High Performing Buildings - Spring 2008 - (Page 2) CONTENTS 30 Part 1 of a 3-Part Series 4 A Sense of Community Seattle City Hall When the new hall opened in 2005, the local press declared the building an energy hog. Reasons for the misunderstanding included insufficient data, unequal comparison and unfavorable timing. Since then, Seattle City Hall has become a source of community pride as a powerful example of environmental stewardship. The 200,000 ft2 building features glazing, a thermal buffer, sunshades, daylighting controls, a green roof, and an underfloor air-distribution system. Daylighting Strategies That Maximize Benefits With a one- to three-year simple payback, daylighting strategies can potentially reduce our nation’s total energy consumption by 1%. Roof monitors, lightshelves, side lighting and skylights are just a few options in daylighting design. The author discusses the various elements of daylighting and how to maximize the benefits. 20 Conservation Gateway Sweetwater Creek Visitor Center The visitor center is a high performance building with low impact on the ecosystem. The building’s waste treatment system eliminates the use of municipal potable water for sewage and treats 100% of the waste on-site in an ecological manner, without using chemicals. A 12 in. deep intensive vegetated green roof blends with the site’s natural topography while moderating the temperature differentials between the building interior and exterior air. 2 HIGH PERFORMING BUILDINGS Spring 2008
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