My final stop on this Texas tour was the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT). This impressive structure was just opened to the public on May 21st of this year. It was the 2nd LEED Platinum building in the county and only the 8th ion the entire state. 97% of the previous building that stood on the BRIT site was recycled into other building products. Although, it houses plant specimens that were collected as far back as the 1800’s. The BRIT started 24 years ago with a small group of people that were interested in collecting and maintaining a herbarium on the Fort Worth area. They currently have over one million specimens in the collection, with more being added each week.
The main lobby of the BRIT is quite impressive. At the far end is a floor-to-ceiling wall of windows that looks out onto a great green space. This area is what the BRIT referred to as their “pocket prairie.” This area was originally part of the footprint of the previous health administration building. They have taken steps to take out all of the existing concrete and asphalt and replaced it with a layer of new, good soil and came in and planted a large variety of native plant species. These native grasses and other plants have been allowed to grow unhindered. The BRIT is hoping that as the years pass their “pocket” will become more and more like the prairie that was here before land development in the area started. The lobby also showcases an entire wall of reclaimed “sinker cypress.” These trees were harvested almost one hundred years ago or more. They were transported by water from the areas where they were cut and along the way some of them sank or were waylaid in one way or another from reaching the mill. They were then covered with silt and mud for a hundred years.
During these years the logs were penetrated by the minerals and alloys found in the river bottom. The anaerobic conditions of the river bottom deprive the wood of oxygen, and thus prevent the wood from rotting as it would in other underwater conditions. This process imparts rare and beautiful patters in the wood that is extremely desirable to woodworkers and carpenters alike. The boards made from these trees produce a sustainable product, as their harvesting clears up river and lake bottoms and gets high quality/ high priced lumber to the mill without having to harvest trees that are of equal value that are still growing and making more trees. Besides, in the USA today, you can’t really find trees to turn into lumber like this anymore as we have already cut them all down.
The list of green and environmentally friendly building materials doesn’t stop with the lobby. This $45 million building was built with 20% recycled materials and rapidly replenished materials wherever possible. Bamboo ceiling tiles were chosen for their rapidly replenished properties, wool carpet was chosen for its low VOC and multiple harvesting aspects. Recycled rubber flooring covers most of the higher traffic areas, and even the concrete walls were poured and erected on-site to lower fuel and transportation costs.
The BRIT also has many intriguing energy savings and generation systems. The rook of one building is a living/green roof that was hand planted with over 40 varieties of native Texas plants. These plants were arranged and raised on the BRIT grounds. Almost 6,000 coconut husk trays were filled with locally harvested soil and planted with the native species. These flats were then allowed to germinate and take root on the BRIT grounds so that they would have a better foot hold by the time they were moved to the roof top. When it was time for the installation the flats were moved by conveyor belt from the ground and placed by hand on the 9 degree sloped roof. This allows the BRIT to lessen their storm water impact while taking advantage of the insulative properties of the grass and soil, raising the R-value of the entire building. The BRIT also makes use of an on-site solar array. This allows them to generate 17% of their power themselves and lessen the amount of electricity that they have to purchase as well as lessen the strain that a building of their size puts on the municipal power load. They system that they have at BRIT is one that I have never seen before.
The panel is not set up in the typical fashion, instead of a solid, flat surface; it is made up of solar collecting rods that stretch across the area of the panel. These rods allow a better aspect to collection ratio than its flat counterpart. Also, if there is any damage to any of the individual tubes (like from Texas hail) the damaged tube can be removed and replaced without destroying the entire panel. The tubular design, when combined with a reflective roof treatment allows the rods to generate power on the underside of the rod from the reflective sunlight striking the roof.
The BRIT also employs a geothermal heat exchange system, which uses the constant temperature below the surface of the earth to heat and cool water that can be circulated throughout the entire building to heat or cool as necessary. The system is made up of over 160 wells drilled into the earth that the water is piped through. This system reduces the heating and cooling requirements of the 70,000 ft BRIT by 50%.
The BRIT also has an extensive water collection and
management system. They have two 5,000 gallon cisterns located in the rear of the building out by the parking lot. These tanks, along with a collection of gutters and underground piping, catch all of the water runoff from both roofs and channel it into one of the two holding tanks to be used to water the landscaping. Even the parking lot is engineered for responsible water management. The lot is separated into parking lanes, which are separated by “leach fields” where water has a chance to temporally collect and drain replenishing the local aquifers and not just rushing into the municipal storm sewer. These fields are flanked my sidewalks that are made out a pervious material that allows water to flow off of the lots surface and sink into the soil, much like the leach field itself. If there is any additional storm water that is not managed by these installations the BRIT have build a water retention pond that stores water for future months when water is not an plentiful.
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