Green Science: LEED Gold Research Facilities

RICHLAND, Wash. — Two new additions to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Richland campus earned LEED Gold certification from the USGBC.

 

Unique in that they are among the few LEED-certified laboratories, the PNNL facilities are estimated to achieve a 77 percent efficiency of net-to-gross square footage versus typical laboratories that are generally designed for 50 percent efficiency.

 

PNNL’s Biological Sciences Facility and its Computational Sciences Facility, which are connected by a glass atrium and commons areas, cost $77 million to finance and build. Approximately 300 PNNL employees began working in the combined 150,000-square-foot buildings when they opened last fall.

 

In constructing the BSF and CSF, general contractor D.E. Harvey Builders of Houston diverted 78 percent of waste from landfills. KMD Architects of San Francisco designed the labs to reduce energy and water use by 30 to 35 percent compared to similar-sized buildings. The facilities use waste heat produced by computer servers in the CSF to warm offices and labs. Low-flow and motion sensor-activated water fixtures cut water usage.
 

To meet the research needs of PNNL scientists, each facility is equipped with cutting-edge technology.

 

The CSF is home to the Center for Adaptive Supercomputing Software and a 10,000-square-foot raised computer floor space that allows researchers to develop next-generation high-performance computing tools. The two buildings support research for the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Institutes of Health and other organizations.

 

"These buildings represent the future of the laboratory – providing us advanced equipment and tools needed to have an even greater impact," says PNNL director Mike Kluse. "We have some great scientists, and these facilities will provide them the equipment and tools they need to advance science and deliver science-based solutions."

New York,-based real estate developer Cowperwood Company owns the buildings, leasing them to PNNL’s management company Battelle. 

 

Also in development at PNNL’s Richland campus is a $224 million, 200,000-square-foot Physical Sciences Facility slated for completion this year. When completed, the PSF will house about 450 staffers working in the radiation detection, materials science and technology and ultra-trace fields of research.