How to Happily Marry Energy Efficient Design, Space Flexibility and Budget

Don Holden, CRB Engineers

Agensys' new 190,000 GSF, $67MM campus consists of four buildings, one for R&D Labs and office, one for manufacturing, one for central utilities and one for amenities.

Project challenges included relocating several of Agensys' Santa Monica operations into one new facility at 1800 Stewart Street in Santa Monica, CA. The site itself presented unique challenges due to the limited size of the land parcel, space availability for outdoor equipment yards, adjacency to an art district, city plans for a future Metro Rail and the requirement that common areas, including the Amenities Building be available for public use. The project was also required incorporate an existing steel structure into the design as well as provide walking paths linking the site to the art district next door.

With all these requirements, it didn't take long before the project was over budget. To reduce floor space the engineering team introduced a unique open ballroom concept for the manufacturing building. This allowed the footprint to maximize flexibility for future products and be reduced in square footage and cost.

The Lab building also had its challenges with multiple lab users and the need to be able to reconfigure the labs quickly flexibility was extremely important. A flexible casework design using overhead utility panels was utilized to accomplish this goal.

The project achieved LEED Silver certification by using energy saving strategies such as an energy management system for the kitchen cooking hood. The grease exhaust temperature controlled the vfd on hood exhaust and make-up air unit – this strategy took advantage of the local climate and no additional cooling was used for make up air.

CRB used Energy Pro software for analysis and computer simulation of the entire campus. This allowed the owner to receive a $210,000.00 rebate from Southern California Edison, savings by design.

The engineering team used some of the latest design tools to execute this project. The tools included (BIM) Building Information Modeling 3-D design software, intelligent PIDs and Energy Pro software.

Learning Objectives

  • Learn how to truly think outside the box during space planning to maximize floor space, provide flexibility for the future growth and reduce cost.
  • Unsure of your lab needs and configuration? Learn how the use of flexible casework and overhead utilities can solve the problem and allow for flexibility in the lab.
  • How the use of CFD modeling can insure energy efficient LEED design and utility company rebates.

Biography:

Don Holden is an Associate, Certified Project Manager, and Senior Electrical Specialist at Clark, Richardson and Biskup Consulting Engineers. Don has been in the Electrical Engineering field for over 30 years. Don heads the S&T effort for CRB's San Diego office. Don has worked on a variety of projects with a concentration on the Laboratory/Life Sciences field. Don served as the IES President for the Heart of America section and in 20o9 he was the San Diego chapter President of the ISPE.

 

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