Green Concepts in the Construction of a New Home

Trish, a landscape architect at Design Concepts, has recently built a new house with her husband. They have implemented many green concepts, including the following.

• Deconstruction: Much of the material from the previous structure was donated to Resource2000 of Boulder, sold, or reused/recycled in some way--including in the new home!
• Building Envelope: The exterior walls of the house are constructed with structural insulated panels (SIPs). These are made by sandwiching a layer of expanded polystyrene (EPS or styrofoam) between two layers of 1/2" oriented strand board (OSB) (see photo below). The architectural drawings were provided to the SIP manufacturer, and the panels arrived pre-cut. The construction process was therefore assembly rather than framing (see second photo below). When done correctly, this type of construction allows very little air leakage from the outside. It is much tigher than batt insulations. The walls contain 6" of EPS, and the roof 12".

• Indoor Air Quality: Because the house is constructed so tightly, a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) was installed. This unit brings in fresh air from the outside and exhausts stale air from the inside. It contains a heat exchanger that transfers up to 80% of the heat from the warm exhaust air to the cool supply air.
• In-Floor Radiant Heat: Heat is provided to the living space via tubing snaked beneath the wood floors (see photo below). This tubing is filled with water, and when a room calls for heat water begins to flow through the system where it is heated either by an Energy Star gas-fired, condensing boiler or the solar thermal system (see mechanical room photo below). Condensing boilers are more efficient than standard boilers because they use the hot exhaust gases to pre-heat incoming water.

• Material Reuse: The deck of the front porch is made from floor boards recovered from the previous structure. The original bath tub and several other fixtures were reused as well.

Trish and her husband's highest utility bill this winter was $35--now that's green!

The Environmental Impact of Drainage in Urban/Suburban Colorado Areas

Historically

When Denver first built unpaved streets, yards, and homes during initial development there was little thought given to drainage, flood, or water quality. The newly built environment created a muddy condition that was generally unacceptable to the people who lived in it. In the early 1900s the solution was to pave the streets and include curbs and gutters, which helped to quickly drain the environment and provide an all-weather solution for transportation. It was wonderful. The paved street flowed into enclosed, underground pipes which flowed into existing channels. When both of these options were at full capacity the final option was to pave pre-existing creeks and drain runoff that way. This was a solution that was viable and successful. It totally worked. The original problem was solved.

Unintended Consequences

When Denver held a population of 200,000 the paved drainage solution was perfect. When Denver's population grew to 2,000,000 the solution became overwhelming and dangerous. A flume of highly polluted runoff traveling at high velocities had been created. Today, street runoff is 200 times more polluted than raw sewage. At every level of the drainage sequence, expensive and maintenance-intensive mechanical solutions are now employed to try to cleanse the water and moderate the downstream flood danger.

There May Be A Better Way

Balancing infiltration galleries of never-graded soil profiles with paved densities proves a viable solution. Spreading and slowing the flow from the very first point of runoff using shallow, vegetated conveyance to replace paved curbs and gutters where possible is another (see photo above and below). Creating connected open space with shallow, spreading flow characteristics and using available open space with wetlands and retention ponds to cleanse water is yet a third. Engineering solutions can define the actual permeability of soil profiles and provide accountability to those aiding in the creation of flood and pollution.

The Payback

The creation of tiered payment system into which drainage entities pay only for the level of additional discharge and/or pollution they produce would provide a system much like those we have for sewer and water now: a pay-as-you-go system...or pay-as-you-pollute, pay-as-you-flood system. This would allow enough cash to become available to build and maintain flood and water cleansing facilities, and would make it possible for people to only be required to pay for that which they impact. Thus a great incentive for agencies, developers, and users to produce the least amount of non-infiltrative surface possible is invented. And a natural slowing of runoff and increase of infiltration, all to save money. Everyone benefits.

We are working diligently with the best minds in administration, engineering, open space, and politics to provide leadership in finding solutions far better than those pioneered in 1900 and somewhat improved in the 1970s. We know that our efforts will create a more affordable, cleaner, safer metropolitan area.

For a recently published book titled Blue-Green Fingerprints (available free online) on the subject of urban drainage, click here for the .pdf.

Posted By Axel Bishop

On the boards: 38th & Kipling Park

We've got a great new project we're working on for the City of Wheatridge. This site has sat empty for a long time and it's finally getting a park. The design is based on the theme of different aspects of the local mountains with a focus on the trees. The design includes a grass multi-use practice field, a small grass bowl amphitheater, a large plaza area with a shelter, splash pad, and a future restroom building, and a nice size aged separated play area based on the forest theme. The older and middle age play areas are themed around tree tops and tree houses and include a climbing wall in the future. The younger kids' area is based around the theme of the forest floor incorporating mushrooms, bugs and grasses. There's an existing ditch on the site which will be used as a natural water play area and possibly a source of irrigation. Our current design is for phases 1 and 2, planned for construction late this year through next year. Phase 3 of the park includes a skate park.

Erie Community Park

The growing town of Erie has been in the process of developing a civic precinct that will encompass a community center, a library, an amphitheater, a softball complex, an array of multi-use grass areas, tennis courts, and solar power-lit sport fields. Design Concepts currently has the opportunity to contribute to this local development by designing much of the outdoor space, including the amphitheater grounds.

In line with our efforts to develop in sustainable ways, this park--located west of I-25 and north of Highway 7--is focusing on using the sun and wind to power the area. The project will also use green building materials for all the outdoor structures. Design Concepts has been a part of the master planning and design and, as with other projects, we have committed to working around themes for Erie City Park: Prairie and Mining. The area is in fact being developed on the site of the old mines that first lead to the population of Erie, and indeed the East Boulder County area.

Currently the Erie Community Center and Library have finished construction and are open to the public.

DC Achieves a LEED-Gold certification

Last week Design Concepts was informed we'd received a LEED-Gold certification on Prairie View Middle School in Brighton. Congratulations go out to Sarah and Carol for this awesome accomplishment! The first public school to achieve LEED-Gold in Colorado was Aspen Middle School, which we also worked on.
Originally the goal had been 35 LEED points for Prairie View, and the thought was that a few points would be lost during the review. However, four points were instead GAINED--with two design points awarded during the review and two additional construction points submited--giving us a total of 39 points, which is certifiable at the Gold level. Every point that we went after was awarded, something the project lead designer/architect Nora informed us never happens.

There are only a few Colorado public schools which have achieved LEED certification, and Design Concepts is proud to have been a part of some of the few that are! We are currently attempting LEED Gold for Casey Middle School in the Boulder Valley School District. For a list of LEED certified projects click here (as of this posting Prairie View is still registered as "Brighton Middle School #3").