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Location
10204 S. Central Park Map
Owner
St. Xavier University
Architect
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Rubloff Hall is a new 5-story, 37,000 sf residence hall on the campus of St. Xavier University seeking LEED Silver certification. The 26 unit, 87 bed building is opening to students this month and is the third of a series of similar dormitories recently completed, but the only one built as a green building. The dorms form a new quadrangle on campus and accommodate a growing demand for student housing. In addition to the residential units there are some office and event spaces.
The building includes a small green roof (13% of roof area) and the standard mix of preferred materials and construction techniques. The project diverted over 90% of construction waste from the landfill - this extremely high acheivement level is often seen on Chicago projects. Bike storage is accomplished with closet hooks in the residential units which is a fairly unusual, but obviously low-cost, approach.
The Saint Xavier campus collects rainwater in a central pond for all irrigation. This is a great, extremely simple example of how the greatest sustainability benefit may result from considering a scale other than a single building. Unfortunately, evaluation of some LEED credits can also become vague when strategies are applied at the campus or neighborhood scale. In Chicago this usually becomes a problem when stormwater management is handled across an entire development. Some LEED users seek a broader approach that tackles these issues; if you're among them, start advocating now for a solution in LEED 3.0.
This project also uses a more sophisticated mechanical system than might be expected in a dormitory, including delivery of highly filtered, dehumidified, room-temperature outdoor air directly to each residential unit. Energy use is expected to be 26% less than an minimally code-compliant building. Common areas use sidewall displacement ventilation, and to my knowledge this is the first building in Illinois to use this system on any scale. The system is nearly identical to one I developed for Chicago Public Schools and authored this paper on. The CPS system remains planned but unbuilt, so I applaud MEP engineer ESD for charging ahead and applying the system to this project. If anyone has tried to convince you that the Chicago Center for Green Technology has displacement ventilation, give me a shout and we can review why it doesn't.
Other project team members include structural engineer CS Associates, civil engineer Terra Engineering, and general contractor Henry Brothers.
Erik:
Thank you for bringing the displacement ventilation concept to our Chicago schools. It my pleasure to design and implement your vison.
Michael McDermott
Environmental System Design
Posted by: Mike McDermott | August 14, 2006 at 09:43 AM