Clean Water Services Administrative Building

Green Design Draws from Surrounding Water and Land

by Brian Libby

When the architects at Portland's SRG Partnership were first approached about designing a new office building for the Clean Water Services public utility in Hillsboro, Ore., the client knew little about sustainable buildings or the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. But the agency was passionate about the environment, and that laid the foundation for what has become an admirably sustainable project.

A number of "green" aspects are worked into the construction of the Clean Water Services administrative building, including a great deal of daylighting, a raised access flor system and a gray-water system that harnesses stormwater for toilet flushing. Image courtesy of SRG Partnership

"Once we learned about the LEED process through SRG and (Portland General Electric's) Green Building Services during the initial stages of pre-design, we really thought it fit with our vision," recalled Bob Cruz of Clean Water Services.

SRG had actually designed a laboratory building for Clean Water Services in the mid-1990s on the same site, near a watershed about a mile from downtown Hillsboro. But an administrative building brought entirely different needs.

"We discovered that many laboratories end up being almost machine-like in their character," said lead designer Kent Duffy. "But these people saw themselves essentially as custodians or caretakers of the environment. In that context, we wanted to have a strong relationship to the water, and to the land."

The building, which actually looks like three smaller buildings - an effort to minimize its scale - is visually reminiscent of the site's agrarian past. In other words, it looks a little like a barn. Duffy says many different people from the community approached him with pictures of a barn that used to exist there.

But unlike a barn, this building is brimming with natural light. The building was tested at the BetterBricks Daylighting Lab in Seattle, where it underwent a series of modifications to maximize its diffuse natural illumination. The offices are clustered around a central atrium that filters light from clerestory windows on the top of the structure down through the lower floors.

Meanwhile, the surrounding offices are constructed in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified natural wood, thereby earning an extra LEED point. Desks also will include only low cubicle partitions, something rather controversial with employees concerned about privacy but necessary to distribute natural light.

According to Joe Vlastelicia of Portland general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis, timing was a particular challenge.

"We got started in late-summer," he said, "so that meant we were building a wood-framed building during the wet season. By the time we get through the site work and got the concrete portion done to start the wood framing, it was October."

What's more, Vlastelicia recalled, "Some of the LEED specifications were tough at first for some of our subcontractors. It was a hard-bid job, so subcontractors a lot of times just don't read everything. They were sorting through that afterwards, things like what local and regional materials meant, and what kind of recycling content their materials had. We were educating them, and that took a lot of effort."

Site consideration was an important first start. An industrial business had been the previous tenant, which required significant cleanup, especially considering the adjacent wetlands. SRG and LCL oversaw erosion and sediment control as well as addition of bio-filtration swales to prevent contamination. What's more, about 50 percent of all construction and demolition waste was recycled.

Keeping Cool

Orientation maximized southern and northern exposure to maximize daylighting and solar access, while operable windows highlight a natural ventilation system - thereby saving thousands annually with a smaller HVAC system. As such, the design and construction team agreed on a raised access floor system.

"When you look at so many office buildings, you have to condition the air lower because you're pushing it down through," explained Skip Stanaway, SRG's principal-in-charge for the project. "If you can offer the air at a "people level," you don't have to heat or cool the air as much, yet people are all the more comfortable. The hot air can rise and get out through cuts in the floor slab. We night-flush the building so we can draw the cool air from outside and cool the mass of the building.

Additionally, the building utilizes an existing chiller plant in the existing water quality laboratory next door, working during off-peak load periods to chill a sub-grade water storage tank. This, in turn, allows for cool air without expensive air conditioning. There is also a gray-water system that harnesses stormwater for toilet flushing, thereby reducing water bills.

Despite its significant sustainable quality, the building came in at a modest budget that required no value engineering. As its designers had hoped, the building demonstrates unequivocally that, done correctly, a green building can be accomplished at virtually any price range. Said Duffy proudly, "It's going to be dynamite."