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Environmental Studies Department |
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The Mac Weekly - September 30, 2005 Consulting Firm to Advise on 'Green Building' of New Athletic Facility By Jakob Wartman, Sports Editor After several months of seemingly uncertain commitment to the issue of building a green athletic facility, Macalester College has hired an independent consultant to help assist in the construction. With the hiring of the Minneapolis based environmental building consultants Intep, it appears that the original vision created by the Macalester College Green Building Advisory Committee, a group set on incorporating environmental stability and energy conservation in College construction, will be met. Green building and green construction is a concept that incorporates many sustainable features in its design. The buildings utilize energy saving and emission reducing aspects, Director of Facilities Management Mark Dickinson said. Specifically, the new athletic facilities may include a "green roof"--a roof made of organic matter that serves as an effective insulator--as well as heat recycling showers, daylighting (similar to the windows already in the campus center), and waterless urinals. Intep will bridge the gap between the numerous groups working on the construction of the athletic facility and will help planners and builders to integrate environmental and energy-saving elements. "The 'design team' includes the architects from one firm, mechanical and electrical engineers from another firm, structural engineers from a third firm, roof designs--a fourth firm," Dickinson said. "Intep's experience crosses all of these disciplines and they provide the questions that challenge each of these firms on the green building design alternative." These consultants were hired after the college had already commissioned the St. Louis based firm Hastings and Chivetta for the architectural plans. "Intep would have been part of the design earlier, but the college only got to know more of Intep's capabilities this summer," Dickinson said. "We worked to get them on the project as soon as possible." Richard Graves '06, who first encouraged the college to partner with Intep, said he thinks this is a step in the right direction. "The hiring of Intep shows the administration's commitment to green building," Graves said. "For a while the administration had been talking, but didn't appear dedicated to the concept. This is essentially the administration putting money where its mouth is." Intep will not only serve as a vital communication between various design and construction aspects. It will also oversee the architectural firm Hastings and Chivetta to ensure that the designated aspects of the building meet green requirements. "A green building is an amorphous concept," Graves said. "The U.S. Green Building Council has initiated standards called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) used to judge and identify green buildings." Graves said that the idea of green building is much more of a philosophy than a technique. This, coupled with the expense of actually certifying the building and the faults in the point scheme utilized by LEED, has led the college to follow sustainable guidelines set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative, an international institute that sets sustainability guidelines. Green construction of the proposed athletic facilities is one of few such projects in the country. Using both Hastings and Chivetta, a national leader in athletic buildings, and Intep, a local environmentally conscious consultant, Macalester will be one of a small minority of campuses nationwide utilizing green construction in its athletic facilities. This trend for green building and environmentally conscious campus is slowly turning into a national trend, with St. Olaf dedicating this year as a "sustainable year," meaning all construction will be environmental and energy friendly. Graves believes that this will be the next step for Macalester in creating a sustainable and environmentally-friendly campus. As for the start of construction, it appears that the college won't meet its June 2006 goal, according to Dickinson. He said that the start of building will be dependent upon the design plans being completed, the success of fundraising efforts, and the approval of the Board of Trustees. |
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