Green Building Study Taps Centerbrook

CENTERBROOK, Conn. -- Centerbrook Architects and partner Mark Simon have been chosen to participate in a study of sustainable architecture on collegiate campuses. The 2010 LEED Platinum Academic Building Study is being conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which has selected Kroon Hall, the new home of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, as one of ten projects nationwide to examine for its various energy efficient approaches.

Centerbrook, as Executive Architect, collaborated on the project with the Design Architect, Hopkins Architects of London. The 66,818-square-foot building was designed to use 81 percent less water and 58 percent less energy than a comparable baseline structure and to generate 25 percent of its electricity onsite from renewable sources. It was recently certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Under the direction of Associate Professor James Wasley, Wisconsin architecture students will use Kroon Hall’s construction documents and other data to create a “publication quality” documentation and analysis of its green design systems and strategies. Students also will interview Simon, FAIA, who was the partner-in-charge of the project for Centerbrook.

The study is sponsored by, among others, the American Institute of Architects and the Society of Building Science Educators, and includes buildings at Harvard, the University of Calgary, and Cooper Union. SBSE is also supporting a related effort, the “Carbon-Neutral Design Project,” that will do case studies of architectural projects drawn from diverse climatic conditions representing a range of building types and sizes that they share a yearly energy use of approximately 30,000 BTUs per square foot or less.

The two studies will become the nucleus of academic and professional educational materials that will be made available to the public.