Linde + Robinson Laboratory for Global Environmental Science: Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria Version 2.2 and LEED® 2009 for New Construction (NC)

Bradley Smith, LEED AP, California Institute of Technology
Christopher Zabaneh, Davis Langdon

Robinson Laboratory was built in 1932 at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as one of three buildings constructed to support the design and construction of Mt. Palomar Observatory. The main function of the fifth floor, 40,000-square-foot building was administrative, but there were also a couple of telescopes and several laboratories in the building. One of the telescopes was a solar telescope with a 115-foot-high shaft and pit below.

The building is undergoing a major rehabilitation for use as the Center for Global Environmental Science. This will be a LEED Platinum laboratory, and will be the most energy-efficient physical science laboratory in the United States when it is completed. It will exhibit more than 60 to 80 percent energy savings over a new physical science laboratory that is designed to code. One of the ways it will achieve this high level of sustainability is by taking full advantage of existing features, such as the solar telescope and pit and by repurposing them for its inherent sustainable qualities.

The project has been submitted to the Green Building Certification Institute under LEED-NC v2.2, but because it is a laboratory, Caltech wanted to see how well it performed in accordance with the Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC) Version 2.2. In addition, since Caltech had the opportunity to change the design submission to LEED 2009 NC even though the project had already been registered under LEED-NC v2.2, Caltech wanted to see how well it performed in accordance with LEED 2009 NC. This presentation will focus on the specific Labs21 EPC that the project meets, how well the project performed under LEED 2009 NC, and which specific Labs21 EPCs have been affected by the LEED 2009 NC changes.

Biographies:

Bradley Smith received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Illinois and his Master of Architecture from North Carolina State University. He worked as a staff architect at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in Chicago; as a preservation architect at the State of Georgia Deptartment of Natural Resources; as a senior planner for the City of Pasadena's Planning and Permitting Department; and as an interim director in the Design and Construction Department at the California Institute of Technology where he is currently senior manager/architect.

While at Caltech, he has served on the Campus Sustainability Committee, helped develop the building/landscape sustainability policies for the campus, and helped manage three new LEED Gold building projects. He has also worked to develop the campus points for all future LEED projects, and to modify the campus design guidelines to incorporate sustainability. He is currently managing the rehabilitation of a LEED Platinum laboratory.

He has made numerous presentations at various conferences, and has won local, state, and national awards for his projects. He is licensed to practice architecture in California and Georgia.

Christopher F. Zabaneh, EIT, LEED AP, is a sustainability engineer and energy modeler at Davis Langdon in Santa Monica. With a background in mechanical engineering, Mr. Zabaneh has served as an energy modeler and MEP LEED Specialist on a broad range of projects in the cultural, education, science and technology, commercial, and hospitality sectors.

Mr. Zabaneh received his Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He has written articles on energy modeling and building commissioning and has guest lectured to multiple higher education institutions on LEED, energy modeling, sustainable design, and high-performance glazing. He is also the editor of the Southern California Chapter of ASHRAE's Sol*Air newsletter and has given presentations on sustainability and energy modeling at conferences such as Greenbuild and Sustainable Solutions.

Mr. Zabaneh's areas of expertise include energy modeling for building systems selection, systems optimization, code compliance, and research and documentation, including onsite investigations and inspections. In addition to modeling and engineering heating, ventilating, and air conditioning design, Mr. Zabaneh has strong knowledge of energy codes including California Title-24, ASHRAE 90.1, ASHRAE 189.1, LEED v2.2 and v3 and has advised the City of Los Angeles on energy modeling and green code compliance for the upcoming CalGREEN environmental code.