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Living Building Challenge at Phipps Conservatory

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Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is one of the most energy efficient and sustainable conservatories in the world. Impressed with both their design and practices, we launched the first of a series of e-chats with Phipps’ Executive Director, Richard V. Piacentini, July 2013,  with a look at their new LEED certified Welcome Center. In our second e-chat, we explored their energy efficient greenhouses.  And now, in our third e-chat, we discuss their greatest sustainable effort yet – the Center for Sustainable Landscapes – Phipps’ answer to the Living Building Challenge!

It is said that the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) was “designed and constructed to function as elegantly and efficiently as a flower.”  Can you explain what is meant by that?

Piacentini: That phrase actually originated with International Living Future Institute CEO, Jason McLennan, who introduced the concept of the Living Building Challenge (LBC) in 2006 at the USGBC Greenbuild Conference. I was present at Greenbuild that year, and his words immediately struck me as perfectly suited to the mission of Phipps. The driving principals of the LBC require buildings to be: informed by their regional ecologies; integrated seamlessly into the landscape; able to generate all their own energy with renewable resources, capturing and treating all water onsite; and operating efficiently and with maximum beauty.

The innate design and qualities of a plant or flower follow these exact principals. They are rooted in place, adapt to their climate, operate free of pollution, make all their own food from the energy they capture, and treat and reuse the water that falls on their soil, all with incredible efficiency and beauty.

And so, how fitting that our conservatory should take the lessons learned from our nurtured gardens and apply them to the very buildings that support them; so they, “… function as elegantly and efficiently as a flower.” The result is a healthier place for people to live, work and play, and it is better for the planet too.

Living Building Challenge at Phipps Conservatory

So in tackling this energy efficient design for your building – what was your greatest goal?

Piacentini: Our greatest goal was to look for every opportunity to connect people to nature. It’s interesting to look back on how we have designed buildings since the middle of the last century. With the advent of air conditioning, one could seal up a building and cool and filter the air. In most conventional modern office buildings, if you are lucky enough to have a window, chances are you cannot open it. In addition to having limited access to fresh air, once you are inside you have no idea if it’s hot or cold, windy or rainy. Our goal was to change that with the CSL.

In our design, we operate from the premise that we want to bring the outside in whenever possible. This starts with our efficient HVAC system, which works in conjunction with a sophisticated Building Control System, which monitors ambient temperature, humidity and air quality, utilizing both current conditions and predictive analysis based on historical data. Whenever outdoor air and humidity levels warrant it, the clerestory windows open automatically and signal to staff that it is okay to open the lower windows as well. When it is time to close the windows, the same system alerts staff on their laptops to close windows, and will keep doing so until all  windows are closed. In a subtle way, by engaging the staff in opening and closing the windows, we are making them aware of what is going on both inside and outside the building.  We also have energy monitors at each desk so staff can see in real time how much energy they are using. It is important to engage staff in becoming partners in helping us run the building as efficiently as we can.

So you succeeded in creating a building that responds and adapts to the surrounding climate. How does passive design fit into the plan?

Piacentini: As the team began to explore ways to reduce energy use, we quickly realized that if you have to make all your own energy on site, the smartest thing to do is start by using as little energy as possible, which is what passive design is all about. We began by orienting the building for optimal southern exposure with maximum daylighting. We designed the workspace to have a long, rectangular footprint that is never wider than 40 feet, ensuring that natural sunlight can reach the entire space, and incorporating high-performance, low-emissivity triple pane glass windows. A green roof, along with high performance wall and roof insulation, contributes to the savings, as well.

The building atrium acts as a thermal buffer, with thermal massing, provided by concrete and phase change material, to reduce winter heat losses and summer heat gains. The result is an atrium that needs no mechanical heating or cooling.

Living Building Challenge at Phipps Conservatory

Heating is one thing, but 100% passive cooling for the atrium – that’s quite an accomplishment. How did you manage that?

Piacentini: The CSL atrium is quite a fascinating space unto itself, with a number of new technologies and strategies on display. As the building’s principal visitor interpretation space, the CSL’s atrium is more than a conduit between the floors of the building, so it needs to maintain a comfortable temperature in all seasons.

Passive cooling is actually the easier part of the equation. By using the same system of mechanically controlled roof ventilation, energy blankets and shade cloths, which worked so well in Phipps’ Tropical Forest Conservatory, we are able to block excess sunlight when necessary and passively cool the space by opening roof vents as needed. When additional ventilation is required, the large window walls on the first and second floors can be opened, dramatically increasing airflow through the space.

Thanks to these and other passive strategies, we have been able to achieve a 68.7% reduction in energy usage versus a traditionally designed building. With the lower energy use, we were also able to decrease the number of onsite solar photovoltaic arrays and wind turbines needed.

In the course of energy management, it seems there’s a large emphasis placed on windows and natural airflow. Just how important is this to your overall design?

Piacentini: Window placement and operation are absolutely critical to the project on a number of levels, from optimizing natural light and airflow to providing outside views of nature. Again, they are part of that overall goal of bringing the outside in whenever possible.

Though you’ve already addressed the issue of daylighting you actually took the concept to a whole other level. Can you discuss the added elements of light shelves, the ceiling ‘cloud’, interior color schemes, daylighting sensors, etc.?

Piacentini: It was always important to us that natural light penetrate as much of the building’s occupied space as possible, and as I mentioned earlier, daylighting was a major consideration when defining the building’s envelope, its orientation and even its shape. But a building optimized to receive light should be optimized to make the most of that light. So, light shelves were added below the clerestory windows, along the south walls, to bounce the daylight further into the space, with interior finishes light colored to reflect the light. In addition, the ceiling ‘cloud’ was sloped down towards the center to encourage light from both the northern and southern windows to penetrate deep inside the building. The result is that occupants enjoy 80% daylight autonomy, which not only saves energy, but is much more comfortable and conducive to productivity than the typical fluorescent banks still seen in conventional office buildings.

Looking at this amazing energy-efficient and sustainable building – what is the most important thing to understand about this design?

Piacentini: One of the most important things is to recognize that human and environmental health are inextricably connected. Anytime we can make better connections between the built and natural environments, we are going to improve the health of people and the planet. The second most important and wonderful aspect  – that which makes all of this such a perfect plan for Phipps –  is that by embracing passive strategies, we embrace nature —  for the only truly free and renewable sources of ventilation, heating, cooling and lighting are those provided by the natural world. The building’s day-to-day operations reinforce the interconnectedness of all things in nature by depending on natural, renewable resources for its primary functions. There is no greater testament to the beauty and efficiency of the natural world than that.

Living Building Challenge at Phipps Conservatory


Phipps’ new Center for Sustainable Landscapes achieved Net Zero Energy Certification under the Living Building Challenge in February 2014; was awarded LEED® Platinum in August 2013, and earned Four-Stars Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) certification for landscapes in November 2013.

Richard V. Piacentini has held the position of Executive Director of Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens since 1994. During his tenure, Phipps launched the most ambitious expansion project in its 113 year history; a 36.6 million dollar expansion featuring environmentally sensitive design.

Contributor: Wen-D Kersten is the editor and contributor to a number of green blogs and websites including GreenBuildTV, GreeningtheInn and GreenLeafInn.


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