Green Design
Three recent projects meld materials, strategies, systems and style to create what exemplifies the best in sustainable design today.
BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON
The Gateway at McDowell
Sonoran Preserve
Scottsdale, Arizona
Philip A. Weddle, AIA
Weddle Gilmore Architects
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL TIMMERMAN AND CHRIS BROWN
 A sweeping roof shades the interpretive plaza and the metal-clad building that houses the restroom and office facilities. Rainwater collects in the roof and pours into the rock-lined trough to the right of the building element.
At the northeastern edge of Scottsdale, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve is a 16,000-acre open space encompassing a portion of the McDowell Mountains and the lush, boulder-strewn foothills of the Sonoran Desert. In years to come, when the city completes the acquisition of land, the preserve will be more than 36,000 acres, approximately one-third the size of Scottsdale’s land mass.
In the meantime, though, hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians, bird-watchers and tourists alike flock to the preserve’s trails, and the city has built a series of environmentally sensitive access points that include parking, restrooms, storage and facilities for preserve staff and volunteers.
The largest--and most central--access point, called the Gateway, was completed in May. Its main feature, a sweeping, rammed earth structure that angles towards the mountains, was designed by architect Phil Weddle and is slated for LEED Platinum Certification.
 Rammed earth for the walls came from the site.
“The Gateway connects to all the trails of the preserve,” explains Weddle, who has done two other desert park projects for Scottsdale and is well known for his sustainable designs. But this project, notes Weddle, was also meant to serve those unwilling or unable to hike into the desert by offering accessible pathways and desert interpretation.
Working with an 8.5-acre site--part of the Gateway’s overall 383-acre parcel, Weddle designed an 8,000-square-foot main structure to include public restrooms, storage, a multi-purpose room for staff and volunteers, office space and a large, shaded interpretive plaza. A smaller, secondary structure serves equestrians and is used to house preserve equipment.
The main building’s angled, butterfly room is supported by a series of thick rammed earth piers and walls, seemingly floating above a smaller, 3,000-foot “cube,” clad in rust-patinaed Cor-Ten steel, which houses the interior spaces. The structure was also detailed with cast-in-place concrete. “We designed the roof to be invisible from the trails above the Gateway,” explains Weddle. “The roof is a steel deck that’s lined with native desert rock we culled from the parking lot construction. The color and texture of the rocks makes it a ‘stealth’ roof when you look at it from above.”
The main building is approached from the parking lot, designed to accommodate some 200 cars and 16 horse trailers. Once within the shaded interpretive plaza, visitors can see a large, three-dimensional model of the preserve and its trails, or view interpretive photographs and information displayed on the side of the steel-clad cube. Beyond the plaza, an angled metal bridge leads to the trails, including an accessible desert loop, and a concrete amphitheater, sunk into the desert, its axis in alignment with a prominent rock outcropping high atop the McDowell Mountains.
 The structure disappears into the desert site, which was carefully preserved during construction.
Weddle worked closely with a team that included landscape architects from JJR/Floor in Phoenix to assure the project’s desired LEED level, detailing everything from building materials to recycling receptacles placed to collect hiker’s plastic water bottles.
“During construction, we emphasized habitat preservation,” says Weddle. “We used chain-link fences to protect native plants and reused all of the trees and cactus salvaged from the site. Our contractors even put back rocks, sticks and natural desert litter to sites cleared for building.”
The rammed earth material came from the site, and the building’s interiors feature large windows and skylights for daylighting. The project’s electricity comes from photovoltaic panels, designed for net zero energy use. Interior spaces are cooled during the summer months by a high-efficiency split mechanical system.
Water resources were a major consideration for the site’s sustainability. Weddle specified dual-flush toilets and waterless urinals for the restrooms. The butterfly roof is designed to channel rainwater to a dramatic metal scupper placed above a rock-lined steel trough at the entrance to the interpretive plaza. The trough drains into a 20,000-gallon cistern used to irrigate the revegetated native plants. “We’ll be collecting water from winter rains and summer monsoon storms to water plants in late spring and fall when it’s dry in the desert,” says Weddle. Additionally, pavement was kept to a minimum on the site, allowing rainwater to permeate into the ground.
Weddle isn’t’ quite done with this platinum-hued project. He’s created a masterplan for the larger site that will someday include what’s being termed a “desert discovery center,” designed to house exhibits and more interpretation about the preserve and the Sonoran Desert. It, too, will likely follow a LEED path.
Architecture: Weddle Gilmore, 6916 E. Fifth Ave., Scottsdale, AZ 85251; (480) 517-5055 or www.weddlegilmore.com.
Landscape architecture: JJR/Floor, 1425 N. First St., Phoenix, AZ 85004; (602) 462-1425 or
www.jjr-floor.com.
Builder: The Construction Zone, 1729 E. Osborn Road, Phoenix, AZ 85016; (602) 230-0383 or www.theconstructionzoneltd.com.
Site contractor: Valley Rain Construction Corporation, 1614 E. Curry Road, Tempe, AZ 85281; (480) 894-2835 or www.valleyrain.com.
Solar: Perfect Power Network, 20601 N. 19th Avenue, Suite 150, Phoenix, AZ 85027; (623) 581-1700 or
www.perfectpowernetwork.com.
Rainwater cistern: StormTech, www.stormtech.com.
Aluminum windows and doors: Arcadia Architectural Products, Inc., www.arcadiaproducts.com.
See Web-only extra images of this project.
Hillside Home
Jackson, Wyoming
Stephen Dynia, AIA
Stephen Dynia Architects, PC
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GORDON GREGORY
 Set in a forested site, a two-story plan for the house makes for a small footprint and takes advantage of views.
Sometimes, it doesn’t take a lot of bells and whistles or research and point systems to create a sustainable house. Sometimes, all it takes is a modest budget and a client’s desire to live a simple lifestyle.
That was the case with a recent residence designed by architect Stephen Dynia for a site above the Snake River Canyon about thirty minutes’ drive from Jackson. The client, a librarian from the Midwest, purchased the one-acre parcel in an older, pine-covered subdivision in 1993 and slowly began planning a dream retirement home where she could pursue an active lifestyle, work on hobbies and enjoy nature.
 A bookcase follows the rise of the staircase between floors.
“The client hired us in 2003,” recalls Dynia, who has worked on residential, cultural and commercial projects in Wyoming and beyond. “She had a modest budget, but at that time, construction costs were starting to soar. We kept working the design to keep the pricing down, and she kept working a few more years to build the house.”
Eventually, Dynia and the client worked out a design with simple materials and lines, and energy-efficient strategies that would keep her cost of living in the house manageable.
“The site slopes,” explains Dynia, “but there was an obvious place for the house on a plateau, which allowed us to maximize views. We also made use of a driveway that the developer had put in.”
 The living room opens to a deck that wraps around part of the house. Flooring is bamboo.
Dynia created a two-story, 2,500-square-foot plan, reducing the footprint on the site, and placing most of the client’s daily living spaces on the second level, capturing light and views. The first level contains the garage, entry, hobby room and guest quarters. The kitchen, living and dining areas, and master suite are upstairs. A balcony off the living and dining room provides a room for outdoor living.
The architect broke up the home in two zones. A smaller, rectangular zone--the location of the entry, stairs and kitchen, is clad on the exterior with corrugated metal. A larger, wedge-shaped zone embraces the home’s other rooms and is clad in red-stained cedar siding. Roofing on both zones is corrugated metal, and the roofline rises to the south on the larger section, providing views for the living and dining areas. Dynia detailed the exterior entry with a slatted wood alcove, which serves to screen the driveway from the door and doubles as firewood storage.
 The home’s functions are divided into two distinct forms, one clad in red cedar, the other in corrugated metal.
Inside, materials were also kept simple. Bamboo flooring, maple cabinetry and white walls keep the interior airy and light. Track and pendant lighting provide pools of light by night. Dynia designed a bookcase that follows the staircase between floors and placed the living area’s slightly canted fireplace between glass doors and windows leading to the deck. Furnishings and accessories were chosen for their uncluttered and modern lines.
The home’s sustainability comes comes in easy gestures. The bamboo for the flooring is a rapidly renewable resource. The home has no mechanical cooling, relying on cross ventilation and ceiling fans during the warmer months. At more than 7,000 feet, snowfall and cold weather are the climatic issues, but Dynia’s sloping roofline easily sheds snow accumulation, and he avoided placing windows at the home’s north end. Low-e windows help prevent heat loss during winters, as does the use of cellulose insulation. Low-flow plumbing fixtures keep water usage to a minimum, and the owner chose to keep the property’s natural vegetation. “There’s not a stitch of landscaping, so there’s no irrigation,” Dynia says.
The most sustainable element of the house? How its design kept the green in the client’s wallet. “We built it for $190 a square foot,” Dynia says. “It’s our belief that if a house is simple and tailored to the owner, a modest budget can work.”
Architecture: Stephen Dynia Architects, PC, 1085 W. Broadway, Jackson, WY 83001; (307) 733-3766 or www.dynia.com.
Builder: Mill Iron Timberworks, Jackson, WY; (307) 733-0529 or www.millirontimberworks.com.
Sofa: B&B Italia, www.bebitalia.it.
Le Corbusier LC4 chaise: Cassina, www.cassinausa.com.
George Nelson bench: Design Within Reach, www.dwr.com.
See Web-only extra image of this project
Davey Jackson Elementary School
Jackson, Wyoming
Arne Jorgensen, AIA, LEED AP
Hawtin Jorgensen Architects | Jackson, Wyoming
Adrienne Lane, Allied Member ASID, LEED AP
Gallinger Trauner Designs, Inc. | Wilson, Wyoming
PHOTOGRAPHY BY W. GARTH DOWLING
 The design of a computer area between classrooms was inspired by the bow structure of a covered wagon. Metal figures on the wall are meant to display student work, to be hung with magnets.
When elementary school students go back to school in September in Jackson, Wyoming, many of them will be attending the brand-new Davey Jackson Elementary School. But the 80,000-square-foot school isn’t just a new building meant to house kindergarten, first and second grades. It represents four years of community collaboration, ranging from extensive meetings between the design team and the Teton County School District, and a taxpayer-funded amenity, right down to students painting paw and hoof prints representing indigenous animals on the concrete floor of the new art classroom. And, just as important, the building will be the first school in Wyoming to achieve LEED Gold Certification (pending).
The process began more than four years ago, when the school district opted to replace outdated facilities on its 11-acre site at the edge of town. The property is adjacent to the National Elk Refuge, a county recreation center and a residential neighborhood. The district wanted to create a school to serve grades K through 2, with the flexibility of serving K-5 in the future.
Jackson’s Hawtin Jorgensen Architects won the commission to design the $23.6 million school, meant to accommodate some 500 students, teachers and visitors. Firm principal Arne Jorgensen put together a team that included interior designer Adrienne Lane of Gallinger Trauner Designs, Inc. and Denver’s Durrant architects, who handled documents and engineering. “We held multiple design charrettes to come up with a plan that would best serve the site and the occupants,” explains Jorgensen. “We also learned that the district was 110 percent behind making this a sustainable building.”
 Classrooms feature a custom carpeting design and operable windows with light shelves that bounce light into the room without glare.
In plan, the new school is anchored by a tapering central circulation space, dubbed the commons, which serves as the main entrance, eating area and gathering space. Two wings, connected by the media library and separated by an outdoor courtyard, angle from one side of the central circulation space. A one-story wing contains kindergarten classrooms, while the two-story wing is for first- and second-grade classrooms. Administrative offices, a kitchen, special education facilities and a gymnasium were placed on the other side of the central circulation space. The gymnasium, an unusual amenity for an elementary school, was funded by a voter-approved sales tax and is shared by residents as part of the adjacent recreation center.
In elevation, the design team referenced the lines of the recreation center to create a simple, straightforward exterior for the school, reminiscent of the region’s agricultural buildings, with sloping rooflines and red cement-board siding.
Inside, interior designer Lane kept in mind regional elements and input from students, teachers and parents to create spaces that worked for the youngest of schoolchildren. “Our design motif was Jackson itself,” says Lane, “classic Western, but not hokey. We also drew from the fact that the school is next to a wildlife refuge, and the students study these animals in classes such as science and art.”
Lane detailed the school with these touches, inspired more by creativity than budget. In spaces between first- and second-floor classrooms, she designed computer areas where teachers and parents could work with small groups of students on special projects. One area was designed like a teepee, topped by a gathering of wooden poles; another like a wagon, with arching metal poles representing the bow structure of a covered wagon. For the art room, second-graders painted paw and hoof prints on the floor, representing the animals that inhabit the next-door refuge.
 The school’s entry commons doubles as an eating area and gathering spot.
Lane also designed a custom carpet used in the media library and some of the classrooms that’s embellished with letters of the alphabet depicted in a pattern of varied fonts and interspersed with stick-figure people. To provide magnetic boards in hallways for displaying student work, Lane photographed children at play on a jungle gym and had high school shop students laser cut the forms in metal, which were hung on hallway walls. For student bathrooms, the designer made child-friendly signage--hung at lower levels--using recycled glass tiles. “Not all little children understand the universal bathroom symbols at that age,” she notes.
While the students enjoy the design elements meant for them, the district and Jackson residents will appreciate the school’s numerous sustainable elements. The structure itself is energy efficient, built with structural insulated panels at the roof level, triple- and double-paned windows, and radiant-floor heating. Natural daylighting abounds, via operable windows shielded on the outside by louvers and on the inside by light shelves that bounce light into the room without glare. Solatubes bring light into windowless areas, and classroom lighting is activated by motion and natural light levels. Building and interior materials have recycled content, and 70 percent of the project’s wood is Forest Stewardship Council certified. Plumbing fixtures are low flow.
The landscape, designed by Verdone Landscape Architects is being planted with sturdy native species. A special turf mix that uses less irrigation was chosen for the playground areas.
The sustainability factors didn’t end with the construction. The district’s custodial and maintenance staffs are being trained to clean and maintain the building in an environmentally friendly manner.
Completed in March, the school welcomes its first students in a few months. n
Architecture: Hawtin Jorgensen Architects, PC, 265 E. Kelly, Jackson, WY; 83001; (307) 733-4364 or www.hawtinjorgensen.com.
Architecture, documentation and MEP: Durrant, 1125 Seventeenth St., Suite 1500, Denver, CO 80202; (303) 377-2900 or www.durrant.com.
Interior design: Gallinger Trauner Designs, Inc., 3490 Clubhouse Drive, Suite 101, Wilson, WY; (307) 733-0902 or www.gallingertrauner.com.
Landscape architecture: Verdone Landscape Architects, 75 E. Kelly, Jackson, WY 83001; (307) 733-3062 or www.verdonelandarch.com.
Builder: GE Johnson Construction Company, 25 N. Cascade Avenue, Suite 400, Colorado Springs, CO 80903; (719) 473-5321 or www.gejohnson.com.
Systems furniture: Officescapes, www.officescapes.com.
Carpeting: Shaw Carpets, www.shawcontractgroup.com.
Daylighting systems: Solatube, www.solatube.com.
Cabinetry laminate: Formica, www.formica.com.
See Web-only extra image of this project
|
