ATLANTA — With a completion date slated for July, the new Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy in Atlanta will soon open for the 2019-2020 academic year.

General contractor JE Dunn Construction celebrated the placement of the final steel beam in the framing of the new elementary school for Atlanta Public Schools (APS) in mid-March. Construction on the $27.6 million project began in July 2018.

The “topping out” ceremony included workers, vendors, suppliers and APS representatives who scrawled their signatures on the eight-foot symbolic beam. Topping out celebrations are customary in building projects, signaling that buildings under construction have reached their maximum height, with façade and interior work to proceed.

The new three-story structure—which replaces a 44-year-old facility that will be preserved for another use—will give the school greater street visibility and provide an enriched learning environment.

The 104,000 square foot Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy will accommodate a full-time enrollment of 753 and include a main entry/lobby space with a gallery, media center, cafeteria, gymnasium with stage, specialty classrooms, STEM and flight simulator labs, and outdoor lab/classroom space.

JE Dunn Senior Project Manager Jackie Avello says the project is unique in that there is a “focus on STEM curriculum and a design that captures the aspect of aviation to show the history of the Tuskegee Airmen.”

The Tuskegee Airmen was a group of African-American military pilots (fighter and bomber) who fought in World War II. They formed the 332 Fighter Group and the 47^th Bombardmen Group of the United States Army Air Forces. The name also applies to the navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses, cooks and other support personnel.

All African-American military pilots (who trained in the U.S) did so at Moton Field, the Tuskegee Army Air Field, and were educated at Tuskegee University, located near Tuskegee, Alabama. The group included five Haitians from the Haitian Air Force, and one pilot from Trinidad in addition to a Latino airman who was born in the Dominican Republic.

Avello says the biggest challenge of this project was “working in an established neighborhood on a very tight sight. This required a precise scheduling of deliveries,”

The project will also deliver new parking areas, play field, exterior lighting and signage, landscape and hardscape areas, covered walkways to the building entries, and improved bus and carpool circulation.

Headquartered in Atlanta, JE Dunn Construction, founded in 1924, is the 17^th largest domestic general building contractors in the United States. The company provides construction management services through 22 offices nationwide and works in an array of sectors including health care, higher education, K-12, commercial, industrial, manufacturing, mission critical, and aviation.

Atlanta-based Collins Cooper Carusi is the project’s architect of record.

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ATLANTA — The Emory University Hospital Tower has been awarded LEED Silver certification (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) by the U.S. Green Building Council. It is the first Emory Healthcare building to be LEED certified at Emory.

Known as the most widely used green building rating system in the world, LEED provides the framework to create healthy, highly-efficient and cost-saving green buildings. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of achievement of sustainability.

The $400 million, 450,000-square-foot Emory University Hospital Tower, located at 1364 Clifton Road across from the current hospital, opened for patient care in the summer of 2017. The building meets high standards for air quality, energy efficiency and for using locally sourced materials. Its sustainable, inspirational and collaborative environment promotes healthy lifestyles, learning and community.

“Achieving LEED Silver certification is a testament to the hard work and dedication by our planning, design, architectural and construction teams in supporting sustainability,” says Bryce Gartland, MD, CEO of Emory University Hospital and Hospital Group President for Emory Healthcare. “This building saves on energy, water, and other resources while supporting human health, which creates a positive environment for all of those who work and receive care in this space.”

Buildings pursuing LEED certification earn points across several categories such as location and transportation, water efficiency, sustainability, materials and resources, energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality, innovation and more. Based on the number of points achieved, a project then earns one of four LEED rating levels: Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum.

Key elements in the design and construction of the Emory University Hospital Tower include the following sustainable features:

• Project site located in close proximity to basic services such as restaurants, stores and public transit to encourage building occupants to walk instead of drive
• Low-flow indoor water fixtures reduce water consumption by an estimated 20 percent
• Energy-efficient exterior glazing systems allow for daylight to reach core areas throughout the building
• Materials used contain recycled and regionally manufactured content
• Energy-efficient features that allow for more than 20 percent energy savings
• Over 95 percent of construction waste recycled
• Special focus on indoor environmental quality for improving occupant health and well-being of employees
• Lead- and mercury-free facility
• Recycling program implemented

Since the recycling program began at the Emory University Hospital Tower, an average of nearly 30,000 pounds of cardboard and white paper are being recycled each month. The hospital’s Environmental Services team is responsible for collecting the recyclable material and taking it to a designated bin for pick-up.

“LEED Silver certification places Emory Healthcare and the Emory University Hospital Tower in a category above many others when it comes to design and building construction for hospitals,” said David Pugh, vice president for facility and space design for Emory Healthcare. “We are excited to receive this recognition and know it signifies Emory Healthcare’s commitment to green building design now and in the future.”

With a strong focus on sustainability, Emory University now has 34 LEED certified buildings that equal more than 4 million square feet. These buildings include: Candler Library, Candler School of Theology Phase I and Phase II, Claudia Nance Rollins Building, Emory Conference Center Addition, Health Sciences Research building, and James B. Williams Medical Education building.

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ATLANTA — Architecture and urban design firm Cooper Robertson has announced its selection to develop the next phase of a master plan for Georgia State University (GSU), as the leading academic institution prepares for growth and major new initiatives. 

The master plan work entails the reshaping and enhancement of the main downtown Atlanta campus as well as five satellite campuses throughout the state.

This next phase is a part of a medium- and long-term strategic plan in progress at the 52,000-student public university, which anticipates expanding to 60,000 students within the next decade. 

The main components of Cooper Robertson’s work include planning for more students living on campus in Atlanta as well as creating a unified identity for the entire Georgia State University (GSU) system, which has grown over the past several decades to include facilities across Georgia in Newton, Alpharetta, Dunwoody, Clarkston and Decatur.

Mike Aziz, AIA, Cooper Robertson’s stated that directly integrating these ‘Perimeter Colleges’ into the GSU umbrella is crucial to the university leadership’s strategic vision.

John Kirk, AIA, partner at Cooper Robertson, explained that the new planning effort aims to make GSU into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“Our challenge and our goal for the master plan update is to create connective tissues that better tie the central GSU location to its surroundings, addressing the push-pull relationships inherent in any urban institution, as we work to weave the main campus and the university’s formerly disparate parts into a more cohesive and legible fabric,” said Kirk.  

The GSU master plan update report and its specific recommendations is anticipated to be released later this spring.

Cooper Robertson has earned wide renowned for its campus projects and is currently implementing master plans at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., and Drury University in Springfield, Mo.

The firm has also developed long-term plans and designed buildings for the University of Delaware, North Carolina State, Ohio State, the University of North Carolina, Cal Tech, Yale University, Hunter College, Georgetown, the Duke University Medical School, among others.

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LEXINGTON, Ga. – In May, ABM launched an Energy Performance Contracting program for Oglethorpe County Schools in Lexington, with a tailored solution to help generate savings on energy costs and contribute to facility upgrades throughout the county’s school system.

The program is built to provide these facility additions and improvements with no upfront costs, with a projection of more than $9.4 million in energy and operating costs throughout a 20-year period. Now, ABM is bringing this program to another Georgia county.

In June, ABM announced the initiation of an Energy Performance Contracting program for Lowndes County Schools, which is projected to save their schools more than $13.6 million in energy and operating costs over a 15-year period, which the county will use for facility upgrades and funding toward building a new high school.

These energy and operations savings will be accomplished by implementing lighting, HVAC and control upgrades at each of the school system’s facilities. The upgrades are estimated to save Lowndes County Schools approximately $800,000 in energy and operating costs in the first year, which will progress during the lifespan of the program, resulting in the $13.6 million total savings.

“ABM’s Energy Performance Contracting program will help Lowndes County School System recognize its facilities can be functioning more efficiently and create a significant savings, while improving their students’ educational environment,” Mark Newsome, president of ABM Technical Solutions, said in a statement. “By leveraging guaranteed energy and operational savings of ABM’s program, Lowndes County School System will be able to put more funding toward new construction, while upgrading their existing facilities.”

According to the statement, infrastructure at seven of Lowndes County School System’s facilities is aging or coming to the end of its lifespan. Furthermore, the school system plans to demolish and rebuild half of Lowndes High School. The project will allow the school system to distribute additional funding to the high school project, while using the ensured energy savings to fund the other facilities’ upgrades.

The overall upgrades will include retrofitting lighting systems to energy-efficient LED lighting at five of the county’s schools, the Parker Mathis Learning Center, the Board of Education and the bus shop and maintenance buildings. HVAC units at seven different facilities will be rejuvenated and also controlled by state-of-the-art HVAC control systems to maximize energy and operational efficiency. Additionally, refrigeration management programs and high-efficiency hand dryers will be installed at six of the school system’s buildings, along with upgrading ventilation systems at Lowndes County High School and Hahira Middle School.

Ray Jordan, education specialist for ABM explained what energy performance contracting programs mean for schools in the future.

“This program allows school systems to cash flow immediate infrastructure needs with future energy and operational savings. The savings are guaranteed for the life of the program,” said Jordan. “Energy-efficient enhancements can include water conservation systems and hand dryers to help reduce utility costs and product spend, such as paper towels. As technology improves and energy conservation measures increase savings opportunities, more school systems are able to implement these types of programs. Providers that offer energy performance contracting solutions, such as ABM, can help school districts implement similar programs.”

The project launched in June 2018, and is slated for completion in June 2019.

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LEXINGTON, Ga. — Leading provider of facility solutions, ABM, has launched an Energy Performance Contracting program for Oglethorpe County Schools in Lexington, Ga., which will generate savings on energy costs and contribute to facility upgrades throughout the county’s school system.

ABM’s made-to-order solution will assist Oglethorpe County in achieving several large infrastructure and capital upgrades that Beverley Levine, superintendent of the Oglethorpe County School System said they probably would not have been able to fund for several years.

The program will bring these facility additions and improvements with no upfront costs, while also producing what is projected to be more than $9.4 million in energy and operating costs throughout a 20-year period.

Energy efficiency improvements of the facilities will include retrofitting lighting systems to LED lighting, upgrades to all HVAC systems as well as installing state-of-the-art HVAC control systems, improved ventilation systems, roofing reparation, water conservation systems and installation of hand dryers across the entire school system.

ABM Technical Solutions President Mark Newsome said that the program will benefit students by enhancing their educational and extra-curricular activities.

This includes the installation of LED lighting systems at the high school’s baseball and softball fields, allowing the school to host its first after-dark games. The project will also provide funding for a new track, new scoreboards with advertisement opportunities at the football and soccer stadium as well as the softball and baseball fields. Furthermore, there will be renovations to the home and visitors field houses and concession stands, along with repairs to the bleachers.

There are also plans to build a large performing arts classroom by merging to two classrooms and installing new flooring, a ceiling and moving its existing electrical system.

Oglethorpe County School System formerly planned to postpone the upgrades until a bond had been paid in full in 2023, but a meeting with ABM representatives made school administrators realize they would be able to use the savings to address their facility needs immediately. Levine stated that ABM’s expertise provided the county with a financial solution to ultimately improve their students’ learning environment and athletic facilities.

The project launched on May 1, and is expected for completion in April 2019.

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“Selecting the Best of Green Schools honorees is an exciting and challenging process, as there are so many fantastic examples of efforts being made in communities large and small,” said Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools, in a statement. “Some of the honorees go about their work quietly, while others are in public positions and have the attention of a national audience. Every one of the honorees is a leader, taking risks, setting an example for others, innovating and diligently pursuing a world in which every student attends a green school within this generation.”

The Monarch School, a Houston-based LEED Gold school, was honored in the K-12 category. The institution provides therapeutic education to students with neurological differences, such as autism spectrum disorder, hyperactivity, mood disorders and traumatic brain injuries, and integrates a number of green initiatives into its tailored curriculum.

Since 1997, The Monarch School’s environmental education program has offered students with special needs an opportunity to learn about the environment. The school’s Living Building Challenge (LBC) Studio Classroom was the first project in the state built to meet LBC requirements, and remains one of only five on the globe. The studio serves as an outdoor living classroom where students’ day-to-day interactive decision-making helps the building achieve net-zero energy and water performance, according to the Center for Green Schools. The school’s environmental programming also includes initiatives related to solar energy, wind power and geothermal energy, and incorporates active water harvesting.

Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo was honored in the higher education category for its recycling, energy conservation and waste reduction efforts, and for facilitating cooperative research into green manufacturing practices. Click here to read more about Western Michigan University’s green programming.

The University of Buffalo and the State University of New York, both located in Buffalo, also received an award for their collaborative efforts to educate the local community about green practices. The two universities planned and facilitated three region-wide environmental congress events to create Our Shared Agenda for Action, a blueprint for action on regional environmental issues. These events also inspired the creation of an environmental alliance that now includes more than 100 environmental organizations working in the areas of energy and climate change, transportation, food, habitat, environmental justice, parks and recreation, urban regeneration, and waste and pollution.

A complete list of winners in all categories can be found on the USGBC Center for Green Schools website.
 

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In collaboration with the Center for Green Schools and the U.S Green Building Council, the free and comprehensive “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition” profiles colleges in the United States and Canada that have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability.

"Selecting a four-year college is a big choice. When we learned that the majority of prospective college students factor a school’s commitment to sustainability into their selection criteria, we wanted to ensure we were providing the best information," said Rachel Gutter, director of the Center for Green Schools at USGBC, in a statement. "We’re thrilled to team up with The Princeton Review for the fourth year to offer a guide to help make our future college students’ choices a little easier."

The study provided Green Rating scores for 806 colleges surveyed in July 2012 based upon 10 points of criteria. The more than 50 survey questions posed to school administrators included issues pertaining to local, organic or environmentally preferable food expenditures, offered transit options, available student sustainability committees, if new buildings are required LEED Silver certification, waste-diversion rates, environmental studies programs, environmental literacy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and climate action plans, renewable energy resources and if the school employs a full-time sustainability officer.

Of the schools rated, 21 schools received a 99 rating on the Green Rating’s 60 to 99 point scale. There was no ranking system in this study.

According to Robert Franek, senior vice president and publisher for The Princeton Review, of the nearly 10,000 students who participated in the 2013 “College Hopes and Worries Survey”, 62 percent of college applicants said that a school’s commitment to the environment would affect their decision as to which schools to apply to.

"We recommend these schools to all students seeking colleges that practice and promote environmentally-responsible choices, and we commend USGBC and United Technologies Corp. for their continuing support to make this unique resource available for students," he said.

The guide, which began publishing annually in 2010, also provides a glossary of 40 green terms, school profiles, a list of schools with LEED certified buildings and advice on green campus living.

“Colleges train the next generation of leaders who will ultimately be responsible for putting green ideas into practice,” the study said. “By infusing sustainability principles into every aspect of higher education, there is a new priority for a whole generation of leaders, educated and trained, to make a greener world now.”

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Two years ago, schools wanted to talk about building green while struggling with the concern of first costs. Today, if your district is among the few that are still building new, contractors’ bids are coming in 15 percent to 40 percent under budget, leaving you with enough to tackle your entire green wish list with extra funds to spare.

What a difference a few years can make! For the vast majority of districts, the conversation has shifted. Philosophically, you know green is the right choice — a monumental shift worth celebrating. But with capital projects on hold and operating budgets shrinking as deferred maintenance lists grow longer, green once again feels like a luxury you might be unable to afford.

The U.S. Green Building Council can help you to make something out of nothing. The lull created by the challenging economic climate is an excellent opportunity to focus on low and no-cost strategies to green existing facilities and to use energy efficiency improvements as the “first fuel.”

School districts that undertake a comprehensive whole-building retrofit by coupling low- and no-cost improvements with energy-saving system upgrades are finding that they can afford to green their existing facilities. It’s the alternative — doing just a little at a time – that could be expensive.

Many districts address their deferred maintenance and facility improvement projects with a phased approach. For example, they upgrade lighting fixtures across the district one year and replace all the windows the next. This piecemeal approach is neither efficient nor effective.

Undertaking single-system upgrades across a district limits the potential for future whole-building retrofits for these facilities. In many cases, these smaller improvement measures replace old, inefficient systems with high-performance systems that yield fast paybacks through energy savings.

What makes fast paybacks problematic is that once a building receives energy-efficient upgrades for a few systems, it becomes a poor candidate for a more comprehensive retrofit. According to Greg Kats’ new publication, Greening Our Built World, “Once a building is retrofitted, it is typically uneconomical to retrofit it again for years. To achieve deep improvements will require that these shallow ‘cream-skimming’ retrofits generally be eliminated in favor of deep retrofits that achieve at least a 30 percent or 35 percent improvement in efficiency.”

Deep retrofits are best achieved through a paid-from-savings approach, which is a financing strategy to green existing buildings that leverages the savings generated from building system upgrades to pay for a comprehensive greening project within a defined payback period.

Using this strategy will enable your school to implement needed repairs and upgrades, achieve reductions in energy and water use and incorporate other green strategies and technologies in the most cost-effective manner.

The guiding principle for paid-from-savings projects is the concept of bundling — aggregating utility cost-saving measures with low- and no-cost green improvement measures to optimize green opportunities and project economics. Longer payback measures are bundled with quicker payback measures to create a project with a shorter overall payback period and a higher return on investment.

Successful paid-from-savings retrofits apply the concept of bundling to their financing strategies too, utilizing a combination of mechanisms, including existing capital or operating funds, tax-exempt bonds, utility rebates and grants, or performance contracting.

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (www.NCEF.org) is a one-stop shop for information on public financing vehicles available to schools and districts, including the billions of dollars currently available for school modernization projects.

Earlier this year, USGBC released the “Paid-From-Savings Guide to Green Existing Buildings” to help owners implement repairs and upgrades, achieve reductions in energy and water use, and incorporate other green strategies and technologies in the most cost-effective manner. The publication provides guidance for building owners to decide if the paid-from-savings approach is a viable option and instructions for determining if their building has the potential to achieve LEED certification.

A copy of the "Paid-From-Savings Guide to Green Existing Buildings Executive Summary" can be downloaded for free through USGBC. To access this and other resources mentioned in this article, including profiles on successful projects, please visit www.GreenSchoolBuildings.org/SCN.

Rachel Gutter is director of the Education Sector of the U.S. Green Building Council.
 

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Take a Districtwide Approach With Sustainability

Many of us who work in the green building movement have a tendency to present sustainability as though it is a new idea. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
 

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