The Chapel has been in planning and discussion for many years- the construction alone was nearly 2 years. Although it's not a LEED building it has some features that I really like from a sustainability perspective.
1. Contrasted with the Phillippe Performing Arts Center, which has over 1,700 incandescent lights (read: energy hogs!) individually suspended from the ceiling to light a 1,155 seat space, the new Chapel has fluorescent fixtures which consume much less energy to light a 3,800 seat space!
2. Since the building holds so many people all in one room a common issue is cooling. Lots of people produce lots of heat and keeping everyone comfortable during an event is really important to how the building functions. For this reason, massive ice chests are in the basement of the building. On off-hours, the ice chests make....Ice! When the building is under use, the ice provides an efficient way to supply A LOT of cool air. Cool, man.
3. The restrooms have motion sensors! This is possibly the most fun "green" feature. They flip on when you walk in. After the sensors detect no motion for several minutes, they will go off. Perfect for a building like the Chapel, where the restrooms are used in spurts- before the event, during intermission, afterward. But while everyone is in the auditorium, the lights turn off to conserve energy.
These are just a few small things the designers included to use less energy. What a great building!
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It is nice to know that IWU is taking some steps with sustainability with the use of ice-powered cooling and light motion sensors (though I find the flouresent house lighting to be very grating and unpleasant). I wish more steps could have been taken in the direction of LEED certification, but I definitely understand the cost that would be involved.
ReplyDeleteI hope that in the future more effort can be put towards a LEED certified building not only for the name but also for the effect it will have on both sustainability and energy costs.