July 24, 2004 — San José Mercury News Green Retreat: New facility to
feature recycled, innovative building materials High in the hills above Los Gatos, a center for retreats run by an order of nuns is pushing environmentally friendly architecture to its edge as it builds a new "green model" dining complex and Welcoming Center in the redwoods. The 12,000 square foot facility that the Presentation Center is building on Bear Creek Road not only uses recycled materials, but innovative elements such as compacted straw for walls, recycled newspaper for roof insulation and a roof planted with greenery to prevent runoff and keep the building cool. The hall and center, when finished will be one of the most ambitious structures using the green-building concept in California. "It's the most challenging one I've ever worked on because it's not just using one or two green features but combining a number of them," said Berkeley architect Dan Smith, who designed the project and has been doing green buildings for more than a decade. "It's an excellent model for how efficient buildings can be." Going green adds about 10 to 15 percent to construction costs. But over time, it will yield savings through lower energy and water bills and healthier workers who are exposed to more natural light and less use of toxic paints and adhesives. "We decided that it's completely worth it," said Sister Patricia Marie Mulpeters, director of the Presentation Center. "We have a gift up here among nature, and we wee building this project this way as our commitment to sustaining the Earth. We're not going green just to go green. We look at it as a requisite for living in a place like this." The new green facility will act as a "teaching building," said Mulpeters, "where people can learn about our environment here and how to appreciate the larger environment around us." When finished, it will look like a conventional building, but its structure will be anything but. In about six weeks, tightly compacted straw bales, which are non-combustible, will be delivered to the mountain retreat and will become walls for the building. When the roof goes up, native succulents will be planted on it to keep in heat during the winter and cool air in the summer. Special non-toxic paints also will be used throughout, as well as recycled glass, tile and plastics in showers and bathrooms. Furniture will be made of recycled materials. Solar thermal heating will be collected though roof panels so the structure won't require conventional heating or air conditioning. Solar collectors also will transform the sun's heat into electricity. Green building is not new, but it's still not all that common. The Presentation Center project is one of the few in the United States that is going all-out in executing green building according to standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. The non-profit council, based in Washington, D.C. has created a voluntary rating system, which is quickly becoming the standard used to certify environmentally sustainable architecture across the country. The Presentation Center will earn the Green Building Council's "gold" rating, which means the building is considered one of the country's top examples of green building. A handful of cities across the country, including San Jose, are requiring that all new government buildings larger than 10,000 square feet adhere to Green Building Council standards for environmentally friendly structures. San Jose's first green-certified building -- the West Valley branch of the San Jose Public Library -- opened in 2003. Mulpeters said several trees that toppled in a winter storm twoyears ago are being milled into lumber, which is being used in the construction. Design plans also include eliminating a central parking lot and placing visitor cars on the perimeter of the property. Bicycles and a golf carts will be encouraged. A recharging station for electric and hybrid cards will be built. An organic garden and compost system is planned that will be run by the University of California Agricultural Center's master gardeners program to grow food for the center and its guests, and to convert food waste to soil. The non-profit Presentation Center, run by the Sisters of the Presentation based in San Francisco, hosts a range of groups for retreats and conferences at its rustic 67-acre campus, from religious groups to arts and law-enforcement associations to inner-city school children and charter schools. The campus was built as a private school for boys in 1910. It closed in 1955, and from 1957 to 1970 it was a novitiate for nuns run by the Sisters of the Presentation. It has been run as a conference center since 1970 with the ability to host up to 150 people for overnight retreats and day programs. The new dining hall and Welcoming Center will be able to host 200 people.
|
When
completed, the $6 million structure will use 40 to 50 percent less
energy and at least 30 percent less water than non-green structures
its size.
So
far, only framing is up on the Presentation Center's new complex as
construction crews work toward a November completion date. The
building is oriented toward the south for best utilization of the sun
for heating and light.