H+C Celebrates Our New Hires and Leadership
Hastings+Chivetta continues to hire the best talent out there.
Construction is underway at the University of Louisville Student Activities Center renovation and expansion. The much-anticipated project will give the prominent campus facility a fresh, modern presence. Students will enjoy new dining options, a game room, theater, bookstore, conference rooms, lounges, as well as a new outdoor plaza. A unique feature of the facility is Amazon@Louisville – one of only ten such facilities on a university campus. It will combine the online and retain experience of Amazon and give patrons faster delivery/pickup options and assistance with returns seven days a week.
Hastings+Chivetta is joining the Open Door Animal Sanctuary in its Reaching New Heights campaign, a fundraising campaign to allow the shelter to replace and renovate existing, obsolete structures. The firm is providing pro-bono architectural and interior design services for Phase 2 of the campaign, which will include building a new Second Chance indoor facility addition, a new Second Chance outdoor area and a Kitty City sunroom addition. The current Second Chance area houses formerly feral cats and cats and their nursing kittens.
Hastings+Chivetta’s four summer interns – Cameron Strickland (Kansas State University), Ed Falkowski (Washington University), Tom Florent (University of Kansas) and Sarvagya Bhargava (University of Kansas) – have visited Open Door, and will spend the next several weeks brainstorming and designing this new two-story space, which will serve as the new front door to the shelter. The indoor addition will house veterinarian clinics, offices, a conference room and possibly an adoption center.
The interns, under the guidance of Hastings+Chivetta architects, will create exterior and interior renderings and floor plans that Open Door will be able to showcase when fundraising for the capital campaign.
Located in House Springs, Open Door Animal Sanctuary is the largest no kill animal shelter in the state of Missouri and four surrounding states. They provide a home to more than 400 cats and dogs. Their mission is to provide these animals with the highest quality of life and a second chance to find a forever home. Since its founding in 1975, Open Door has helped more than 100,000 cats and dogs.
By Gary Wehmeier, AIA, LEED AP and Dennis Lammert, AIA, LEED AP
Collegiate laboratory spaces continue to evolve, becoming more sophisticated and flexible. Equipment, researchers and the research itself push this evolution, and the result is spaces that help students and researchers perform groundbreaking work. While cutting-edge work is being performed inside the building, architects are finding ways to make these labs increasingly sustainable, allowing universities to save energy and money.
Laboratories are typically the biggest energy users on a collegiate campus, using up to 10 times the amount of energy as a typical classroom space. This makes increasing their sustainability even more important. But it’s challenging. Labs require more air changes than other buildings, and they have more stringent codes to follow because of safety issues. Lab users are handling equipment and working with dangerous chemicals that pose serious safety risks, making a safe working environment critical.
The design and construction industry continues to find safe, sustainable options for collegiate lab buildings. While not a comprehensive list, below are some sustainable trends in teaching and research laboratories.
Laboratory Controls
The type and complexity of controls for the air flow at fume hoods and within labs with fume hoods is usually dependent on several factors. Simpler controls offer easier maintenance for minimally-trained facilities staff, however energy savings are minimal. To maximize energy savings and maintain proper safe environments for students, faculty and staff, the use of variable air volume (VAV) style fume hoods and fume hood controls can reduce the overall building energy use considerably. With integrated controls, air flow rates are adjusted based on usage during occupied and unoccupied times. Occupancy sensors located at fume hoods allow the exhaust air flow rates to be reduced by up to 40 percent when no occupants are present, and will immediately increase the ventilation rate when occupants are within a prescribed proximity to the fume hood.
Daylighting in Labs
Daylighting (or daylight harvesting) offers the opportunity to save energy, enhance building occupant comfort and reduce cost associated with electric lighting. Successful daylighting strategies are normally developed early in the design process to maximize the overall benefit. Factors that should be considered for daylighting in labs include the building orientation and geometry, and what architectural design features can best benefit the project and design – such as top lighting (lighting from windows above the ceiling line), side lighting (lighting from windows below the ceiling line), atrium area within the central sections of the building and the incorporation of light shelves and/or sloped ceilings.
Demand Control Ventilation (DCV)
Determining proper air change rates in laboratories is an often-debated topic among facility owners, operators and safety personnel. The use of 100 percent outside air makes each air exchange costly, however, ensuring a clean working environment for students, faculty, researchers and occupants is always the primary consideration. In reality, setting a single air change rate to balance safety and energy consumption will not achieve the primary objectives (safety, indoor air quality and cost-effective operation). Demand control ventilation (DCV) is a method of ensuring a building is ventilated cost effectively while still maximizing safety to building occupants and maintaining indoor air quality standards. Through the use of real-time measurement sensors, the indoor lab and overall building environment is continually monitored and the air change rates adjusted are accordingly to control the environment. When designed and installed correctly, the use of DCV can significantly reduce the building energy usage.
Chilled beams
The use of chilled beams is not new. Europe has employed this technology for decades and some parts of the United States have started incorporating it into construction projects in recent years, but it is not yet in widespread use. This alternative to traditional HVAC systems significantly increases a system’s efficiency through the use of convection and induction to cool a space. Water-based systems can transfer more energy than air, allowing for more efficient cooling and heating. A chilled beam HVAC system can provide universities a substantial savings in operating costs and reduced maintenance. Many users are reporting a 20 percent energy savings. Active chilled beams can also reduce plenum space requirements since duct space is reduced and less chase space is required.
Utilization studies
Not all sustainable measures require new buildings and equipment. In some cases, universities already have the necessary science buildings, but need help aligning the building usage to support the evolving curriculum. At Jordan Hall of Science at the University of Notre Dame, Hastings+Chivetta used peer benchmarking to provide a utilization and planning study. The study provided suggestions to better use the current facility through more efficient class scheduling, consolidation of courses, minimized wasted space and increased flexibility. The result is a building that will better support the current curriculum, as well as create laboratory space for expanded research enterprises in the biological sciences.
About the authors: Gary Wehmeier is a project architect specializing in laboratory and research design. Dennis Lammert is a project manager who leads the firm’s largest and most complicated science projects.
Saint Louis University recently passed a major milestone in the construction of Spring Residence Hall by adding its signature green metal pyramid roofs to the building.
The 454-bed building is an eight-story, 153,000 SF residence hall featuring single- and double-style rooms. The first students will move into Spring Hall this fall. The building is one of two new Hastings+Chivetta-designed residence halls currently under construction at the University. The other is a seven-story, 237,000 SF residence hall and dining facility set to open in summer 2017.
Watch a timelapse video of the of the topping off ceremony.
Sustainability expert Leslie Garner and Project Architect Bob Bohack recently spoke at the I2SL conference in San Diego about how the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville New Science Building is able to accommodate current and future students while resourcefully integrating sustainable features.
Among the strategies used in the building:
- Grouping fume hoods on the top two floors, reducing the overall ductwork running to the rooftop exhaust system
- Strategically grouping offices to create zones for the air-handling system
- Employing a VAV system of two units for the labs: one for office areas and one for the vivarium and aquaria
The end result is a LEED Silver building that accommodates the lab classes five days a week instead of the seven days a week that was previously needed.
A full overview of their presentation can be found on the I2SL website.
Millikin University broke ground on the Hastings+Chivetta-designed University Commons. Once completed, the 87,000 SF facility will become the new front door to the campus, re-energizing the university’s learning and living spaces.
The building will blend the existing 1976 Staley Library with a large addition to the south side of the building. Elements of the renovated library will be incorporated into the more efficient, forward-thinking design of the Commons.
The Commons will be a home base and living room for all students at Millikin, and will support library functions as well as research and innovation programs on campus.
The building will be complete in time for the start of the 2017 school year.
Hastings+Chivetta Architects is expanding again, adding a fifth office to their firm. The new office is located in the historic Hamilton-Brown Shoe Factory building near downtown Columbia, MO.
“We are thrilled to expand our firm’s presence within the State of Missouri,” said Hastings+Chivetta President Christopher Chivetta. “We have worked with many clients in this region, including the University of Missouri Columbia, Truman State University, University of Central Missouri and currently the Hagan Scholarship Academy. We are excited to be a part of the future growth in this region.”
Leslie Garner, LEED AP BD+C, GGP, GPCP, has been promoted to Director of the Columbia office. Garner has been with the firm since 2009, most recently providing construction administration to high-profile academic clients such as Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Washington University.
In addition to directing the Columbia office, she will continue as the firm’s sustainability leader, providing firm-wide guidance on LEED certification and sustainable practices. Her passion and leadership in the area of sustainable design have made her a tremendous resource for clients.
Garner earned her Master of Construction Management and Master of Architecture from Washington University. She earned her Bachelor of Science Human Environmental Science from University of Missouri in Columbia.
Saint Louis University’s board of trustees approved funding for the $43.8 million new residence hall on Saturday, allowing the project to move forward. Hastings+Chivetta is the architect for the eight-story, 153,000 SF building. The 450-bed residence hall will serve first- and second-year students. See the full story in the St. Louis Business Journal.
Hastings+Chivetta Architects is expanding westward, adding a fourth office to the firm. The new office is located in Irvine, California at the heart of Los Angeles’ growing construction market.
“We are excited to be a part of this vibrant area,” said Hastings+Chivetta President Christopher Chivetta. “With our vast experience planning and designing higher education facilities, it makes sense to be located near such a high concentration of colleges and universities.”
Hastings+Chivetta is currently part of the architectural team working on the new $73 million Belmont Beach & Aquatics Center in Long Beach, California.
Michael Craig Smith, AIA, will serve as Director of the California office, bringing with him 25 years of design and construction experience at California universities. Smith comes to Hastings+Chivetta from California State University, Fullerton where he successfully completed more than 20 major capital projects worth a combined $500 million as the Director of Design and Construction.
“Mike’s intimate knowledge of architecture and construction from the client’s perspective will be a tremendous asset to Hastings+Chivetta’s clients,” Chivetta said. “He has spent years on the client side, and will bring that unique perspective to each project.”
In addition to capital projects, Smith also created design standards for the Fullerton campus, as well as a LEED baseline. The largest project during his tenure – the $142.6 million Student Housing III project – earned LEED Platinum in 2011.
Smith earned his Master of Architecture and his Bachelor of Science Environmental Design from the University of California-Berkley. He has served as the Commissioner for the City of San Clemente, Beaches, Parks and Recreation Commission; as a member of the City of San Clemente Coastal Advisory Committee and on the Board of Directors for the Friends of San Clemente.