Environmental Campus for EPA

Rittenhouse, Tod; ,

Environmental Campus for EPA

by Tod Rittenhouse, Weidlinger Associates, Inc., Consulting Engineers, 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10001.,

Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1994, Vol. 64, Issue 10, Pg. 54-57

Document Type: Feature article

Abstract:

Green design, fiscal responsibility and a new Corps of Engineers value engineering program come together in EPA's $240 million new central research campus to be built in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. Some 1.7 million sq ft are spread through 14 buildings that are oriented to the site's natural views. Green solutions range from using wildflowers rather than high-maintenance grass along the roadways to controlling sources of indoor air pollution through selection of materials and furnishings. Central atriums bring daylight into most buildings, and all glazing (and other exterior materials) was chosen to conserve energy. Lab and office spaces for researchers are paired on either side of the Administration Building, two parking garages hold 750 cars each, and a high-bay lab is at one end of the main complex. The national Computer Center and a Child Care Center are also on the campus. Joining the concrete lab structures and the steel-framed offices was a structural engineering design challenge, as expansion joints were to be unobtrusive. The project came under the federal government's new review program OVEST, the Office (Chief of Engineers) Value Engineering Study Team, and ARMs, the new Automated Review Management System, also developed by the Corps.

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