Green buildings are a type of buildings whose design is optimized to reduce resource consumption during building, operation, and demolition. The main purpose of green buildings is to promote environmental conservation by reducing their carbon footprint. The design of green buildings is anchored on the principle of reduce recycle reuse. For example, the design is aimed at reducing water and electrical power consumption. Also, green buildings are equipped with provisions for recycling water and reusing it elsewhere. In addition, green buildings are sometimes constructed by reusing construction materials salvaged from demolished buildings (Colclough par.4). This paper examines the best green buildings in America with regard to their resource consumption and environmental impacts..
THE BANK OF AMERICA TOWER
The Bank of America Tower was completed in 2009 and it’s located near the Times Square in New York. The tower is 1200 feet tall and was designed by COOKFOX Architects. The project cost $1 billion to design and build. The building is the fourth tallest building in New York and sixth in the whole of America. The tower is a 55 story building with a floor space of 2,100,000 square feet (Bank of America Tower par.2). A total of 52 elevators and three escalators are used to serve the building. Two escalators are linked to the subway below the ground. The space on which the building sits on was previously occupied by other buildings which were demolished to create space. These include the Henry Millers Theater and the 13 story Hotel Diplomat. The most notable tenants in the building include Bank of America, which acts as the anchor tenant, and the Marathon Asset Management (Bank of America Tower par.3).
Figure 1: The Bank of America Tower. Source: Green Education Foundation
Green features
The Bank of America Tower was awarded a platinum rating by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) organization for its effectiveness. Though incorporation of the green features increased the project cost, it was projected that these features would pay for themselves from the savings realized from the reduced operational costs (Bank of America Tower par.1). These green features are discussed in detail below.
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The Bank of America Tower has a design form that enables it to passively conserve resources. For example, the building has sky facing sloping sides that chamfer the building corners. These exposed sides trap more sunlight and direct it to the interior of the building for natural lighting applications. Also, the sloping sides are more effective in harvesting rainwater for use in applications such as cleaning the floors and flushing the toilets (Bank of America Tower par.4). In addition, the sloping edges allow for better circulation of air in the neighborhood and create way for the passage of light rays to the adjacent buildings.
Also, the floor to ceiling windows enhances day light penetration into the building and offer outdoors views to the workers. Furthermore, the floor plan enables diagonal views that improve the indoor conditions unlike in other square buildings.
Energy conservation
The tower is equipped with a natural gas plant that provides it with 70% of all its annual power demand. Also, the plant supplies 30% of its peak power demand. The presence of the plant on the building eliminates the transmission losses exhibited by the national grid, which has centralized plants and therefore have to transmit power to distant consumers (Alter par.4). In addition, the plant employs cogeneration technology, which produces heat in addition to the power output. The heat energy is used to power chillers used to cool the building and to provide hot water. During the night when the power load is low, the plat is used to makes large amounts of ice that is stored in tanks and used during the day to cool the building. Therefore, the plant enables daytime peak demand shaving.
Water conservation
The building has waterless urinals which contribute 8 million gallons in water savings. Also, the use of the harvested rain water in flushing toilets raises the total water savings to 100 million gallons per year (Bank of America Tower par.5).
Construction materials
Forty per cent of the construction materials used in Bank of America Tower was sourced from within 500 miles from the site, which reduced the fuel burnt during transportation. Also, the contractor used fly-ash as a substitute for cement. As a result, there was 45% reduction in the quantity of new cement used thereby reducing pollution emanating from cement factories (Roudman par. 4). Recycled steel was also used.
QUEENS BOTANICAL GARDEN
The Queens Botanical Garden is located in New York City within a 39 acres piece of land owned by the City. The garden consists of a garden store, an auditorium, and a reception area. The amenities on the facility include meeting rooms, offices, garden store, a gallery, and a mechanical room (Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center par.2). The Queens Botanical garden is free for public use.
Features
The Visitor and the Administration Center in the garden exhibit numerous sustainable building characteristics. These include water conservation, energy generation and conservation, and landscape integration. Also, the garden can be accessed via public means of transport, which reduces emissions from private vehicles (Sustainable Landscapes & Buildings Project par. 4). In addition, the garden has showers and changing rooms that encourage employees to use bicycles, which further reduces the number of cars on the roads.
Gray water is reused in the garden for applications such as flushing toilets thereby reducing consumption of potable water more by than a half. Also, the facility has waterless urinals and composting toilets which further reduces water consumption. The auditorium in the facility has a green roof and a bioswales that enables the harvesting of storm water. The building has a channel that collects rain water that drains off the roof and directs it to the gardens (Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center par.4).
The reception building is a long and narrow structure that is aligned in an east-west axis direction. This orientation enables maximum amount of sunlight to penetrate to the innermost parts of the building for natural lighting applications. Other energy saving features incorporated into the lighting system includes daylight dimming, occupancy sensors, and high efficiency lamps. Also, the building has glass windows and doors that open in temperate weather to enhance natural ventilation (Sustainable Landscapes & Buildings Project par. 4). Other energy saving features in the building include the use of a ground heat pump for space heating and cooling applications and the use of solar photovoltaic panels for energy generation.
Finally, most of the construction materials used in the project was sourced from manufacturers within a 500 mile radius to reduce energy consumption during transportation. Also, the project developers used materials with high durability, low chemical emissions, recycled, and materials with Forest Stewardship Council certification (Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center par.6).
CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
The Clinton presidential library is located in the state of Arkansas at Little Rock city. The library was designed by an architectural firm known as Polshek Partnership LLP and has a floor area of 68,698 square feet. The main floor in the building is a cantilever that juts above the Arkansas River in reference to Clinton’s presidential campaign slogan that proclaimed that he would build a bridge to the 21st century (Pilloton par.2). The library has a platinum rating from LEED, an upgrade from its previous silver ratings due to environmental friendly retrofits.
Features
The library floor has tubes running underneath it. These tubes are filled with either hot or cold water for cooling and heating applications. Also, the library has a glass façade equipped with computerized photosensitive sensors. The sensors tint the glass during hot days and reflect light during sunny days to prevent overheating of the building and save on air conditioning energy loads (Commitment to Sustainability par.4).
According to Pilloton, the building has a green roof that was added in 2007 which gives the building a vegetative cover (par.4). The green roof has numerous benefits such as reduction of the island heat effect found in urban areas and prevention of temperature fluctuation inside the building. Also, the green roof controls storm water runoff, conserves water and cleans the air, and improves the building’s energy efficiency.
Other sustainability features on the library include 306 solar panels that provide a portion of the power consumed in the facility. Also, during construction, the contractor used 100% durable products. In addition, the electrical appliances used in the store are Energy Star certified and the furniture is 100% sustainable. Finally, the facility has a weather-based irrigation system that reduces water consumption by a margin of 90% as compared to regular irrigation systems (Pilloton par.4).
ROBERT REDFORD BUILDING
The Robert Redford building was opened in to the public in 2003 and is located in Santa Monica, California. The three story building was built at a cost of $5.1 million (Green by the Sea par. 1). The building’s sustainability features are detailed below.
Features
The sustainability features in the building include the conservation of potable water through the use of waterless urinals, dual-flush toilets, and high-efficiency dish washer systems. Also, the gray water from the sinks and showers is treated and recycled for flushing toilets and irrigating plants. In addition, the building has rain water collection system which collects the rain water, filters it, and mixes it with the gray water recycling system (Green by the Sea par.3). Furthermore, the courtyards have porous concrete slabs that allow storm water to seep through to the ground underneath instead of being directed to the storm water drains.
The facility reduces its grid power consumption by supplementing it with a 7.5 kW grid tied solar photovoltaic system. The system produces an average of 37.5kWh per day (Robert Redford to Open NRDC 'Green Building' par.2).Also, the building has an efficient lighting system equipped with dimmable ballast, photo sensors and occupancy sensors, and matching of illumination levels to specific tasks. Also, the building has efficient computer systems optimized to reduce energy consumption. In addition, the building employs day light illumination through the use of clerestories, architectural glass, and light wells (Green by the Sea par.4). The building operators have also bough energy credits for wind generation and as a result, the building is powered100% on renewable energy.
Other amenities on the facility that encourage sustainability practices include bicycle racks and showers that encourage the workers to walk, jog, or cycle to work. Also, the building is positioned in a downtown location, which enables the use of public transport. In addition, the building has light colored roofing which reflects light thereby reducing air conditioning loads. Furthermore, plants on the roof reduce heat island effect (Robert Redford to Open NRDC 'Green Building' par.3).
CONCLUSION
Green buildings are designed to reduce energy and water consumption and reduce their impact on the environment during construction, operation, and demolition. Green buildings reduce their environmental impact through the use of recycled construction materials. Also, the buildings are built by materials sourced from within a 500 miles radius to reduce emissions from transportation trucks. Energy consumption reduction measures include the use of solar photovoltaic systems for green energy generation, the use of daylighting for illumination during the day, and the use of efficient lighting systems and electrical appliances. Water is conserved through recycling of grey water for flushing toilets and watering plants. In the United States, the best buildings that embody the principles of green architecture are the Bank of America Tower, the Queens Botanical Garden, the Robert Redford Building, and the Clinton Presidential Library.
Works Cited
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“Bank of America Tower.” Green Education Foundation. Green Education Foundation, 2016. Web. 4 May 2016.
“Commitment to Sustainability.” Clinton Presidential Center. Clinton Foundation, n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.
“Green by the Sea.” Syska Henessey. Syska Henessey Group, 29 July 2004. Web. 4 May 2016.
Colclough, Steven. “Sustainable Buildings.” Tyco Fire Protection. Tyco City, n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.
Pilloton, Emily. “Clinton Library gets LEED Platinum.” Inhabitat. Inhabitat.com, 19 November 2007. Web. 4 May 2016.
“Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center.” Buildings Database. US Department of Energy, n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.
Roudman, Sam. “Bank of America's Toxic Tower.” New Republic. Newrepublic.com, 29 July 2013. Web. 4 May 2016.
“Robert Redford to Open NRDC 'Green Building'.” Natural Resourcs Defense Council. NRDC.Org, 13 November 2003. Web. 4 May 2016.
“Sustainable Landscapes & Buildings Project.” Queens Botanical Garden. Queens Botanical Garden, n.d. Web. 4 May 2016.
