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COLORADO BUILDING GREEN

May 2005

The ofﬁcial newsletter of the U.S. Green Building Council - Colorado Chapter

When the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Court-house opened in October 2002, few people knew it was the culmination of nearly a decade of appropriations, design,and construction work. In fact, the initialcontract for this 10-story landmark wasawarded to the design team of Anderson

laboratory for LEED design and construc-tion, and the very accomplished designteam learned and adjusted as the projectmoved forward. While the whole design team had tobe ﬂexible, the mechanical and electricalengineers faced the added responsibility for much of the building’s energy eﬃ-ciency. Steve Bickmore, P.E., BuildingSystems Division Manager of e RMHGroup commented on the challenges.“When we started down the sustainabledesign path, very few buildings and justa handful of people had been through theprocess. It pretty much felt all new to usto go through the green checklist and theLEED 1.0 worksheet. Add to that, thesustainable goal had to be balanced withother design constraints and priorities.”Design commenced with a micro-pro-gramming and planning phase, requiringclose coordination with the client andparticipation in numerous working con-ferences and reviews. With that work com-plete, the project was iced down during a23-month departmental and Congres-sional review period and funding appro-priation. During this two-year hiatus, theGeneral Services Administration experi-enced near tectonic shifts in two designcriteria – security and green design. e

Project Proﬁle

Alred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse

by Audrey Lengel, The RMH Group

Mason Dale in partnership with Hell-muth, Obata + Kassalbaum in 1994.Over the nearly decade-long design andconstruction period, the courthouse wasadapted to respond to the evolution of sustainable design and the LEED pro-gram. In eﬀect, the project came to be a

Sustainable Design from the Engineer’sPerspective.

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distributed to the entire design for review,and every item was evaluated and runthrough a cost/payback model.e design that emerged from these ideas was tempered to create a sustainable, yetexecutable, solution. From an engineer’sperspective, a number of the ideas were inconﬂict with each other or with the limita-tions of the site and urban environment.Code restrictions and stringent security

Project Data

Project Name Alfred A. Arraj U.S. CourthouseProject Type Justice centerProject Location 901 19th Street, Denver, ColoradoConstruction Completion Date October 2002Project Size 10-story structure fronted by two-story special proceedings pavilion, totaling 321,000 sf Project Cost $82 millionOwner General Services Administration – Rocky Mountain Region PublicBuilding ServiceKey ParticipantsPublic agencies: General Services AdministrationUnited States District Court of ColoradoUnited States Marshals ServiceArchitect/Designer: Anderson Mason Dale ArchitectsHellmuth, Obata + Kassalbaum, Inc.Design Consultants: The RMH Group, Inc. - Mechanical and Electrical Engineering; Lighting and Telecommunications DesignArchitectural Energy Corporation - Sustainability Consulting, EnergyModeling, and Daylighting DesignCivitas, Inc. - Landscape ArchitectureMartin/Martin, Inc. - Civil/Structural Engineering E-Cube, Inc. - Commissioning General Contractor: PCL Construction Services, Inc.

bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah FederalBuilding in Oklahoma City heightenedawareness of security shortcomings in Fed-eral properties throughout the U.S. It alsoexpedited funding for Denver’s new court-house, spurred on by the city’s prominenceas a regional Federal justice center.It was also in the mid-1990s that the Gen-eral Services Administration took noticeof the growing green design movement. With new performance criteria retrofittedinto the program for the Arraj Courthouse,one of the first tasks as the project resumed was the convening of what was dubbeda Green Building Panel to assess greenbuilding design opportunities. is panelcomprised many of the nation’s leaders insustainable design, including the chair of the still-young USGBC. While the LEEDprotocol was not yet in place, the GreenBuilding Panel evaluated options by brain-storming through different performancecategories, much along the same lines asLEED. ese were:+ Site and Transportation+ Energy – Building Design+ Energy – Electricity + Energy – Heating, Cooling, andVentilation+ Materials+ Indoor Air Quality + Water Utilization+ Occupant Productivity + Facility Operations+ Constructione GSA designated the courthouse would be a showcase for sustainable designand directed the design team to use “thelatest available proven technologies forenvironmentally sensitive design, con-struction, and operation.” In response,the Green Building Panel’s issued a reportproposing an ambitious and all-encom-passing palette of options. e report wasrequirements made other less attractive.e greatest challenge for the mechanicaland electrical engineers was the building’sless than ideal orientation. RMH’s light-ing designer Mark Rudiger, LEED AP,observed, “e building’s orientation wasone of the biggest challenges to the proj-ect. We were locked into a city block. Add to that, part of the footprint had tobe left to accommodate a future wing, fur-

Project Proﬁle

Alred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse

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ther constraining the building on the siteand its layout.”e stringent security requirements posedanother problem. According to Bickmore,“e sustainable design had to work hand-in-hand with the security requirements, which, like the green criteria, were a wholenew set of parameters for the team to work through. Both sets of criteria were com-peting for dollars on the project.”To achieve an efficient design, the teamapplied a two-pronged strategy to firstreduce energy loads and to then meet thereduced loads through high-efficiency systems and renewable energy sources. Among the high-efficiency systems areunderfloor displacement ventilation andevaporative cooling. e courthouserepresents a very large-scale applicationof both technologies. e displacementventilation system uses a raised accessfloor to deliver low-velocity air at floorlevel, efficiently conditioning the spaceand removing air pollutants. In combina-tion with all the other HVAC subsystems,the mechanical equipment placed a heavy demand on space throughout the build-ing. ough not ideal, the supply for thecourtroom displacement ventilation hadto be combined with the VAV supply tosave space. Best operation was obtainedthrough dogged commissioning by E-Cube. Paul Watters, RMH’s mechanicalconstruction engineer, noted, “We were alllearning. ere simply wasn’t room for aseparate supply, so we had to compromise.E-Cube did a great job in getting it all to work.”RMH was also charged with lightingdesign, as well as integration with Archi-tectural Energy Corporation’s daylightingdesign through the building automationsystem. Daylighting is used extensively toprovide the required ambient light levels within the judges’ chambers, perimeteroffice spaces, and the public corridors on

Sustainable Features - MEP

• The building is LEED registered and designed to achieve LEED Gold rating. The certifi-cation process may move forward this year.• The displacement ventilation system utilizes a raised access floor to deliver low-velocityair at floor level, efficiently conditioning the space and removing air pollutants.• Cooling and humidification loads are served by an indirect/direct evaporative cooling system supplemented by Xcel’s downtown district chilled water.• Different areas are lit by a combination of T-5 fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescents,and metal halide downlights. Photocell controls and electronic fluorescent dimming bal-lasts integrate the electric lights with abundant daylighting.• Supply air volumes are adjusted according to the needs of different zones. All fans andpumps are fitted with variable-speed drives to reduce energy consumption during part-load operation.• Low water-consuming lavatory faucets and water closets are installed throughout thebuilding to minimize water use.• A high-performance curtain wall on the court tower controls solar heat gain, visible light,and heat loss. Low-emissivity glazing delivers natural light while minimizing glare andHVAC loads.• Roof-mounted photovoltaic panels produce electricity during sunlight hours, reducing peak electricity requirements.• Daylighting is applied for both energy efficiency and architectural effect. Perimeterlight shelves diffuse daylight onto the ceiling plane and adjacent architectural surfaces.Clerestory windows in the special proceedings pavilion illuminate the entry rotunda andbacklight the ceiling in the courtroom.

Project Proﬁle

Alred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse

Continued