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Jake Mrozewski | Phoenix Staff

The Wister Education Center and Greenhouse won the Green Building of America award.

BY KATHERINE ERNST

In print | Published September 3, 2009

Real Estate and Construction Review recently named the Scott Arboretum’s nearly finished Wister Education Center and Greenhouse a Green Building of America, solidifying its place on the cutting edge of eco-friendliness and putting them one step closer to silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification.

The new 5,200 square-foot building, which broke ground in November 2008, will provide a space for a trained group of approximately 120 arboretum assistant volunteers, as well as for educational activities, displays and other events. Wister will replace an older, much smaller greenhouse, which failed to adequately provide these spaces, according to the arboretum’s website.

“When we started the project, it was obvious the old greenhouse needed to be replaced; it was literally falling apart,” Scott Arboretum Director Claire Sawyers said. “We also realized that our programs had grown substantially since the old greenhouse was built. We had 20 volunteers then, now we have five times that many involved. So if the Scott Arboretum as an organization was to sustain existing programs and to grow, we needed a building that would support our current program as well.”

Most work on the building will be completed by the end of September as originally planned. Some features may take longer to complete, however.

“We changed vendors for the greenhouse control system, which may impact the completion date for computer programming for the window shades, heating and cooling systems and remote monitoring,” Project Manager Jan Semler said.

The Green Building of America award winner, selected from a 2,500-submission applicant pool, was chosen as having the criteria of using advanced new technologies and building something other architects should use as an example. In 2010 the greenhouse will be featured in “Real Estate and Construction Review-Northeast Green Success Stories,” the arboretum website said.

The new Wister greenhouse will not simply be an improvement in terms of space and usability — it also will gain status as an environmentally friendly piece of land. The Scott Arboretum is working with six accredited professionals to earn a silver LEED certification.

LEED’s certification includes simply “certified,” “silver,” “gold” and “platinum.” The system rates buildings in six major categories: “sustainable sites,” which considers attributes such as storm water control and public transportation access; “water efficiency,” such as innovative wastewater technologies and water use reduction; “energy and atmosphere,” such as green power, which optimizes energy performance; “materials and resources,” like storage and collection of recyclables and certified wood; indoor environmental quality, like low-emitting materials and lighting; and “LEED innovation credits,” which rates the innovation of the design process and performance.

The only other LEED certified building on campus right now is the Science Center.

The construction of the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse required approximately 8,050 lbs of concrete. Roughly 250 lbs of that, however, was not actually concrete but fly ash. Fly ash, a byproduct churned out by the ton from power plants across the US, has been taking up large volumes of space in landfills. By mixing fly ash into cement, the byproduct is diverted away from our landfills and toward a less wasteful purpose.

Additional environmentally friendly features of particular note are the 7,000 gallon cistern being constructed behind the new greenhouse to capture rainwater for irrigation — much like a large rain barrel — and job-site recycling for all of the demolition and building material waste.

So far, almost 110 tons of material have been recycled and thereby effectively diverted from landfills. Furthermore, the greenhouse will have a “green roof” covered with soil and vegetation and will be lighted by energy-efficient bulbs and natural light.

“The college’s facilities group came up with an innovative idea that our mechanical engineers designed around,” said Dan Russoniello, an LEED accredited professional from Archer & Buchanan Architecture, Ltd. who is working with the college to design and construct the Wister building. “It involves using the chilled water that serves the McCabe Library’s cooling system as a heat sink or heat source, depending on the season, to heat and cool the Wister Center. This design benefits both the library and the Wister Center in that it reduces the amount of energy needed to heat and cool both buildings.”

In planning for the center, the Scott Arboretum raised $2.5 million for the project on its own. The remaining $1.3 million necessary for the project was secured from the college. Although construction of the Wister Education Center and Greenhouse is due to be completed sometime in September of this year, the Scott Arboretum has until 2014 to pay Swarthmore back.

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