ATHLETIC MANAGEMENT
Issue: 19.06 October/November 2007

It's Easy Being Green

Whether you’re building a $46 million football complex or a $19 million high school athletics building, making it environmentally friendly is becoming easier. Going green is also proving to be cost-effective in the long run.

In today’s sports world, staying in tune with the times is critical. Fans expect the latest entertainment during games, coaches want the most updated technology, and student-athletes are eager for the hippest game apparel. So it’s natural that athletic departments are also interested in being up to date with their construction projects. In 2007, that means building green—constructing facilities that have a positive impact on the environment.

Green construction does not come with a blueprint. Instead, it challenges architects and construction firms to think deeply about how their project will affect the environment. For example, how might designers incorporate natural resources and recycled materials? How can the building be as energy efficient as possible? Will the quality of the indoor environment be ensured through the design?

More and more college and high school athletic departments are embracing this concept, coming up with unique ideas for environmentally friendly football stadiums, indoor arenas, and natatoriums. Helping area wetlands by building an innovative stormwater management system, cutting back on electricity use with efficient daylighting strategies, and recycling construction materials are a few of the ways these schools are making a difference. And, in the long run, many of the ideas lead to lower operating costs.

WEATHERING THE STORM

This past year, the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena became known as one of the toughest venues for visiting teams to play in. Home to UVa’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, the horseshoe shaped arena seats over 15,000, including 120 courtside seats, 19 suites, and an upper deck that appears to hover over center court.

“We thought it would be really neat to create an environment in which we truly gained a home court advantage,” says Jon Oliver, Executive Associate Athletic Director at UVa, who served as the athletic department point person for the project. “We learned that with this horseshoe shape, we could have more fans sitting almost over the top of the court, and each seat would have a great sight line.”

Creating the right environment was actually key throughout the project. But “environment” had as much to do with the arena’s impact on nature as it did on the spectators’ experience.

John Paul Jones Arena opened in July 2006, more than five years after the start of the design process and three years after ground breaking. Why did it take so long? Because before the first drop of foundation could be poured, VMDO Architects of Charlottesville, Va., had to address storm water management problems that plagued the area around the arena’s site for years.

At over 350,000 square feet, the new arena would reduce the amount of permeable land and increase runoff to surrounding streams and rivers. “There had been issues with flooding and poor storm water strategy in the past,” says Bob Moje, Principal-in-Charge at VMDO. “So UVa added a complete study of the drainage area, which included most of the university campus, to the arena project. We then worked with an engineering firm to come up with a master plan.”

That plan included establishing effective water flow and improving the water quality throughout the system. “We started by going upstream and bringing a buried stream up out of the ground to flood in natural water benchmarks,” Moje says. “We also constructed a storm management pond with a series of weirs controlling the flow of water. The whole system maintains a relatively even flow rather than letting it flood at a different point downstream.”

The next step was making the runoff cleaner, thus improving the surrounding environment. Bio filters were placed in strategic areas to remove pollutants, and, rather than piping the water downstream, daylit swales channel it through indigenous wetlands that naturally clean it.

“Most of the storm water from the university ends up in Meadow Creek, which had poor water quality,” Moje says. “But now the water goes through a series of bio filtration areas first, so it’s a lot cleaner and healthier by the time it reaches the creek, and ultimately, Chesapeake Bay.”

Another environmental focus was on lighting. The size of the arena could have meant astronomical energy bills for UVa if the university used stock fluorescent lighting, so the design incorporated the use of natural light through massive windows during the day. “Most arenas don’t have natural light at all,” Moje says. “UVa uses artificial lighting for games and concerts, but that’s only for a few hours at a time. During the vast majority of the day you can walk into the major bowl without turning on any lights at all.

“John Paul Jones Arena was a large, complex project,” Moje continues. “But we were all cognizant of environmental concerns throughout, which resulted in an awesome arena for UVa’s basketball players and fans as well as the surrounding environment.”

GOLD MEDAL WINNER

The only college athletic facility to currently hold gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, the Douglas B. Gardner ’83 Integrated Athletic Center at Haverford College opened in November 2005. The 101,000 square-foot building, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) of Philadelphia, services all of Haverford’s student-athletes as well as the rest of the active college community. The men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams host contests in Calvin Gooding Arena and all 21 varsity teams work out in the Arn and Nancy Tellem Fitness Center, which is also open to the entire student body.

“We’re a small college with a little over 1,100 students, but about 40 percent of them play sports,” says John Douglas, Associate Director of Athletics at Haverford. “When we factored in recreational sport athletes and physical education class area, the building was going to serve almost every student on campus.”

That’s why the entire student body was surveyed before construction began. “We learned three important things from that survey,” Douglas says. “Our students wanted the new building to serve the entire college population, be aesthetically similar to the rest of the campus, and be environmentally friendly. Building green was a demand that came directly from the students.”

Multiple aspects of the project helped it earn gold-level LEED certification. To start, it used an already-developed area of land that contained an old storage barn. Another plus is that it moves cool air from air conditioned areas of the building into non-air conditioned spots through its circulation system. And construction firms only used building materials from within 500 miles of the college, reducing fuel use and carbon emissions from trucking them to campus.

“We even did very small things like install bike racks and make space specifically for car pool parking to encourage less pollution from cars,” Douglas says. “Our toilet water is supplied by a grey water system that collects rainwater, which is treated and disinfected, then used to flush the toilets. It’s clean, safe, and saves an inordinate amount of water because we’re reusing it.”

Haverford and BCJ also made huge efforts when it came to lighting. Although the entire project carried a price tag of $25 million, BCJ estimates a 20 to 25 percent savings in Haverford’s lighting bill due to energy efficient lighting and day lighting strategies. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America recently awarded the facility the 2007 Philadelphia Section Award for Lighting Design.

“The amount of natural light in the building is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been,” Douglas says. “There are many north-facing windows so we don’t gain heat during the day, but there is enough light through the windows and skylights that you can shoot hoops in the arena without any lights turned on. All the walls are painted white to reflect any direct sunlight, so it’s never shining in your face.”

There is also an array of evacuated solar tube collectors on the roof. The tubes form a vacuumed space that holds the heat from the sun’s rays, which is then used to supplement the hot water system in the building. The system doesn’t have to work as hard and use as much energy as it would without the extra heat from the solar tubes. And they work on overcast days, too, because they can collect the infrared rays through clouds.

“One of the neatest things about this project is that there’s an educational component,” says Tom Kirk, Project Manager at BCJ. “For example, you can see the evacuated solar tube collectors through a skylight in the main lobby. And there are signs in the bathrooms explaining why the toilet water is blue. Our athletes and visitors are aware of our environmental concern. When you enter this building, you know you’re walking into something a little different.”

AHEAD OF THE CURVE

One of the first high schools with a LEED-certified athletic complex, St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H., was ahead of its time three years ago when it broke ground on its 95,000 square-foot Athletic and Fitness Center. In 2006, the Center became LEED certified—officially making it the third LEED-certified building in the entire state.

The $19 million building includes two gyms, an eight-lane swimming pool, a fitness center, a wrestling room, home and visiting locker rooms, a multipurpose aerobics room, climbing walls, and a turf field, can take a self-guided tour that points out all of the environmentally friendly aspects of the space. “The building itself provides a great educational opportunity,” says Philip Laird, President of Architectural Resources Cambridge (ARC) of Cambridge, Mass., and Principle-In-Charge of the project. Laird, a St. Paul’s graduate, also taught several architecture classes at the school addressing sustainable construction, using the Athletic and Fitness Center as a prime example.

The facility is sitting on an already-developed parcel of land, daylight and occupancy sensors control lighting fixtures, and exhaust fans and HVAC units that recover energy are widely used throughout the complex. Laird estimates the Center operates 30 percent more efficiently than other similar buildings.

The complex earned maximum LEED-certification points in its recycling effort. The Institution Recycling Network (IRN) of Concord contracted with the school to help recycle scrap materials generated from construction of the Center. The IRN trained workers to use the clearly labeled recycling bins for wood scraps, general construction debris, and even concrete foundation pieces.

“Ultimately, we were able to recycle 87 percent of the waste generated during construction,” Laird says. “The original gym previously on the site was built in the early 1960s and had been extremely inefficient with no insulation and single-glazed windows. It wasted an enormous amount of energy. And we recycled literally the entire building when we tore it down. It is quite impressive what really can be reused and recycled. The building industry as a whole is now more cognizant of that.”

GRIDIRON GREEN

Talk about being hip to the times: In 2000, the University of Connecticut moved its football team to NCAA Division I-A (now called the Football Bowl Subdivision). In 2004, the Huskies joined the Big East Conference. In 2006, the school opened the Burton Family Football Complex and Mark R. Shenkman Training Center. And this past July, it earned Silver LEED status for its new facility.

Amenities within the complex include a synthetic turf practice field, an 18,000 square-foot strength training area, locker room and sports medicine facilities, coaches offices, meeting rooms, and study rooms. There is also a memorabilia display, a players’ lounge, a video review room, and an auditorium—all spread out over almost 200,000 square feet.

“This building was thought of as a foundation for UConn’s football program,” says Nathan Appleman, Project Designer at HOK Sport in Kansas City (which worked in conjunction with Jeter, Cook and Jepson Architects, based in Hartford, Conn.). “And to bring that point home, the actual building looks like a rock. It’s very fragmented—there are about 18 varying roof planes and it is made of earthy-colored materials so that when the light reflects off them, it looks like a stone fragment sitting in a valley.”

UConn’s environmental focus was apparent from the very beginning of the project, when the design team was met with a bit of a challenge. “When we started to excavate the site we discovered peat in the soil,” Appleman says. “That makes it unstable, so we couldn’t build on it. But instead of digging a giant hole and getting rid of all the soil, 7,000 cubic feet of peat was excavated and used to help restore and create area wetlands.”

How else did UConn’s project go green? For one, it incorporated recycled materials into many areas, including the artificial turf practice field. It uses infrared units to heat more efficiently and 90 percent of regularly occupied spaces in the complex allow for natural daylight. Permeable pavement with bio retention swales was put in place to cleanse storm water and reduce runoff.

HOK estimates the effort to meet silver LEED certification was less than one percent of the project’s $46 million cost, and sustainable design elements will pay for themselves within five to 10 years. Vaughn Williams, Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities, Management, and Planning at UConn, says making sure everyone involved was aware of the goal from day one was the key to earning the certification.

“The most extraordinary part was that we fast-tracked the project and everyone still came together to do their part in building environmentally friendly,” he says. “When your contractors and subcontractors are being pushed to get something done, it’s easy to want to leave some of the extra work needed to be LEED certified out, but nobody did that. Everyone made a commitment and believed in it, and it really paid off.”

LIGHTS OUT

Residents of Grinnell, Iowa, don’t have to worry about living in a city of lights. Five years ago, it added a “dark sky” ordinance to its city code. That ordinance affects Grinnell College and had an impact on the construction of its Athletic and Fitness Center last year.

“If we do any significant exterior lighting, particularly pole lighting, no light can exit the fixture above horizontal,” says Rick Whitney, Associate Director of Construction and Management at Grinnell College. “All the light must be pointed downward with no spill light, which means no effect on dark-sky viewing.”

So when Grinnell College built phase one of its Center—an auxiliary gym, practice gym, fitness center, and locker rooms—special attention was paid to outside light fixtures. And as construction begins on phase two—including a fieldhouse with an indoor track, tennis courts, athletic training and physical therapy facilities, equipment room, coaches offices, and classrooms; and a natatorium with a 50-meter pool, locker rooms, dance room, and climbing wall—that trend will continue inside as well.

“There are several issues when it comes to lighting,” says Darin Cook, Design Team Leader of phase two at Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the design architect for the project. “To keep Grinnell a dark-sky area, we’re completely preventing light trespass onto neighboring properties and minimizing light pollution that can come from upward-facing lights. The campus observatory is nearby, so we’ve had to be greatly aware of light pollution from both the inside and outside of our building.”

Lighting is one aspect that will help phase two become LEED certified, a main goal for the design architects. Another has to do with sunlight. The natatorium and fieldhouse will include white heat island roofs. “The surface is more reflective than a dark color, so it doesn’t create heat, which can have an affect on the local environment,” Cook says. The roof is also manufactured out of thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) membrane, a 100-percent recyclable material that can be ground up and reused.

Grinnell and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects are also entering very innovative environmental territory with their design for a geothermal field installed under a soccer field adjacent to the natatorium. The area will essentially become a giant radiator, so instead of the natatorium running off of the college’s heating and cooling system, it will have its own under the soccer field.

“We’re going to completely excavate the soccer field and dig a series of wells every 15 feet, each about 300 feet deep,” Cook explains. “Then we’ll install piping encased in concrete. The heat from the water will dissipate through the soil while running through this giant loop before arriving at the building where the water is used in cooling the facility. The soil was tested and is ideal for accepting the heat, and the field will be a perfectly normal temperature. And we save the college space by installing it under the soccer field.”

Building green may be a trend, but it’s also a permanent solution to staying environmentally friendly. These institutions and architects have taken the lead in working with the environment instead of against it, and many more are following suit. Green building solutions are somewhat unique now, but will soon become a staple when it comes to new construction.

Sidebar: UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Because building green is still a fairly new concept, many buildings that will eventually be LEED certified are still in the planning or construction phases at this point. One such facility is the Pamela Ann Chesonis (PAC) Fieldhouse at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY., where Clough Harbour & Associates (CHA) has just broken ground on the project.

Upon completion, which is expected in September 2008, Ray Rudolph, Partner at CHA and Director of CHA Sports, expects the PAC Fieldhouse to pass LEED certification with flying colors. But in order for Rudolph to be confident the fieldhouse will pass, it means keeping an eye on each facet of the $12 million project—starting now.

“In the planning stage, we specify manufacturing and performance criteria of the products we expect to be used,” Rudolph says. “So at this point, as the contractor submits shop drawings and product information, we have to double check and make sure the products the contractor wants to use meet the environmentally-friendly technical specifications we laid out in the beginning. It’s now a key for us to make sure each party involved is on the same page as we are.”

Amenities like corner windows for natural light and moving air through ventilation systems in the main fieldhouse rather than air conditioning the entire building, in addition to constructing the building on a former building site, will help the PAC Fieldhouse gain LEED certification. Another is that the fieldhouse will be covered by a low-E (low emmissivity) roof, which reflects light and heat instead of absorbing it so the building will maintain a comfortable temperature year-round.

The future 53,000 square foot facility will be home to Monroe’s athletic teams as well as the rest of the 35,000-student body. A turf field, three-lane jogging track, weightroom, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, and athletic training room will all be housed in the PAC Fieldhouse, which will be attached to existing athletic facilities. Monroe officials hope the space will be used by every student on campus.

“The majority of students at community colleges such as Monroe are commuters,” Rudolph says. “And for their student-athletes, there is usually time between the end of classes and the start of practices, but they don’t have dorm rooms to go back to. The fieldhouse space will be an area for them to go during that in between time.”

Rudolph says everything has come together well in order to start construction, but it’s taken longer than originally anticipated. “Time has been our biggest challenge,” he says. “The whole industry is so busy right now—which is a good thing, but getting projects accomplished on schedule is more difficult now than it ever has been. Everybody wants to be on board and do their part to build green, especially institutions of higher learning.”

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VMDO Architects was founded in 1976 and is the youngest firm to receive the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Virginia Architecture Award, the most prestigious honor given by the Virginia Society of American Institute of Architects.

For further information, interview, and photography opportunities in reference to this project and VMDO Architects, please contact William Bishop at 434.296.5684, email at bishop@vmdo.com.