Chincoteague Hall
Although several buildings on the campus have received LEED certification by meeting environmentally friendly standards, Chincoteague Hall has become the first LEED Gold-certified renovation project at the university.
Chincoteague isn’t the only Gold building on the campus — Oakland Hall and Knight Hall both received this distinction after construction, Capital Projects Director Bill Olen said. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is a 110-point rating system for evaluating the sustainability of buildings and homes. The rating range for LEED Gold certification is 39 to 51 points, and this project achieved 40 points, project manager Mary Ossi said.
“We strive to go beyond Silver on all of our projects,” Olen said. “But it depends on the type of project.”
Design for renovations of 56-year-old Chincoteague Hall began in April 2009 and the more than $7 million project was completed in November 2011. The minimum requirement for major renovation of a state building like Chincoteague is a LEED Silver rating, according to the Maryland High Performance Building Act enacted in April 2008.
Part of what sets Gold-level certification apart from Silver happens during the actual construction process. During Chincoteague’s renovation, 92 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills, Ossi said in a video posted on the behavioral and social sciences college’s website. In addition, about 10 percent of the materials used in floors, ceilings, carpets and other parts of the building is made from recycled content.
Chincoteague was a good candidate for major renovation because the journalism college, which it used to house, was moving to the newly constructed Knight Hall. It is now home to several departments within the behavioral and social sciences college, as well as the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development and the Baha’i Chair for World Peace, said Laura Ours, director of communications and marketing for the behavioral and social sciences college.
The building’s increased level of sustainability fits with the mission of its new occupants, who are concerned with global harmony and world peace, Ours said.
“Being an environmental stewardess is part of that,” she said.
Because the building is located on McKeldin Mall, it was important to preserve the external facade, even though the interior has changed drastically, Ours added. New artwork is featured on every floor, along with glass panels etched with quotes from inspirational figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt and John Lennon.
While many of the other renovations aren’t immediately visible, one of the most noticeable is the automatic motion sensor lighting system. After a set amount of time, lights turn off automatically, and the first person to walk into a room or down a hallway will notice the lights suddenly flick on, Ours said.
“You get the sense that no energy is really being wasted in that building,” she said.
Officials have not collected enough data yet to determine exactly how much energy and resources have been saved so far, Olen said. The project should save an estimated 17.5 percent in energy costs, Ossi added.
Additional changes in the building include a new plumbing system designed to conserve water and minimize waste, fitted windows and doors to ensure heating and cooling efficiency, and adhesives, sealants, paints and coatings that emit low levels of volatile organic compounds, chemicals that can have adverse long-term health and environmental effects.
Several rooms now also contain carbon dioxide sensors to detect occupancy levels and determine whether outside ventilation is needed.
Officials are sending out online surveys to ensure building occupants’ comfort and will make temperature adjustments if necessary, Ossi said.
“It’s not just that they renovated the building and it’s all done,” Ours said. “They’re staying on top of it to make sure everything’s running as comfortably and efficiently as possible.”
Other buildings under construction, such as Prince Frederick Hall, are aiming for LEED Gold, but officials won’t know what rating they will receive until after they submit building information to the U.S. Green Building Council for evaluation.
