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Berkeley City College first in class with LEED Silver rating
By: Mary Tressel - Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Source: Ratcliff & Tressel Communications
Peralta Community College District and the architectural firm Ratcliff are pleased to announce that Berkeley City College has earned a LEED® Silver certification rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. Berkeley City College is the first building in the City of Berkeley to achieve LEED Silver status and the first California Community College single-building campus constructed on an urban infill site. Berkeley City College earned this prestigious honor by its promotion of urban redevelopment and incorporation of various energy-efficient design elements.
"Berkeley City's LEED Silver status is a tangible demonstration of our commitment to eliminating greenhouse gases and building a sustainable future," said Nicky González Yuen, a Peralta Community College District trustee and chair of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability. Berkeley City College is the winner of the Community College Facility Coalition's 2007 Professional Design Award of Merit and the East Bay Business Times' 2006 Structures Award.
In addition to the life-cycle savings of its energy-efficient design, the new building has already earned the District $129,000 in cash incentives from Pacific Gas & Electric Company's Savings by Design program. Ratcliff's unique design for the six-story, 165,000-square-foot campus incorporates a wide range of environmentally-responsible tenets that benefit the College's students and faculty, including:
• Site Selection and Urban Redevelopment By locating the building in the dense downtown core of Berkeley, the campus maximizes the use of an existing infrastructure and preserves green space in the Bay Area.
• Energy Efficiency The building is over 40 percent more energy efficient than the baseline. The keys to this accomplishment are intelligent building controls, and energy-efficient mechanical systems, lighting, and building "envelope" design, such as white roofing to reduce the "urban heat island effect."
• Water Efficiency Berkeley City College is 34 percent more water efficient than a comparable building, due to low-flow sensor-controlled plumbing fixtures.
• Promote Alternative Transportation The campus is located within one block of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and local/regional bus service, and provides secure interior bicycle storage, showers, and locker facilities.
• Indoor Air Quality Indoor air contaminants were reduced through a rigorous selection process of interior finishes, adhesives, and sealants that limit the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the design of mechanical systems that respond to heightened carbon dioxide levels.
• Maximize Daylight Natural light is introduced deep into the six-story building through a high-performance glass curtain wall on the street façade, a full-height central atrium with monumental skylight, and a student lounge glass clerestory with views of the nearby Berkeley Hills.
• Reduce Light Pollution Lighting fixtures at the exterior, rooftop, and below the atrium skylight are shielded from contributing to night sky light pollution.
• Construction Waste Diversion-This project diverted 998 tons (77 percent) of construction waste from landfill.
• Recycled Content and Local/Regional Materials Ratcliff selected building materials and finishes with high recycled content and 30 percent of those materials were manufactured from raw materials within the region.
The US Green Building Council has developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program as a nationally recognized performance oriented system designed for rating new and existing buildings or groups of buildings based on a variety of Green Building Principles. Different levels of LEED certification (Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum) are awarded based on the total credits earned.
Headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., Ratcliff is dedicated to designing sustainable building solutions and teamed with Simon & Associates to achieve Berkeley City College's LEED Silver certification. Ratcliff provides architecture, interior design, and planning services to higher education, healthcare and civic clients throughout the Western United States, including the University of California at Berkeley, Saint Mary's College, Monterey Peninsula College, and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District. With a staff of 75 design professionals, Ratcliff is a recipient of the prestigious Firm of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects-California Council.
Berkeley City College is part of the Peralta Community College District which serves the communities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont. The district also includes College of Alameda, Laney College and Merritt College. In 2005, the district began the "Sustainable Peralta Initiative" as an effort to transform itself completely into a model environmental education center and to function as a regional training center for environmental sustainability. "Sustainable Peralta fits our mission perfectly- training students in responsible citizenship, preparing people for green-collar jobs, and taking care of our community and environment. BCC's LEED Silver status is just a down-payment on an even greener future for our District," added Yuen.
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