Spring 2007, Volume 10 Newsletter:
LEED Certification Arrives for 60 Oxford St
On January 15th, 2007, 60 Oxford Street was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the US Green Building Council. 60 Oxford St. was one of Harvard's first three building projects to agree to pilot the LEED framework back in 2002, when LEED was a very new idea for Harvard.
LEED provides a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in six key areas of human and environmental health including sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environment quality, and innovation in design. A significant portion of Harvard’s new construction and major renovation projects are emphasizing sustainable design and construction and the University has an additional 17 LEED projects on the way.
60 Oxford Street is a 94,000 square foot building housing University Information Systems and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences’ faculty offices and computer labs. The building is located at the corner of Oxford and Hammond Streets, adjacent to a residential district. The landscaping and scale of the building were carefully designed to respect and complement its surroundings and to maintain a strong relationship to the adjacent community.
The building was designed by Perry Dean Rogers and Partners architects with Eichorn Yaffee Prescott as MEP engineers. Lee Kennedy Company provided construction management services. Facility Dynamics commissioned the building to ensure systems operated as designed. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative’s New Construction Program facilitated the LEED appeal process to finalize the certification.
Green design features include a rooftop garden, ample daylighting via glass atria and use of light wells, and a 26% reduction in energy use when compared to a code-compliant building. The building is expected to save approximately 60,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 500 million British thermal units of steam energy annually. This represents a reduction of 71 metric tons of CO2 equivalent each year, or the average emissions of more than 9 single family houses. What energy the building does used is offset by the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from wind energy produced in the Midwest. The project team that had worked on this project include Nathan Gauthier, Mike Crowley and Leith Sharp. The HRES project leaders include Dennis Ferris, Peter Riley and Jonathan Lavash.
Sustainable Design Elements Include:
• Bicycle racks and changing rooms
• Rooftop garden and Energy Star roof
• Exterior light pollution reduction
• Rain sensors to control irrigation
• 26% energy savings over code
• 100% of energy offset by RECs
• Environmentally-friendly refrigerant selection
• Independent engineering design review
• 75% of construction waste recycled or salvaged
• Refurbished wall panels
• 23% of materials manufactured within 500 miles
• 51% of wood from certified sustainable forests
• Low-emitting/non-toxic material selection
• Smoking is prohibited w/in 25 feet of building
• Light shelves direct sunlight into building interior
• Green cleaning program