The Kendeda Building aims to be the Southeast’s first certified Living Building, the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment. It will produce more energy than it uses, collect and recycle water, and, as Journal reporter Keiko Morris put it, serve as “a crucial test case of whether a large-scale environmentally advanced project can achieve its goals in the heat and humidity of the Southeast.”

Other certified living buildings have opened in more temperate and less humid climates, where they don’t contend with the same range of temperatures as Atlanta.

“The Southeast is one of the most difficult climates to design for in the world,” Dennis Creech,  fund adviser for the Kendeda Fund, told the Journal. “You have a need for heating in the wintertime, cooling in the summertime, and you have humidity to deal with year-round.”

More from Morris’ story:

The Atlanta building “takes away some of the naysayer argument of ‘Oh, that works in Seattle or Germany but you can’t do that here,’” said Shan Arora, director of The Kendeda Building.

 

The Atlanta building relies on robust insulation, triple-pane glass windows and automated external blinds to help maintain comfortable temperatures, keeping out hot humid air and preventing heat gain from the sun.

 

A roof canopy of more than 900 solar panels will provide shade in addition to powering the building. Energy-efficient radiant cooling and heating in the flooring, ceiling fans and a separate dehumidifying system also reduce energy use.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

Embodying the philosophy of the Living Building Challenge – to change how humans interact with the built environment – Georgia Tech is applying principles and lessons well beyond the project’s boundaries. As part of the commitment to the Living Building Challenge principles, teams at Georgia Tech are testing both operational and research concepts across campus that will encourage sustainable changes to business practices in design, construction, operations, equity, and building performance on other campus projects.

“Though the lessons from every pilot may not be applicable to all Living Building projects, our hope is that these pilots will encourage other owners pursuing Living Buildings certification to think beyond their own specific boundaries and focus on how their own projects can help inform and influence efficiency improvements and encourage innovation for other owners,” said Howard Wertheimer, institute architect for Georgia Tech. “These pilot projects are causing us to rethink how we are doing business, challenging us to uplift and transform our thinking and approach.”

The first wave of pilot projects included both academic and operational programs. Academic programs included:

• Evaluating Living Building Monitoring Systems.
• Crowdsourcing through Virtual and Augmented Reality.
• Equipping Equity Champions.
• Effects of the Living Building on Biological Diversity and Succession.
• Expanding the Educational Reach of the Living Building to Middle Schoolers.

Operational programs included:

• Green Cleaning.
• Landscaping Test Programs.
• Audio Visual Practices.

Visit livingbuilding.gatech.edu/learning-programs to learn more about these projects and how they are transforming Georgia Tech’s campus both inside and outside of the classroom.

The next round of project proposals has been announced. If you are interested in learning more about the proposal requirements, attend an information session on Thursday, October 4 from 11 a.m. – noon at the College of Design Auditorium.

Proposals are due on Friday, October 12. Proposals and questions may be submitted to GTLivingBuildingProposals@gatech.edu.

“It is extremely exciting to complete the design stage and begin the handoff to the project’s construction team, Skanska,” said Steve Swant, executive vice president of Administration and Finance. “This has been and will continue to be a transformative process for Georgia Tech. It requires us to rethink our approaches, challenge our own assumptions, and find the best solutions to plan, design, and construct high performance buildings. We are already beginning to apply these practices throughout campus.”

Since receiving the green light on the project’s schematic design earlier this year, the project team, led by The Miller Hull Partnership and Lord Aeck Sargent, has been working hard to refine the design plans while delicately balancing many of the project’s performance variables. The inherent challenge is to provide a fully functional building, within budget, that integrates naturally into the Georgia Tech campus — all while meeting the strict building and programming requirements (the Living Building Challenge Petals and Imperatives) and Georgia Tech’s desire for highly flexible academic space.

Project planners feel they have already successfully met some of the requirements under the Place, Health and Happiness, and Equity Petals. These involve providing a biophilic environment that includes access to daylight and creating a strong connection to nature as demonstrated with the rooftop garden and porch plaza adjacent to the Eco-Commons (a planned series of campus greenspaces recreating historic waterways as part of a natural stormwater management and recycling system). In addition, Lord Aeck Sargent has been recently recognized as a Just Organization, a program that promotes transparency among corporations. Key project members are required to receive this certification as one of the Living Building Challenge Imperatives.

While progress is being made on meeting the requirements, several challenges still remain for the planners to consider: energy, for instance. To achieve Living Building Challenge certification, the building must function at net positive energy, meaning it must harvest more energy (in this case via photovoltaic panels) than it consumes. At the moment, the plans are to make the building available for occupancy 18 hours a day, 365 days a year. Based upon this rate and a full menu of interconnected variables, the building’s energy usage intensity (EUI) is expected to be 33 kBTU/sf/yr, which is 66 percent more efficient than the average building of the same size and occupancy. While this certainly helps contribute to the net positive energy goals for the building, any variation that impacts the intake or output of energy — such as simply operating a coffee cart — will alter the building’s performance.      

“Our team has been carefully considering as many variables as we can in the development of the Living Building at Georgia Tech,” says Joshua Gassman, lead project architect for Lord Aeck Sargent. “We know we are getting close when all the pieces begin to interlock — very much like an ecosystem. When something changes in one area, we see that change reflected in several other areas.”

Another major Living Building Challenge certification requirement is to avoid the use of Red List materials. Materials on the Red List are identified by the International Living Future Institute as “the worst-known offending materials.” The goal is to utilize materials and practices that are not only non-toxic but also ecologically restorative and socially equitable throughout the building’s lifecycle. To help tackle this issue, a materials working group has been formed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and resources among all the various project partners. The team is currently planning to incorporate salvaged materials harvested on campus including wood from the recent Tech Tower renovation, slate from the Alumni Association roof, and granite from the foundation of the recent deconstruction of a building on 401 Ferst Drive. To help keep all these resources catalogued and assist in sharing this knowledge with others, the team is utilizing the material database, Portico, a pilot tool developed by Google and the Healthy Building Network. 

As the design development phase comes to an end, the team has made the following design revisions to advance several of the project’s guiding principles:

• Rotating the auditorium to create a more compact footprint while ensuring universal access from all sides of the 170-person room.
• Modifying windows to ensure an abundance of natural light on all levels of the building including the unisex restrooms as well as the basement that will house several mechanical systems including a cistern and composter.
• Incorporating space on the rooftop to accommodate an indoor/outdoor classroom with views overlooking the Eco-Commons.
• Trimming 4,000 square feet off the building (primarily in the atrium) to provide a more efficient and cost-effective layout without significantly reducing occupancy or programming space. To date, the Living Building at Georgia Tech project has 43,500 square feet of programmable space of which 35,000 square feet is enclosed space and 8,500 square feet is outdoor learning space.

Engaging the Campus to Deconstruct the Petals

On campus, several departments are also taking deep dives into each of the Petals and the associated Imperatives by implementing work groups and pilot programs to test several of the operational, maintenance, and programming concepts proposed for the Living Building at Georgia Tech.

Beginning earlier this year, Georgia Tech’s Landscape Services started training its team on Living Building Challenge certification requirements and planning pilot programs to better convey how a native, natural landscape will perform. The intent is to utilize these pilot programs to help share a better understanding of what works (and what doesn’t) to achieve certification, and appropriately apply these principles successfully across Georgia Tech’s urban campus.

Other teams are testing electrical loads and thermal comfort in existing spaces on campus to determine the potential variability in the new Living Building.

“We have a very unique opportunity at Tech to leverage our talent and expertise to literally test these concepts in our facilities before we make the commitment to implement them in the Living Building at Georgia Tech,” said Greg Spiro, senior mechanical engineer for Facilities Management. “Using campus as a living-learning laboratory is helping to accurately set expectations on how the technologies and occupants will behave in this net positive environment. Plus, we are learning about applications that we can replicate elsewhere on campus.”

To assist in operating and maintaining the Living Building at Georgia Tech once it is fully operational, Facilities Management is developing a comprehensive manual to educate the community about the design, and operational and maintenance requirements. This reference manual will assist Tech’s staff, as well as other future Living Building owners, in successfully adhering to the Living Building Certification standards throughout the building’s life.

Another group on campus, the Academic and Research Council is seeking to align the principles of the Living Building Challenge with the academic and research efforts in the classroom to develop a more well-rounded curriculum that incorporates the holistic requirements of the Living Building Challenge.

This past spring, the Council announced a campuswide call for proposals for research, teaching, and community-based pilot ventures connected to the Living Building at Georgia Tech. Of the 21 proposals submitted, six interdisciplinary research projects are currently receiving funding. These include:

1. Workflows and Data Modeling in Support of the Material Sourcing Requirement of the Living Building Challenge — School of Architecture and Digital Design Lab
2. Living Building Equity Champions — Office of Institute Diversity
3. Biologically Inspired Sustainable Building Design Challenges for Middle School Engineers: Expanding the Educational Reach of the Living Building at Georgia Tech — CEISMC and Center for Biologically Inspired Design
4. Documenting the Effects of the Living Building on Biological Diversity and Succession — School of Biological Sciences
5. Pilot Project Proposal for Living Building Monitoring Systems — Brooks Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
6. Living Building Community Crowdsourcing — School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Many of these proposal sponsors will actively incorporate these findings into the respective curriculum for the upcoming academic year, helping to embed the seeds of the Living Building Challenge deeper into Tech’s academic and research mission.

An official launch of the Living Building at Georgia Tech is scheduled for later this fall. For more information on the Living Building at Georgia Tech, visit livingbuilding.gatech.edu and livingbuilding.kendedafund.org.

Some may regard building dashboards as a worthy, but unsuccessful experiment of many green buildings in the recent past.  However, Chang and Hartley think the Living Building puts the idea of a dashboard in a new context.  Chang explains, “Most building dashboards lose their novelty soon after building commissioning and become stale, obsolete, or inoperable within a few months of their debut. In contrast, this living monitoring system will adapt as the building moves through its lifecycle, as its occupants transition through, and as the climate and environment in which it resides evolves. Students in the future may have very different interests and needs than students today. They will benefit from the efforts of those that came before them, but so too will they be able to reconfigure the monitoring system – and hence the building also – to their contemporary interests.”

Keeping students involved in refining and reformatting the dashboard will initially be supported by re-centering the existing course, EAS 2420: Environmental Measures of Urban and Regional Change, taught by Chang and Hartley.  Here the SURFers will learn the fundamentals of systems thinking as it applies to the urban environment, and how to apply these principles through the creation and execution of complex computer models.  EAS 2420 will be required for all future SURFers.  In addition, SURFers will meet for weekly “hack-a-thons” during the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters.

Beginning in the Fall of 2018 the pilot project will phase into the development and launch of a new Vertically Integrated Project (VIP).  Chang and Hartley envision that the project can run in perpetuity as a VIP as a means to solve the stale building dashboard problem.  A living building should have a living monitoring system which will address the cascade of scales as they impact the Living Building through each of the seven performance metrics, or “petals,” that are key to the Living Building Challenge: Site, Water, Energy, Health, Materials, Equity, and Beauty.

The Living Building at Georgia Tech is a partnership between The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech to build what is to be the most environmentally advanced education and research building ever constructed in the Southeast.

“Skanska brings a wealth of experience in constructing sustainable buildings in challenging climates such as we have here in Atlanta,” said John DuConge, senior project manager for Design and Construction in Facilities Management. “Their ability to pull from a breadth of disciplines, and their proactive approach to finding practical and replicable solutions, make them an ideal partner for this project.”

According to DuConge, another plus is Skanska’s commitment to sharing knowledge with the greater community to really make a difference in the built environment.

“George Tech’s Living Building is taking goals that once seemed impossible, incorporating them into best building practices, and creating a major shift in the built environment,” said Scott Cannon, executive vice president and general manager, Skanska USA Building. “This new building will be a model for sustainability in construction in Georgia and stands as a challenge to our industry to push for more net-positive buildings.”

In addition to finalizing the working teams, Georgia Tech has also selected the final project site: the northwest corner of Ferst Drive and State Street. Several variables were carefully considered during the site evaluations including Georgia Tech’s Master Campus Plan, potential connections to existing transportation, and campus life. In addition, more technical aspects were considered such as the site’s capacity to harvest rainwater and solar energy, as well as its ability to work in harmony with nature to minimize human intervention.

Skanska will begin collaborating with the design team of Lord Aeck Sargent and The Miller Hull Partnership, as well as the Institute’s teams, to focus on establishing project goals and formalizing strategies to help ensure a successful pathway to Living Building 3.0 certification. Specific topics that will be thoroughly examined in the early planning stages include:

• Site selection and building orientation.
• Net-positive energy and water solutions.
• Procurement of materials.
• Regulatory challenges.
• Meaningful outreach and engagement.
• Shared guiding principles to move the project forward (with the goal of Living Building Challenge 3.0 certification in 2020).

To learn more about the Living Building at Georgia Tech, visit livingbuilding.gatech.edu.     

The Living Building at Georgia Tech is a partnership between The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech to build what is expected to become the most environmentally advanced education and research building ever constructed in the Southeast.

“We are extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with these accomplished and talented teams as part of the selection process,” said Howard Wertheimer, director of Capital Planning and Space Management at Georgia Tech. “They all demonstrated great capacity and passion in this relatively emerging field of designing and constructing buildings that are restorative in nature.”

According to Wertheimer, the Living Building Challenge project will require a great deal of collaboration and the ability to embrace the process all the way through occupation and certification.

“Georgia Tech is where I first learned to love architecture as an undergraduate student, so the opportunity to be involved with a project as transformative as this is really an honor,” said Joseph Greco, president of Lord Aeck Sargent. “We’ve always prioritized sustainable design, but the opportunity to help design and construct a Living Building Challenge 3.0 certified building takes our firm’s abilities to do regenerative design to a new level – one that is grounded in the Southeast but also influential around the world.”

“Our team is honored to work with Georgia Tech and The Kendeda Fund to realize the first Living Building in the southeastern United States,” said Brian Court, partner, The Miller Hull Partnership. “We are excited to join Lord Aeck Sargent and other project partners to leverage Georgia Tech’s research and academic resources in developing a transformative building that models a way toward a more balanced and sustainable built environment.”

Ideas Competition

The three teams participating in the ideas competition since the shortlist was announced last December were:

• Collins Cooper Carusi/Eskew + Dumez + Ripple/Hellmuth + Bicknese,
• Perkins + Will, and
• Lord Aeck Sargent/Miller Hull.

Each of the three competing teams combined professionals from multiple disciplines including architecture and landscape architecture; mechanical, electrical, plumbing, civil and structural engineering; hydrology; sustainability; and other specialists and advisors.

The concept of an ideas competition is new for Georgia Tech and quite appropriate, given the enormous task of planning a facility that not only performs to the highest of environmental standards but also addresses the needs of the occupants both in terms of health and their connection with each other and the natural surroundings. This initial discovery promotes community engagement and a learning process that accounts for climate, site evaluations, materials, cost to build and operate, accessibility and replicability for future generations.

“The ideas completion was a fascinating process that set the perfect tone for this important project, and we could not be happier with the outcome,” said Barry Berlin, a long time advisor to The Kendeda Fund. “Lord Aeck Sargent’s deep knowledge of the Southeast coupled with Miller Hull’s experience designing one of the most iconic commercial living buildings in the world make this an optimal partnership for all involved.”

Over the course of the next few months, teams from Georgia Tech, Lord Aeck Sargent and Miller Hull – as well as representatives from The Kendeda Fund – will meet to analyze and discuss site evaluations, design considerations and technologies needed to achieve Living Building Challenge 3.0 certification. For more information, visit www.livingbuilding.gatech.edu.   

“This is unlike any other project we have embarked upon here at Tech,” said Steve Swant, executive vice president for Administration and Finance. “It is more than an opportunity to create a one-of-a kind net positive facility in the Southeast. It is also an opportunity to learn how to leverage and integrate all of our resources — people and technologies — and use Tech’s campus as a living-learning laboratory to educate others. But with these unique opportunities, come challenges.”

The Inherent Challenges of a Living Building

Advancing Tech’s master campus plan, the Living Building at Georgia Tech will demonstrate the most advanced measures of sustainability possible in the current built environment. Meeting that challenge requires close adherence to some of the world’s most stringent building performance standards. This includes meeting obvious requirements like managing water and energy but also the not-so-obvious specifications like supporting health, happiness, equity, and beauty. To achieve full certification, a Living Building must meet all the program requirements established by the International Living Future Institute (www.living-future.org) over a full 12-month period of continued operations and full occupancy.

“This project requires us to rethink how we approach the process of planning, designing, building, and even occupying this facility,” stated Scott Jones, director for Design and Construction in Facilities Management. “To meet this criteria, you have to define the end product before you even break ground. This requires a considerable amount of investment in time and resources upfront but creates efficiencies in the long run.”

But adherence to building standards is just a part of the challenge. Fundamentally, Living Buildings serve as a catalyst to help reshape how we think about our built environment and its interaction with our immediate surroundings through innovations and adaptations in technology, education, policy, and cultural beliefs.

To this end, one of the primary objectives is to ensure that the project is replicable, in terms of cost, materials, and technologies, so that others in the Southeast and around the world will be able to learn from Georgia Tech and build their own Living Buildings.

Steps to Building a Platform for Success

Since last fall when the Board of Regents gave its final approval to move forward with this project, an internal work group has been involved in an intensive planning phase — to get the right people engaged both on and off campus — to ensure long-term success for this project.

With an anticipated groundbreaking in 2017 and occupancy slated for 2018, teams from across campus, including Capital Planning and Space Management, Facilities Management, Office of Campus Sustainability, College of Architecture, and Administration and Finance, are working to define how Tech will thoughtfully engage and integrate design and construction teams, students, faculty, and researchers.

In November, Georgia Tech’s Planning and Design Commission and representatives from The Kendeda Fund (www.kendedafund.org) agreed upon the planned location — in the northwest vicinity of campus (see map on right) — for the project. This recommendation was based upon several factors including:

• Proximity to the Eco-Commons and, consequently, its ability to support the stormwater and landscape master plans.
• Ability to leverage natural resources including solar energy.
• Accessibility to the greater Tech community.

Currently, three integrated design teams (architects, engineers, and landscape architects) are competing to win the project bid. This winter, these teams will generate ideas to present to Georgia Tech’s Planning and Design Commission in March, when the winning team will be announced.

In addition, Professor Michael Gamble from the College of Architecture will lead an effort with faculty this spring semester to conduct four team-based, graduate-level design studios to generate additional ideas and excitement around this project.

“The Living Building-certified facility at Georgia Tech will positively impact the graduate and undergraduate curriculum for many years to come,” says Gamble. “As educators of the next generation of architects and builders, we embrace this opportunity to rethink the status quo and envision how to make this concept a reality.”

Once the final design and construction teams are announced, additional student, faculty, and community engagement opportunities will be forthcoming.

Given the Southeast’s heat, humidity and variable fresh water supplies, the development of any building aiming for zero net energy and water consumption brings unique challenges. Building a facility that meets Living Building Challenge 3.0 criteria — as The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech hope to do — will provide the opportunity to create a living-learning laboratory for hands-on educational and research opportunities that will be a model for the region and similar environments around the world.

According to Georgia Tech, the project will be integrated into the Institute’s Eco-Commons, a series of campus green spaces designed to conserve natural resources, including energy and water, and provide the community with educational and recreational amenities. This endeavor not only supports Georgia Tech’s goal to use its resources as efficiently as possible, but also manages stormwater runoff and helps protect drinking water sources.

“Georgia Tech is honored to partner with The Kendeda Fund on this groundbreaking project. The Living Building Challenge aligns with our longstanding vision for the campus and provides a unique opportunity to physically demonstrate how Georgia Tech practices thoughtful stewardship of all of our resources and how our innovative thinking can transform future generations,” said Steve Swant, executive vice president for Administration and Finance at Georgia Tech. “These are disciplines we have proudly instilled in our campus master planning as well as our academic, research and community outreach efforts.”

The Kendeda Fund has committed to investing $25 million over the next several years to privately fund 100 percent of the design and construction costs of the project as well as an additional $5 million to support programming activities. The Kendeda Fund and Georgia Tech intend for the project to become the first Living Building Challenge 3.0-certified facility of its size and function in the Southeast.

The Living Building Challenge is a program, advocacy tool and philosophy that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability possible in the current built environment. Meeting the challenge requires close adherence to some of the most stringent building performance standards in the world. To be certified under the program, a building must meet all the program requirements over a full 12-month period of continued operations and full occupancy. 

“We could not imagine a better partner than Georgia Tech to join us in pursuing the Living Building Challenge,” said Barry Berlin, a long time advisor to The Kendeda Fund who oversees its investments and Atlanta-area philanthropy. “This project builds on nearly two decades of work by The Kendeda Fund to advance sustainability throughout Atlanta’s built environment. We look forward to helping an entire region learn what’s possible as we embrace the most rigorous building performance standards in the world.”

Pending final approval by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and reaching defined milestones, the goal is to begin construction in 2017 with occupancy targeted for late 2018 and building certification planned for 2020.

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About The Kendeda Fund

The Kendeda Fund is one of the leading philanthropic investors in civic and environmental programs in the Atlanta area, and is committed to providing solutions to social and ecological challenges at the local and national levels. The Fund accomplishes its mission by advancing green building design, community-design and public interest architecture; championing community wealth building and sustainability strategies; and leveraging innovation of cities to advance equity and sustainability. Previously, The Kendeda Fund provided $300,000 in funding for Georgia Tech’s Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business. Learn more at www.kendedafund.org.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, is one of the nation’s leading research universities, providing a focused, technologically based education to more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Georgia Tech has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked in the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry, and business.