GREEN CONSTRUCTION BECOMES LIVING LABORATORY IN WISCONSIN
WHEN CONSTRUCTION begins this summer on Wisconsin’s first building designated Platinum according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, it will be a tribute to the state’s most famous environmentalist.
The building is the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center and, like its namesake, its environmental significance extends from its roots to its roof.
Located near Baraboo, Wis., the Legacy Center is a monument to sustainable design and construction and will be among the first buildings in the nation aiming for Platinum LEED certification.
Aldo Leopold is one of the nation’s most celebrated environmentalists and ecologists best remembered as the author of “A Sand County Almanac” written in his shack outside of Baraboo. The book is one the most respected books about the environment, and his work in Wisconsin defined what Leopold called the land ethic-the relationship humans have with the natural world.
AIMING HIGH When the Aldo Leopold Foundation decided it needed a visitor center, staff members knew they had to satisfy a higher threshold in environmentalism. The Legacy Center is sited on land near where Leopold wrote his book, the land he and his family reclaimed, reforested and reinvigorated.
The building is green from the ground up. Leopold’s mission was to return his 40 acres from worn-out farmland to the natural pines and mixed deciduous tree forest common to Wisconsin. Over the years, he and his children planted tens of thousands of trees and, 70 years later, the forest needed thinning.
In winter 2006, Leopold’s trees were logged to provide structural support for the building that will hold his legacy. The trees were milled on site and will be used as the primary structural skeleton and interior detailing.
Professionals from Oscar J. Boldt Construction, the construction manager, cite the energy system as the most unusual component in the building which uses modeling the Boldt team had never encountered before.
“The architects literally designed the building around the HVAC system, which is a very nontypical design approach,” said Theresa Lehman, Boldt’s LEED consultant.
The building uses a cutting-edge approach to energy management to create a net zero energy building. Eventually, the building will produce all the energy it needs.
These technological advances are rooted in fairly old-fashioned components-the sun and the earth.
The site will use an extensive photovoltaic (solar panel) array, likely to be the largest in Wisconsin. However, instead of heating water, the array will contain silicon semiconductor wafers that will turn sunlight into energy then pass it into an inverter room where the current will be transformed into useable electricity.
The building also calls for a geothermal heat exchanger used in the water-based heating system.
Wells will be drilled deep into the ground, and a closed loop of piping will go in below the frost line. The system will use the earth’s temperature to preheat or cool water before it is used.
“The ground is always about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so in the summer it will be pumped up to the building already cooler than the surrounding air and in the winter, it will already be warmed,” said Gregg Tucek, Boldt project manager.
Earth tubes will also be used to pre-condition air in the building. “Instead of bringing 20-degree air into the building in winter, we’ll bring that same 55-degree air into the building and ultimately reduce heating costs,” Tucek added.
The project is to break ground in June 2006 and is scheduled for completion in early 2007.