Stanford's ecology center earns kudos for its low impact
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
A walk around the Global Ecology Center at Stanford University shows why it's no surprise the small research building is one of the American Institute of Architects' "2007 Top Ten Green Projects."
The outer walls include redwood salvaged from century-old wine casks. Galvanized steel sheets keep the afternoon sun off west-facing windows. The lobby is cooled by moistened air that gravity pulls down a chimney-like shaft.
The only surprise is what's missing: a "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" certification from the United States Green Building Council.
LEED is becoming the construction industry equivalent of organic food, touted by developers and government alike. But researchers at the Global Ecology Center didn't see the need for a semi-official stamp of approval, so they didn't even apply.
And the success of their new home is a reminder that following a checklist isn't the point for an issue such as global warming. The challenge is to push further -- exploring how to make buildings as sustainable as possible.
The ecology center is a branch of the Carnegie Institution, a scientific organization with an outpost on the Stanford campus since 1928. In 2002, Carnegie created the center on its Panama Street site to research the links among topics including biodiversity, water use and climate change.
For the center's home, the faculty wanted a design that would reflect these priorities. The architectural firm they selected was San Francisco's EHDD -- best-known for its Monterey Bay Aquarium, but a leader in the profession for its efforts to weave environmental concerns through all aspects of design.
Visually, EHDD has produced a handsome structure that looks more like a barn than the Spanish-flavored landmarks for which Stanford is known. The 10,000-square-foot structure is two stories high, a narrow box with labs on the ground and offices above. There's a porch-like foyer clad in wood siding, and a pitched roof punctured by windows on the west to let natural light illuminate the open second floor.
It's a simple design with an ambitious goal: to create a building that consumes as few resources as possible. The clerestory windows, for example, stand 19 feet above the floor but can be opened to allow air. How? With hand-cranked cables.
Another tactic comes after dark, when water is sprayed from small sprinklers onto the steep metal roof. The water cools as it spills down to the gutters, the liquid's heat radiating into the cold night sky. The runoff is stored in an insulated, 12,000-gallon tank -- and used the next day to serve the building's chilled water needs, a holistic approach that consumes one-quarter of the energy a conventional cooling system would require.
In keeping with the environmental theme, the EHDD design incorporates recycled materials each step of the way.
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