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Union Rural
Electric
| URE’s Office
Renovation and Expansion received recognition from the US Environmental
Protection Agency in the 2007 Energy Star Challenge for Architects
and received the “Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR”
rating. The award was received at the American Institute of
Architects 2007 National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. |
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| The comprehensive
project involves a 9,300 sf renovation and an 18,755 sf addition,
which preserves the existing structure, walls and roof. The
addition has three wings attached to the existing structure.
The renovation and addition features new offices and a lobby,
a multi-purpose meeting room, Board room, linemen’s training
room, locker rooms, employee break room, SCADA (Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition) area and IT server room. |
| The facility incorporates
a plethora of energy saving features including natural lighting
with integrated automatically dimmable artificial lighting,
and a raised floor HVAC plenum installation served by a geothermal
system with full digital controls. The facility has received
the “Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR” rating, the
first of its kind for electric cooperative facilities; and a
LEED® Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council,
also the first of its kind for electric cooperative facilities
in the United States. This energy-efficient building will rank
in the top 6% of all U.S. buildings, reducing energy use by
54% over that of the average energy code compliant office building. |
Union Rural
Electric Office Renovation & Expansion
* Energy Use Intensity (EUI) = 95.8 kBtu/sf/yr
* Percent CO2 reduction = 54%
* ENERGY STAR design rating = 95
Savings Statistics (compared to an average building
EPA rating of 50)
* Energy savings = 3,205,626 kBtu
* CO2 savings = 620,700 lbs CO2 |
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Environmentally
sensitive improvements include an innovative storm water management
approach utilizing pervious concrete pavement, bio-retention
swales, grass-pave service drive and overflow parking, rain
gardens with native plants, and some roof water capture and
re-use. The rain gardens have been strategically placed to
control storm water runoff quality and quantity from impervious
surfaces such as the roof and patio areas. Similar to a rain
garden, a bio-retention swale contains plants that utilize
significantly more storm water runoff than lawn. A bio-retention
swale has been placed along the center island of the parking
lot, accepting all storm water runoff from the lot. Any storm
water runoff not utilized by the plants is infiltrated through
the porous media beneath the top layer of the swale for further
water quality treatment before it is captured in underdrain
that outlets it from the parking lot.
The building is constructed of low-emitting non-toxic materials.
There is also extensive use of recycled materials and a great
reduction in the contribution of ozone-depleting chemicals.
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