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Projects

Heller School for Social Policy and Management
The Irving Schneider and Family Building
 
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Sustainable Design and the Irving Schneider and Family Building

College campuses have inherent sustainable qualities.  Students live near classrooms and social activities, personal automobile use is lower than in the general population, energy consumption is considered from an area-wide perspective, mass transit and recycling are encouraged, and organized growth and master planning are carefully considered.  Because of these qualities, colleges and universities have emerged as leaders in the implementation of sustainable design.  In his 1995 inaugural address, President Jehuda Reinharz identified four pillars on which the clear and unambiguous identity of Brandeis rests.  Among these is a commitment to social action.  Brandeis University views its commitment to sustainable design as fundamentally linked to this larger commitment to social action, a natural and necessary extension in a world of shared and limited resources.

The Irving Schneider and Family Building, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University

The approach to sustainability at The Irving Schneider and Family Building is comprehensive in nature. The task was approached holistically, based on an understanding of the complex relationships between project goals, materials, design, planning, energy use, and the natural environment.

Architectural Design and Configuration

Campus Planning

The building was located to create a new face to existing, underutilized but beautiful campus wetlands, creating a real as well as a symbolic connection to the natural environment. The new building is designed with the Rhonda S. and Michael J. Zinner Forum, a three-story atrium that integrates the new Irving Schneider and Family Building with the existing Heller-Brown Building. The Zinner Forum provides a central focus for both buildings, integrating the new and the old into a new whole. This creates a new life for an existing building. 

Adaptability                                                     

The rooms are sized and arranged to be highly adaptable over time, allowing the Irving Schneider and Family Building to accommodate anticipated and unanticipated future needs. The offices are “right sized” to function as comfortable single offices, adequate double offices or small conference rooms. The offices are organized around open administrative areas (rather than defined by boundaries), allowing research or academic groups to expand and contract as their needs change.

The Irving Schneider and Family Building offers circulation choices and many connections between floors, again allowing communities within the building to be re-defined as needs evolve. This is reinforced by the connecting vertical spaces at the atrium, the stairs, and the central circulation zone.

Daylight and views

Large windows provide views, fresh air, and natural light to the occupants. Skylights and double-height spaces deliver natural light to the center of the building. This contributes to a healthy working environment and reduces the need for artificial light and the associated heat gain and energy consumption.

Materials

Materials were selected for their durability, renewability and low toxicity. These include a brick exterior, bamboo flooring, green label carpet, low VOC paints and non-fired stone tile. The majority of the structural steel in the building is recycled material and construction debris is collected and sorted off site into recyclable components.

Site: Drainage

The site of the new Irving Schneider and Family Building was previously an impermeable, asphalt parking lot. The new building has a smaller footprint than the former parking lot, creating additional permeable surface and reducing run-off. The run-off that remains is captured in newly installed storm water re-charging basins that hold water and release it back to the ground gradually.

A new landscaped buffer was created between the wetlands and the library access road. This bioswale captures previously untreated road run-off and cleans the water prior to it flowing into the wetlands.

Site: Landscape

The new landscape utilizes over twenty native plant species, and more than fifty new canopy trees have been planted, without use of water for irrigation. A portion of the landscaped open space is designed as a “rough” lawn that can endure a range of weather conditions.

Energy

Energy consumption has been minimized by reducing demand and creating efficient mechanical systems. Several steps have been taken:

Energy loads are reduced through use of daylight, efficient envelope design including windows and walls, a reflective white roof, natural ventilation, demand-controlled ventilation, variable speed drives on mechanical equipment and control of artificial light. The building and fenestrations are placed to take advantage of southern exposure and deciduous trees, shading the summer sun and capturing the winter sun.

The energy system is optimized through use of an “enthalpy wheel.” This device, involving significant investments in money and space, is central to the heart of the mechanical system and efficiently captures and re-uses heated and cooled air to maximum benefit, to minimize energy consumption.

The building utilizes the University’s central plant as an existing and economical source of steam for building heat, while at the same time employing an efficient central cooling system for both the Irving Schneider and Family Building and the Heller-Brown building thus returning cooling capacity from Heller-Brown to the University system.