Looking Back — 2019 BD+C Rankings Summary

BD+C Science + Technology Sector Ranking: #1

What makes AEI rank so high? Projects like this: The University of Arizona Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building

The $106.8 million University of Arizona’s Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building (BSPB) fosters collaboration among research scientists, healthcare providers, and private companies – and was completed in just 27 months. The BSPB provides a beautiful backdrop of distinctive copper skin and landscaping to mimic a shaded canyon floor.

Home to the Center for Applied NanoBioscience and Medicine; The flow Cytometry Core Laboratory; Dr. William Cancer Research Lab; The Ronald A. Matricaria Institute of Molecular Medicine; and, The Pediatric Infectious Disease Research Laboratory, the BSPB includes building performance optimized systems as such active chilled beams – not only in open office areas and conference rooms, but also in wet labs, made possible through humidity sensors and other control strategies. The systems are designed for flexibility in reconfiguration and preserve open space essential to interactive, interdisciplinary research.

The project team was made up of Ayers Saint Gross, Design Architect, and CO Architects, Architect of Record.

BD+C University Sector Ranking: #3

What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: George Washington University – Milken Institute School of Public Health

In keeping with the school's focus on disease prevention, the design of The George Washington University School of Public Health building is health-promoting and sustainable. AEI's MEP, fire protection, information technology, energy modeling and sustainability consultation was critical to the project's earning LEED® Platinum certification.

Building performance statistics include a 64% reduction in energy use and 30% reduction in lighting power compared to the ASHRAE 90.1 2010 baseline and an energy use intensity of 67 kBtu/SF. Project water use was reduced by 41% compared to baseline through installation of low-flow fixtures and rainwater reuse for flush valves and cooling tower make-up.

Building features include: chilled beams served from dual-wheel heat recovery dedicated outside air units; under floor displacement ventilation systems; heat recovery chiller for process loads and heating augmentation; high efficiency chillers, pumps, cooling tower fans and boilers; CO2 monitoring; energy efficient lighting controls, daylight harvesting and occupancy sensors; 8,000 gallon-capacity rain water collection; low flow plumbing fixtures; and, green roof.

Consolidating the School’s seven departments for the first time in its history, the facility serves as an educational resources center, providing state-of-the-art classrooms and lecture halls, teaching labs, conference rooms, collaborative spaces, departmental offices, study areas, and specialty spaces specific to the teaching and research activities of GW’s Department of Exercise Science.

The project team was made up of Ayers Saint Gross, Design Architect and Payette, Architect of Record.

BD+C Healthcare Facilities Ranking: #5

What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: Provincial Health Services Authority – Teck Acute Care Centre (TACC)

BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, The Teck Acute Care Centre (TACC) hospital replaces aging and inadequate facilities that could not accommodate the growing number of patients, the specialized care projections for the facility, or the new technologies that are vital for diagnosing and treating today’s chronic and more complex diseases. Two significant aspects of this project were the incorporation of sustainable design strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs, and resilience design strategies to mitigate the consequences of mass casualty events.

Classified by code as a “post-disaster” facility – double headwall capacity in more inpatient rooms can accommodate patient surges – the building was designed to stringent energy standards that support both performance goals and resilience requirements. To achieve an absolute energy target, the mechanical design makes use of advanced heat-recovery devices to simultaneously optimize heating and cooling. Air-cooled chiller/heat recovery eliminates need for water in cooling. Water-saving strategies reduce total volume of on-site water storage needed to provide 72 hours of domestic water.

Mechanical engineering concerns started with providing redundancy to ensure that systems remain operational in the event of equipment failure. In general, the design provides N+1 level redundancy: any individual piece of mechanical equipment can be out of service without compromising peak system capacity. TACC is targeting Canadian LEED Gold certification.

The project team was made up of CEI Architecture, Design Architect and ZGF Architects LLP, Design Architect.

BD+C Federal Government Ranking: #7

What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: NIH Chilled Water Thermal Energy Storage

Among the critical utilities required to maintain stringent environmental conditions for the National Institutes of Health’s research facilities, chilled water equally represents an opportunity to realize significant energy savings. In addition to being a source of cooling during major power outages or chiller failures, the thermal energy storage system (TESS) that AEI recently completed allows approximately 50,000 ton-hours of load shift.

The NIH TESS consists of a partially buried eight million-gallon thermal storage tank and a pump station with three 600-horsepower variable speed pumps capable of charging or discharging the entire tank in five hours. A stand-by power generator can operate the entire system. TESS optimizes chiller operation, giving the plant the ability to more easily and economically meet peak chilled water loads through load leveling. AEI developed a forecast model with NIH to determine the optimal time to charge and discharge the thermal storage system for maximum energy savings based on hourly electrical pricing, chiller system performance relative to outdoor air conditions, forecasted hour loads based on historical data, and other system factors.

The project includes an industrial-grade replacement control system for the chiller plant, providing real-time interval data and appropriate levels of automation, monitoring, and optimization. A new supervisory control and monitoring system automatically controls all twelve chillers, cooling towers, pumps, and ancillary requirements, automatically starting and stopping chillers and loading and unloading the chillers to maximize system efficiency. The system is expandable to six additional chillers and is capable of interfacing with building automation systems for data collection. Operational parameters are trended in five-minute intervals, with adequate server storage for three years of data.

The National Institutes of Health is made up of 75 buildings on 300 acres. Over 12 million square feet are dedicated to biomedical research facilities and a world class 240-bed hospital.

BD+C Green Building Sector Ranking: #8

What makes AEI rank so well? Projects like this: Village of Plain - Green Technology Training and Enterprise Center (G-TTEC)

Combining an effective, intelligent design approach with practical applications of established sustainable technologies, the Village of Plain Green Technology Training and Enterprise Center (G-TTEC) achieved a perfect energy and renewable energy credit score for LEED Gold certification.

Holistic system design of basic, energy-saving features for the 11,000 sf facility integrates so fully with the preliminary architectural composition that the building design remained virtually unchanged through construction. Energy loads are significantly reduced through optimal building massing, operable windows, a high-performance envelope, high-efficiency lighting, and active daylighting. As a result, radiant heating and cooling and a 14-well geothermal heating & cooling field became feasible to further reduce energy consumption.

Other energy-efficient features include: a dedicated outdoor air system for ventilation and humidity control with a total energy wheel; a condensing boiler; low-flow plumbing fixtures; and, a 20+ kW photovoltaic system. Designated to train local workers in green technologies, the G-TTEC serves as a practical demonstration of sustainable design for the commercial and residential industries. Overall energy usage is reduced by 74 percent compared to the ASHRAE 90.1-2007 baseline.

Eppstein Uhen Architects were a part of this project team.

Interested in learning more? Take a look at our rankings from last year.