise in green building through a system offering project certification, professional accreditation, training and practical resources.

Sustainable. Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainable development consists of activities and economic growth that do not deplete or degrade the biodiversity, environmental resources, and ecosystem services upon which present and future societies depend. Sustainable uses and activities are those that can be continued without jeopardizing the ability of ecosystems to be fully renewed so they can continue to provide undiminished resources each year long into the future (from the Organization of Biological Field Stations) .

U.S. Green Building Council. Composed of about 2,000 members of the building industry, the USGBC promotes buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Council members work together to develop design guidelines, policy positions, educational tools and industry standards -- including the LEED Green Building Rating System -- that support the adoption of sustainable design and building practices.