Best Sustainable Design: Made in the shade: Campus science building plays multiple roles
by Jonathan McGaha | June 30, 2009 12:00 am
The Mesa Community College Physical Science Building in Mesa, Ariz., a $16 million, 64,480- square-foot (5,990-m2) project completed in August 2008, has to play multiple roles. Not only is it the first large sustainable structure on campus, but it’s located at the main entry of the campus. The Physical Science building-which features a 53-seat planetarium, rooftop astronomy viewing platform and outdoor plaza, along with labs, faculty offices and a tutoring center-was intended as a gathering spot for students and visitors.
“Here in Arizona, when we talk about the making of campus gateways, it’s really all about shade,” said Mark Kranz, AIA, design principal with the project’s architectural firm SmithGroup, Phoenix. “This building was designed around the idea of shade making. There’s more program on the second floor than the first floor, and we capitalized on that to create a fully shaded porch, which formed a portal at the campus’s main entry.”
Design Awards judge Tony Cosentino commented: “The deep overhangs and recessed spaces provide shade for the hot summer sun. The metal shade structure casts shadows to playfully protect the walls and windows from direct radiant heat.”
The project was also meant to be didactic, according to Kranz, in that it would be both a teaching tool about sustainability and sustainable in its own right. The local power utility, Salt River Project, provided an extensive array of photovoltaic panels at no cost. The panels provided significant shade for the Astronomy Plaza, an outdoor court that acts as pre-function space for planetarium events and creates an outdoor study space for students.
As the planetarium becomes recognized as a community venue, Kranz said, all visitors and students who enter the campus will experience a visible application of sustainability firsthand.
The Physical Science building is also an extension of a new architectural language at Mesa Community College, as it emerges from a 1970s aesthetic. Aluminum composite material and Bare Galvalume panel systems are utilized to complement this language and to highlight special program elements in the project, namely the planetarium and faculty offices. Both these elements are intended to be highly visible. The planetarium is an important community destination, while student access to faculty is seen as one of the campus’s critical goals.
The use of 4,645 square feet (432 m2) of ACM from The Miller-Clapperton Partnership Inc., Austell, Ga., allowed the planetarium to have a technical appeal with a voluptuous shape, Kranz said. Meanwhile, 5,634 square feet (523 m2) of Bare Galvalume metal wall panels from Metal Sales Manufacturing Corp., Louisville, Ky., highlight the faculty offices.
“The ACM allowed us to have custom curved panels … it gave us a lot of flexibility. We used it to really foster that pedestrian movement into the campus,” Kranz said. “At the same time, we used fairly basic Bare Galvalume. And, of course, those two materials are very simple and clean, no maintenance.”
The metal was also helpful from a sustainability standpoint, partly because of its high recycled content but also because it is a light and reflective material.
“One of the big concerns here in Arizona is the heat island effect,” Kranz said. “Our buildings, if they can reflect heat as opposed to absorb it, can actually aid in making a more comfortable micro-climate. Both [the ACM and Galvalume] systems are set off the building envelope, allowing it to breathe. There’s actually an air gap that allows convection to happen between the building envelope and the exterior skin. By natural convection, the heat rises and escapes and does not penetrate the building envelope.
“We also used perforated metal on some of the windows as shading devices. Perforated Galvalume increases the shading coefficient on the windows and reduces the overall solar gain. That has an impact on the mechanical loads and the money you end up spending over 30 years.”
Mesa Community College Physical Science Building, Mesa, Ariz.
Owner: Mesa Community College/Maricopa County Community College District
Architect: SmithGroup, Phoenix
General contractor: Barton Malow, Phoenix
Structural engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers, Phoenix
ACM wall panels: The Miller-Clapperton Partnership Inc., Austell, Ga.
Bare Galvalume wall panels: Metal Sales Manufacturing Corp., Louisville, Ky.
Galvalume perforator: Diamond Perforated Metals Inc., Visalia, Calif.
Fabricator/installer for both wall systems: Kovach Inc., Chandler, Ariz.
Solar panel supplier: Salt River Project, Tempe, Ariz.
Metal grating for Astronomy Platform on the roof: Ohio Gratings Inc., Canton, Ohio
Curtainwall: Oldcastle Glass Vistawall, Santa Monica, Calif.
Solar panels: Suntech America, San Francisco
Skylight: Kalwall Corp., Manchester, N.H.
Sheathing: Georgia-Pacific Building Products, Atlanta
Underlayment: Soprema Inc., Wadsworth, Ohio
Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/best-sustainable-design-made-in-the-shade-campus-science-building-plays-multiple-roles/