CitiesGoGreen - October 2008 - (Page 13) High Performance Buildings The Ada County Courthouse by Stacey Hobart Saves a lot of money and it’s comfy, too. Our series on High Performance Buildings began last month. Alternating theory and example, this month we present the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho. The first of five high efficiency buildings by Ada County, it uses 40% less energy than a comparable building, saving $175,000 a year. W Dave Logan calls the courthouse “a wonderful project” and four more highly efficient buildings have since been constructed by Ada County. e believed it was our responsibility to build a sustainable structure and incorporate energy efficiency in the construction from day one,” said Dave Logan, Director of Operations for Idaho’s Ada County. Logan is referring to the county courthouse building located in the state’s largest city and capital, Boise. Construction broke ground in 2000 and as Logan says, project managers knew from the beginning that they wanted to create something that used energy efficiently and provided comfort and improved air quality for the employees that would eventually work there. The old courthouse was built in the 1940s and facility operators had significant problems stabilizing temperatures inside since heating and cooling had to be maintained manually. Over the weekend, building temperatures could drop to below 60 degrees, making Monday mornings particularly challenging for workers. The new 350,000-square-foot courthouse was completed in two years and houses 27 courtrooms and support areas including the prosecuting attorney and public defender offices. It also provides space for other county services such as the welfare department, offices for the county assessor, commissioners and treasurer. It was a fixed-price, designbuild project. Courthouse earns efficiency accolades Ranked in the top 25% of government buildings in the United States for energy efficiency, the Ada County Courthouse uses 40% less energy for heating, cooling and lighting than comparable buildings. For taxpayers, that means $175,000 a year in energy cost savings. It also means less greenhouse gases and other emissions associated with the energy generated to operate the building. Efficiency features include: geothermal heating system (construction managers made sure to take advantage of Boise’s geothermal resources), multi-staged chillers, variable drive pumps and moters, fresh air economizers (because courthouse windows cannot be operable, air exchange to ensure sufficient fresh air was a critical focus in building design), direct digital controls, low-e glass and window tinting, and T-8 light fixtures with electronic ballasts. The courthouse received ENERGY STAR certification with a score of 76. To earn the ENERGY STAR label, buildings must provide a full year of utility data on energy use and achieve a score of at least 75 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s energy performance rating sys- tem. It was also awarded LEED Silver certification for existing buildings—the first Idaho building to do so. Achieving LEED required some minor changes and adoption of new policies, according to Logan, but mostly it was documenting what they were already doing. Monitoring for performance goals A public-private partnership consisting of the Capital City Development Corporation, Ada County and Civic Partners, a real estate development company, began planning the courthouse in the mid-1990s. The group created a team composed of architects, engineers, contractors and a commissioning agent to ensure that the building would meet the county’s goals for a sustainable, high performance building. County commissioners supported the courthouse campaign to achieve ENERGY STAR certification from the start, said Logan. “They wanted to see the data, see the savings and have the third-party verification that our facility was operating at peak efficiency,” he said. Immediately upon completion of the facility, building managers started moni13 October 2008 http://citiesgogreen.com/issues/october-2008/efficient-buildings/the-ada-county-courthouse http://citiesgogreen.com
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