Repurposed campus building provides sustainable design concepts, green-learning labs and energy-efficient features
Iowa Lakes Community College, Estherville, Iowa, has a long history of environmental awareness. In the late 1970s, the college started an environmental studies program. Its construction technology program has been teaching energy-saving initiatives for years.
Now, its Sustainable Energy Resources & Technologies
(S.E.R.T) facility exemplifies the college’s latest efforts to maximize the principles of green architecture, the reduction of energy consumption, elimination of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) and maximization of natural lighting, all under one roof. “The S.E.R.T building represents one of the most extensive and ambitious projects the college has undertaken and we feel that the facility has the potential to have an impact locally, regionally and nationally as well as internationally,” says Janice Lund, president of the board of Trustees of Iowa Lakes.
The premise and driving force behind the entire facility is to teach sustainable energy technology to college students. The fully renovated building aspires to be a world-class model of ecological construction and sustainable energy. Its energy-efficient features also double as learning opportunities.
The remodeled facility houses six programs:
- Engineering Technology
- Electrical Technology
- HVAC
- Water Quality and Sustainable Aquatic Resources
- Environmental Studies
- Wind Energy and Turbine Technology classes
Learning Experience
Purchased in 2010 in a sheriff’s auction, the project originated as a 30,000-square-foot, abandoned metal building used for light manufacturing. “By utilizing an existing facility, we were able to conserve where possible, and recycle all unnecessary components of the previous structure, minimizing our environmental impact,” says Iowa Lakes Community College president Valerie Newhouse. The existing structure provided the perfect design aesthetic for the building’s use, so the design team elected to leave the structure and shell exposed. Multiple steel structures were fabricated within the existing shell to support different sustainable technologies.
Repurposed for the college, it now has more than 42,000 square feet of space with a completely new, open, second level for cost-efficient future expansion on the west side of the facility. Unfortunately, “The entire building program was too large to fit within the 30,000-square-foot floor plate that existed, so a second floor was added to a portion of the building,” says Dave Briden, AIA, president, frk architects + engineers, West Des Moines, Iowa. “This was accomplished by inserting a separate, structural steel frame into the existing shell. The major challenge involved getting the pieces into the building and erecting them within the confines of the shell. The atrium space designed into the center of the structure made this feasible.”
Metal panels were used because of the economic value they offer, speed of construction, and their ease and variety of uses, including appearance and product longevity with low maintenance. The existing metal wall panels remained in place and were covered with Kansas City, Mo.-based Butler Manufacturing 26-gauge Butlerib II wall panels in custom-color Award Blue with matching downspouts. Existing 24-gauge Flat StylWall wall panels with TextureCote from Butler were repainted in Shell Gray.
The 21-year-old building still had its original 24-gauge Butler MR-24 standing seam roof. “No repairs were needed for it as part of the renovation, showing the longevity of Butler Manufacturing’s standing seam roof,” says Steven P. Christensen, president at Christensen Construction, Estherville. Every college has its signature campus color. “This project required a specific deep-blue color for the exterior panels that Butler Manufacturing does not typically offer; however, we were able to have the panels painted to order while still meeting the project’s delivery deadline,” says Paul Peterson, engineering services manager at Butler Manufacturing.
Sustainable, Educational
The S.E.R.T. Building is designed to be energy and mechanically efficient, constructed using the LEED rating system with sustainable, durable materials. There are a variety of technologies within the facility that are showcased. The focal point in the center of the building’s atrium is the nacelle. “The 70-ton nacelle is a generator that sits on top of a wind turbine and generates electricity from the spinning of the large wind turbine blades,” says Briden. “By placing one of these in the building, students could safely learn to work on one and do so regardless of the weather.” Normally found at the top of a tower, the nacelle was installed 15 feet off of the floor to provide year-round instruction on this critical component of a wind turbine. It weighs more than 70 tons, so steel was the logical choice to build a framework to support this component.
The building is both heated and cooled by geothermal wells. “This is accomplished by recirculating water through 60 wells that are 300 feet deep [under the parking lot],” says Christensen. The floor of the atrium is a polished-concrete, radiant-heated slab that uses a geothermal field for heating. “The geothermal heat in the floor works great,” says Delaine Hiney, executive director of facilities management at Iowa Lakes Community College. “The S.E.R.T. Building is the only building we have that I do not get any complaints on due to uneven heat.”
Christensen says when the natural ground water temperature isn’t sufficient; a refrigeration process is used in conjunction with the wells. At the student lounge area, the geothermal heat pump room is on display behind glass for all of the students to see and is efficiently illuminated with blue LED lighting.
For all its classrooms, the steel floor structure is exposed as a portion of the finished ceiling. In the lobby, horizontal metal panels in Laker Yellow add a focal point to the entry space along with maple wood panels and glazed walls. Three large fans in the lobby ceiling finish out the space, constantly turning at very low RPM while moving air back down to the floor slab to supplement air circulation. There are occupancy sensors for lighting and hydration stations.
There was minimal thermal insulation in the exterior walls and roof, most of the exterior windows were single-pane and the window frames had no thermal breaks. The HVAC system was grossly inefficient causing a tremendous waste of energy. The new design addressed this with added exterior insulation, and replacement thermal-pane glass windows.
Solar Solutions
Natural light enters the building via Manhattan, Kan.- based Manko Window Systems Inc.’s 120 feet of 18-foot-tall windows. Six, 2-feet by 10-feet prismatic Butler Sunlite Strip roof light panels and four 21-inch diameter Solatube solar tubes from Solatube International Inc., Vista, Calif., also spread daylighting.
The building utilizes solar energy to power rooftop units used for cooling a portion of the facility. “The exterior south face of the building has a structural steel screen that supports a solar photovoltaic (PV) array [from Hillsboro, Ore.-based SolarWorld Americas Inc.] that provides electricity to power the mechanical units serving the building,” says Briden. It takes full advantage of the sun as well as providing a visual screen for the existing metal building and clearly identifying the building’s purpose for the community. The PV system lowers the building’s electricity bills and provides a learning lab for students.
Why not put the panels on the roof? “It would be more difficult to put the solar panels on the roof structurally and they would also create a snow drift load on the building,” says Christensen. “In addition, the owner wanted the interest and attention they would grab by having them prominently placed at the front of the building.”
The southeast corner of the building was opened up and infilled with Manko Window Systems’ aluminum curtainwall to provide a connection to campus. “Solar shading of the aluminum curtainwall glazing was accomplished by an all-aluminum sunshade device [from The Airolite Co., Schofield, Wis.] hung from the steel framework near the main entrance,” Briden adds. The sunshade filters out 60 percent of the direct sunlight.
S.E.R.T.’s academic achievement is a cost-efficient, aesthetically appealing example of sustainable design. It provides optimal space for program consolidation, right-size classrooms, and added technology infrastructure for current and future growth.
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Sidebar: Sustainable Energy Resources & Technologies (S.E.R.T.) facility, Estherville, Iowa Completed: September 2014
Total square feet: 42,000 square feet
Building owner: Iowa Lakes Community College
Architect: frk architects + engineers, West Des Moines, Iowa
General contractor and metal installer: Christensen Construction, Estherville
Aluminum curtainwall: Manko Window Systems Inc., Manhattan, Kan.,
www.mankowindows.com
Metal wall panels/daylighting system: Butler Manufacturing, Kansas City, Mo., www.butlermfg.com Photovoltaics: SolarWorld Americas Inc., Hillsboro, Ore., www.solarworld.com
Skylights: Solatube International Inc., Vista, Calif., www.solatube.com
Sunshade: The Airolite Co., Schofield, Wis., www.airolite.com
