Green

Artist's rendering of Socorro Independent School District K-8 Combo School Number 5, which will be complete in the summer of 2013

A $35 million elementary/middle school construction project in El Paso is Sundt’s latest endeavor in Texas, an area in which we have established a strong presence over the past few years. The Socorro Independent School District K-8 Combo School Number 5 will accommodate 2,200 students on a 36-acre campus when it is complete in the summer of 2013. It is aiming for LEED Gold certification.

The project includes:

• A 237,000-square-foot classroom and administration building constructed of tilt-up concrete walls with a structural steel roof.
• A football field with a full running track, plus fields for baseball and softball, and approximately eight basketball courts and a dozen tennis courts.
• Library, auditorium, offices, classrooms equipped with Wi-Fi and smart boards, a full commercial kitchen and state-of-the-art science labs.
• A high-efficiency HVAC system.
• Gymnasium floors made of “ply-boo,” a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional wood flooring.
• Several rainwater retention basins and a 10,000-gallon water harvesting tank – to keep most storm water from leaving the site.

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The newly expanded Cal Poly Recreation Center is used by more than 5,000 people per day.

There’s no excuse for being a couch potato at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, now that Sundt has completed a $51 million project that updated and expanded its student recreation center. Students and university employees now have a number of new fitness features to enjoy, including six racquet ball courts, two basketball courts, a multipurpose athletic court, 19,000-square-foot leisure pool, 1/8-mile indoor track, three sand volleyball courts, lobby and workout rooms.

They can also feel good about the rec center’s sustainable features. The project is pending LEED Silver certification thanks in large part to an innovative HVAC system that makes use of both evaporative cooling and chilled/heated water to regulate indoor air temperatures. The system will save a considerable amount of energy over the lifetime of the building.

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The expanded recreation center at the University of Arizona is the first LEED Platinum building on campus.

Earth Day is a great time to celebrate how the construction industry is contributing to the green movement. Sustainability and green building have stepped into the mainstream in both the public and private sectors, and even with the U.S. military. Sundt is proud to be at the forefront of this effort. We have a proven track record of helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals in order to get the buildings they want with the environmentally friendly features we all need.  

Green construction benefits the owners, the building’s future occupants, and, of course, the environment. It looks far beyond reducing energy use and improving air quality. Green construction takes a “big picture” approach, focusing on the interrelationship of the various building systems – plumbing and HVAC, electrical, structure, exterior building envelope construction, and interior finishes – rather than considering each one independently.

Sundt has aided the sustainability efforts of many of our clients by constructing green facilities and sharing lessons learned. In several cases, we’ve exceeded clients’ sustainability goals by proposing and implementing creative strategies to improve the performance of their buildings. Below are a few recent projects that exceeded initial LEED certification goals:

• Arizona Game & Fish Headquarters – Silver to Platinum
• University of Arizona Recreation Center Expansion – Silver to Platinum
• Dial Corporate Headquarters and Research & Development Facility – certified to Silver

There’s still a long way to go toward securing our planet’s future, but there’s also a lot to celebrate. Happy Earth Day!

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Fort Hood Warrior in Transition Barracks

Sustainable building isn’t just for the private sector. More and more federal construction projects are now requiring third party sustainable certifications on new building projects. The new Warrior in Transition (WT) Barracks at Fort Hood, Texas is one of them. The Fort Hood WT incorporates a number of sustainable features, which will help it achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

The facility has public transportation access and features special parking for low-emitting/fuel-efficient vehicles. Inside, the nearly 193,000-square-foot, five-story building utilizes an energy efficient HVAC system and Energy Star equipment to reduce energy usage by 30 percent or more.

Other sustainable features include on-site renewable energy, a cool roof, and native and draught tolerant landscaping, which will reduce irrigation needs.

During construction over 75 percent of all construction waste was recycled and diverted from local landfills.

When complete later this month, the Fort Hood WT Barracks will house 320 personnel in shared living modules consisting of separate bedrooms with shared bath and kitchen areas.

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In 2011, the Sundt Foundation collected nearly 150,000 water bottles and delivered them to several Phoenix-area agencies that aid the homeless.

As temperatures rise, employees from Sundt’s corporate headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., are once again gearing up to participate in the annual Thirst Aid water bottle drive to benefit St. Joseph the Worker, a nonprofit organization that aids the homeless and other disadvantaged individuals throughout the Phoenix area. Many of them suffer from thirst, heat-related illness and even death when temperatures soar in the spring and summer months. 

The Sundt Foundation organized the company’s first Thirst Aid event in 2010 with the hope of collecting 1,200 water bottles. They crushed their goal by collecting 49,000 bottles, and that number tripled the following year when 149,000 bottles came through our doors – so many that St. Joseph the Worker was able to supply the entire Human Services Campus with water. (The Human Services Campus is a collaboration of 15 homeless service providers that was created to address the growing demand for services by people experiencing homelessness.) As a result, the agencies didn’t have to turn away a single person that year who needed water. 

The goal for this year’s drive? Collecting 150,000 water bottles and continuing the commitment to making the event as green as possible. How? St. Joseph the Worker is installing recycling containers at all areas where trash receptacles are currently located so that the water bottles aren’t thrown away.

“As Sundt employees, we’re fortunate to have nice jobs in comfortable offices where we always have access to clean, cool water,” says Lisa White, a Foundation board member and organizer of the event. “Not everyone is so lucky, which is why the Sundt Foundation decided to get involved in Thirst Aid with our own water bottle drive. Since then, the participation and support have been tremendous. Many of our subcontractors have also gotten involved. It’s so satisfying to reach out and do what we can to help others – for them and for us.”

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Artist's rendering of the new science and technology buildings at Santa Monica High School

Sundt has extensive experience building K-12 education projects … and so do a number of other contractors. But time and time again, what distinguishes Sundt from the competition is our proven ability to understand each client’s unique needs and exceed their expectations for quality, professionalism, and collaboration. 

Sundt was recently awarded a $55 million project at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, Calif., for just those reasons. Our experience was a major factor in our selection, but what sealed the deal were our ideas for accommodating the needs of both the school district and the city, all while keeping neighborhood residents, parents and students satisfied in this engaged community. The team also devised and proposed a way to shorten the project’s schedule by an entire semester, in plenty of time for the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.

Our lease-leaseback contract includes construction of new science and technology buildings complete with laboratories equipped with fume hoods, classrooms, an auto shop, and administrative space. Once the buildings are complete, crews will demolish the school’s old, outdated science and technology buildings and perform extensive site improvements that include parking lot reconfigurations and construction of a new softball field.

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Construction is underway on SDSU's new 200,000-square-foot Aztec Student Union. Its mission style design matches the historic architecture of nearby buildings.

Contemporary design, or traditional? That’s one of the big questions faced by colleges and universities when they’re planning new building projects on campus. Many opt for a historic look that’s only skin deep: the exterior finishes on the new structure mimic the surrounding architecture, but that’s where the similarities end. 

Officials at San Diego State University and the project architect, Cannon Design, decided to go one step further in their pursuit of historical accuracy when planning the school’s new 200,000-square-foot Aztec Student Union. In order to give the four-story building a true mission style design, the structure won’t just have gently curving walls and a white-washed finish. It’s also being built without any control or drift joints in the plaster system – just like the nearby historic buildings that inspired its appearance. 

That decision, while ensuring a more authentic-looking end product, has created a number of challenges for Sundt, which began the university construction project last June under a $70 million Construction Manager at Risk contract.

“Eliminating the joints increases the risk of cracking on the plaster exterior,” explained Project Manager Jamie Frye. “In order to combat that, we’ve reinforced the building, added fiber-mesh to the plaster mix and extended the cure time for the brown coat. We’ve also added a waterproof membrane beneath the plaster in addition to the standard lath paper to eliminate water from entering the building through cracks in the plaster.”

The team’s modern approach to this historical design challenge also includes getting creative with construction sequencing. Under ordinary circumstances, the roof would be completed before work could begin on interior finishes, but extending the plaster cure time has changed that.

“We can’t afford to wait for the plaster to fully cure before putting the roof on; we’ll simply lose too much time that way,” Jamie continued. “Instead, we decided to put the roof membrane on first and then put a temporary protection roof over it. This way we can give the plaster the time it needs to cure and still get started on the interior – without delaying the project.”

Students, faculty and staff will be enjoying their brand new LEED Platinum building – a thoroughly modern facility with the look and charm of the older structures on campus – when classes begin in the fall of 2013.

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Outdoor spaces at Tercero - Phase 3 will encourage socializing, community-building, and fun.

Remember when dorm living was something you simply hoped to survive, much less enjoy? The University of California, Davis will be lucky if students ever want to leave its new Tercero Student Housing project, the third phase of which will be built by Sundt beginning this summer.

Our $71 million, design-build contract consists of constructing seven, four-story buildings that surround a unique courtyard in a village-style configuration that provides multiple opportunities for residents to socialize and develop community. Bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly pathways will be woven throughout a diverse landscape of existing mature trees and native plants.

When Tercero – Phase 3 is complete in June 2014, its 1,200 residents will enjoy an environmentally and socially responsible community that’s integrated into its surroundings, where the architecture and landscape help create a strong social fabric and create extraordinary spaces for students to develop a sense of belonging, connection, friendship and fun.

They’ll also know that they’re helping create a greener future, thanks to a sustainable and performance-based design philosophy that should put the project well within reach of LEED Platinum certification.  In fact, Tercero – Phase 3 is designed to help fulfill the campus’s sustainability goals, one of which is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2014.

Student housing that’s fun, attractive, and good for the environment? It’s almost enough to make you want to go back to college…

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DeAnza's Mediated Learning Center has a buoyancy-driven circulation system that relies on physical science, forces of nature and the heat generated by building occupants and electronics.

The Mediated Learning Center at DeAnza College in Cupertino, Calif., is an exciting project for those who will occupy it as well as those who are designing and building it. When it’s complete this spring, the $35 million facility – which is targeting LEED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council – will boast an innovative buoyancy-driven air circulation system that’s unusual even among “green” projects.

Instead of relying on a forced-air system to route air throughout the 66,900-square-foot building, the buoyancy-driven system relies on physical science, forces of nature and the heat generated by building occupants and electronics. It’s designed to ventilate more than 80 percent of the building without fan power and produce indoor air quality by supplying 100 percent outside air through six hourly air changes.

Here’s how it works: The system draws in outside air through tower-shaped intakes on the rooftop. As the air passes over cooling coils and the temperature decreases, it descends through the shafts into the under-floor air chambers serving the first and second floor. Heating coils warm the air as needed to meet occupant-preferred temperature settings and then supplies it through floor-based vents as part of the building’s energy-efficient under-floor air distribution system. As people and equipment warm the air throughout the day, the air and indoor air pollutants rise to ceiling exhaust shafts and move to the atrium. Sandwiched between classrooms and offices, the atrium – topped with a fritted, high-performance glass skylight – releases air to the outdoors through its clerestory louvers.

Not surprisingly, this system’s implementation requires a sophisticated level of coordination and commissioning throughout construction. Sundt and other members of the project team meet regularly to review how the system is being implemented and develop methods to track circulation and measure output.

Helping take green projects to a whole new level…now that’s a breath of fresh air.

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The Richard E. Arnason Justice Center is the first new California courthouse to earn LEED Silver certification.

Another recently completed Sundt project has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council for its contribution to the sustainability movement. The $42.3 million Richard E. Arnason Justice Center in Pittsburg, Calif., has earned LEED Silver certification, putting it into an elite category of civic buildings that serve the public good while reducing their impact on the environment. It is the first new California courthouse to earn LEED Silver certification.

The three-story, 73,500-square-foot courthouse gained LEED points for its high-efficiency mechanical systems, extensive use of local and recycled materials, and the incorporation of natural light and ventilation. To help save on energy usage and costs, motion sensors control the building’s lights, turning them off whenever a room is unoccupied, while the HVAC system lessens its environmental impact through the use of a chemical-free water treatment system. One of the most unusual features is the jury assembly room, which is covered by a 2,900-square-foot “green roof” planted with a variety of native grasses, reducing heat load and conserving water.

The building includes seven courtrooms, judges’ chambers, administrative space, conference rooms, a library, and in-custody detention areas, plus state-of-the-art systems for security, access control and video surveillance.

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