EcoMap California

Table of Contents

Tours

  1. USGBC-LA 2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards Tour

    Check out this Map Tour featuring the amazing projects that received a Sustainable Innovation Awards in 2020

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    1. Santa Monica City Hall East

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Award
      Project of the Year


      The city of Santa Monica’s City Hall East Building
      meets the world's most rigorous criteria for sustainability, resiliency and long-term cost-effectiveness. It is an inspiring model of green design aimed at efficient operations, a healthy and productive workplace, and positive contributions to one of America's most successful municipalities. Connected to historic City Hall, the building brings all core municipal operations out of expensive leased office spaces around the City into one City Hall Campus and creates a centralized hub for public counter services. The building is designed to meet cutting-edge criteria for the Living Building Challenge - all supporting the city's commitment to sustainability with goals for carbon neutrality before 2050, water self-sufficiency by 2023, and zero waste by 2030.
      As a Living Building, the new facility will produce the energy and water it consumes on site. Utility costs will be saved over the life of the building and it will never have water or electric bills. Only healthy materials have been used,
      In addition, the new structure must be self-sufficient and remain within the resource limits of its site - producing more energy than they use, collecting and treating water on the site, and ultimately "creating a positive impact on the human and natural systems that interact with them.”


    2. Passive House Los Angeles (PHLA+)

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Award
      Energy/Operational Carbon

      This single
      -family residence is a PASSIVE HOUSE PLUScertified building in West Los Angeles (Culver City) and one of the first Passive House buildings in Southern California. It is an all-electric home focusing on the reduction of energy consumption, reduction of operational carbon and providing most of the needed power via a small on-site photovoltaic system with onsite battery storage (14kWh). This is a Net Zero Energy Home, which turns out a to be a “Plus Energy Home” with 16x solar PV panels. After the first year of operation the surplus power generated onsite is sufficient to drive an electric vehicle +/- 10,000 miles.
      Passive House Los Angeles (PHLA+) is located on a duplex lot, an infill site and is comprised of 1,791 sq.ft. living area with an additional large 400 sq.ft. deck area over the carport. This home has four bedrooms and three baths. Large windows with automated exterior sun shades are providing sufficient natural daylight and a connection between indoor and outdoor living even with this home's limited footprint. PHLA+'s energy performance was modeled using the by the Passive House Institute (PHI) developed Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software and following the 5x basic Passive House principles: 

      (1) Climate specific continuous insulation. PHLA+ uses two Inches of rigid foam insulation below the slab on grade, 2x6 wood framing with net & blow insulation and 1/2" of exterior continuous basalt rock and recycled slag insulation. 

      (2) Minimizing thermal bridges. 

      (3) High-efficiency operable windows & exterior automated venetian blinds for shading which are reducing the cooling load significantly and at the same time providing privacy at night. 

      (4) The Airtight building envelope was achieved with a liquid applied air barrier. PHLA+ achieved 0.48 ACH50 which is well below the very demanding Passive House certification requirement of 0.6 air changes per hour. 

      (5) Continuous 24-hour filtered (MERV-13 or higher as needed) fresh air ventilation with heat recovery (HRV). Fresh air is getting supplied to the living and bedrooms and is extracted from the bathrooms, kitchen and storage areas. Ventilation systems like this have gained more interest this year due to COVID-19 and local wild fires. No air is re-circulated in the building and always 100% fresh air is provided. 


    3. Spruce Goose

      2020 Sustainable innovation Awards
      Waste

      The Spruce Goose project is a large office space in Playa Vista, CA inside the landmark Spruce Goose Hangar. The project is effectively a "building within a building," as the hangar structure shelters the four stories of offices, meeting rooms, food service spaces, and amenity areas inside its open atrium. The Spruce Goose facilities and vendors team have been committed to operating the building sustainably, first with the project's LEED Certification and now with the project's TRUE Zero Waste Pre-certification. The project has set itself up to pursue full TRUE Certification and divert more than 90% of its waste from landfill, and has worked to align teams and improve operations to support this goal. The project already diverts over 72% of its waste from the landfill through waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting efforts.

      Key Strategies:

      • Transition to reusable food service ware

      • Central waste collection stations

      • Sustainable procurement 

      • Standardized waste tracking

      • Zero Waste education programs

      • Color-coded signage and infrastructure

      • On-site Zero Waste champion

    4. Bradley Plaza Green Alley

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Award
      Sites and Landscape - Water


      The Bradley Plaza Green Alley pilot project is both an innovative stormwater and community project that reimagines how alleys function in the Los Angeles area. As the first project to be unveiled for Pacoima Beautiful’ s Urban Greening Plan, Bradley Plaza Green Alley transforms an underused alleyway between a major street and a low-income housing community into a shared space that provides ADA-accessible amenities, introduces nature into the city, reduces the heat island effect, and manages stormwater.

      Bradley Plaza Green Alley aims to achieve Envision Gold certification, which recognizes sustainability in infrastructure projects. The project sits well within its surroundings, exceeds Los Angeles’ low impact guidelines for stormwater management, uses recycled materials, incorporates landscaping that improves public health, and serves the needs of the community – making it an excellent fit for the certification.

      Looking Forward but Remembering the Past

      The project is groundbreaking in several ways and provides a new template for transforming Los Angeles’ 900+ miles of alleys. However, the heritage of Pacoima was not forgotten, and as a gesture to the indigenous Tataviam Band of Mission Indians that put Pacoima on the map, Tataviam symbols were designed and incorporated into the custom salvaged timber amenity elements throughout the project.  The alley’s bonded asphalt surfacing and pattern provide a further link back to the City’s heritage through its depiction of running water as large streams of water used to flow through the area from the surrounding mountain canyons. These reference that this project is a stormwater mitigation project at heart but also so much more in its finished form. The project has transformed a standard and downtrodden service alley into a Place for People and over time will help reconnect the community to this space and the heritage of the City.

    5. LADWP Hoover Yard

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Resilience

      The LADWP commits to meet the ambitious goals set forth in LA’s Green New Deal. The 93,500sf building on an EPA clean-up/brownfield site replaces a dilapidated street lighting facility with an optimized yard including a mixed-use building housing
      Management & Crew Workplace, Community/Training Room, Break Room, Lockers & Gym, Warehouse, Fleet Maintenance andParking at the scale necessary to relieve the overcrowding at downtown yards and improve service.The Hoover Yard is an essential services facility designed to survive the “Big One” and get to work restoring power for the City ofLos Angeles. Resilience is key. After a disaster, the Yard will become a 24/7 Emergency Response Center with capacity to operate for 3 days without outside resources – including the conversion of rooms to dormitories to support 24/7 shifts. Key strategies include planning to submit for the new Resiliency Certification that addresses seismic design in a manner similar to LEED certification and the use of innovative Dura fuse bolted moment frames that concentrate future damage in replaceable plates with continuous occupancy of the building.The design will achieve NZEnergy for an all-electric, industrial facility with high plug loads. Combining passive and active strategies(thermal mass, daylighting, hybrid natural and displacement air systems) significantly reduces the EUI. Given the tight urban site, the project was only able to achieve 105% of the modeled building EUI by using high performance panels and extending them over the roof top mechanical equipment.Conserving potable water is also key to the Green New Deal. Grey Water treatment and other water conservation strategies reduce potable water use by over 50% and provides for 100% of the landscape water use. The off-site pollution from a long demolished dry cleaner contaminating the ground water will also be remediated.The vitality of the community and the staff are key to the design. Community benefits include a shared Training/Meeting Room with an outdoor patio, generous additions of street trees above code mandate and massing to protect the nearby residential neighbors from the yard noise and fleet traffic. The staff experience is uplifted with views and access to a landscaped roof deck, high quality daylighting, attractive stairs and a gym, healthy material specifications and configuration of the yard to optimize safety.
    6. Orange County Sanitation District New Administrative Headquarters

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Energy/Operational Carbon

      OCSD’s Mission is “to protect public health and the environment by providing effective wastewater collection, treatment, and recycling.” Their core values seek efficiencies to ensure that public money is wisely spent and that they lead by example to conserve resources. The design is on-target to deliver: 

      1. Net zero (NZ) + embodied carbon facility and Net Zero Energy Certification in a responsible and cost-effective manner.  

      2. Achieve LEED Gold with a pathway to Platinum. 

      3. Support the health and wellness of OCSD employees and visitors.

      4. Add value by balancing first costs with life cycle costs.  

      5. Make a beautiful and welcoming civic building without being ostentatious.


      Sustainability is the design driver. Exterior materials (silicon glazed curtain wall and terracotta rain screen) were selected to perform well in the high-pollution/high-salt environment given proximity to the freeway and the ocean. The mass timber with steel braced frames structure not only helps achieve NZ embodied carbon, it reduces the overall weight of the structure (critical because of soil conditions), allows for faster/safer on-site erection, makes for an inviting interior work environment with minimal maintenance for the life of the project. These practical design choices reflect OCSD’s core values of “honesty, integrity and respect for interactions between employees, the greater public and community.


      The plan of office wings framing a courtyard addresses the wellness of employees with daylight equity, views to nature and reduces energy consumption contributing to achieving NZE. The focus on wellness continues with the incorporation of attractive day-lit stairs, the selection of healthy materials and building systems that enhance indoor air quality to improve employee and visitor health.


      OCSD is committed to their public. The Board Room welcomes public participation and invites other community meetings. The lobby houses exhibits for public tour groups ranging from young children enthralled with poop, to students interested in engineering and public health, and operators of sanitation facilities from around the world. This resilient, high performance Administrative Headquarters is a catalytic project in the redevelopment of the 162 acres neighborhood of Fountain Valley. The site that was previously a tilt-up warehouse with 97% impervious surfaces has been transformed to provide 300% more landscape/plaza area with native plant materials to grow the community events, tours and education that are part of OCSD’s culture.


    7. Environmental Nature Center Preschool

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Project of the Year

      Opened in 2019 for 72 students, the 10,380-square-foot preschool added to the larger 4.5 Acre Environmental Nature Center Campus, the Preschool supports the ENC’s mission to deliver quality, nature-based education for children ages 2 ½ to 5. Developed in conjunction with educators, the community and ENC leaders, the preschool complements the existing facility while seamlessly blending indoor and outdoor spaces, providing children with an intuitive understanding of nature and the natural world.
      The design begins with an understanding of the site, which historical climate data indicated was ideally suited for naturally ventilated buildings. Mechanical ventilation was eliminated in lieu of operable windows, large sliding glass doors, and efficient ceiling fans to enhance air movement.

      The buildings are oriented in courtyard clusters with deep roof overhangs creating shaded outdoor areas and protecting the building openings from direct solar heat gain. Radiant floor heating system provides low energy, mild heating as required. To achieve ZNE, photovoltaic systems were installed on both buildings. Operational since September 2019 and predicted be Net Positive, the preschool will generate 105% of the power needs. No natural gas is used within the building; the buildings run solely on electricity for all power needs.

      In Southern California where rainfall is limited to just a few months a year, capture and re-use of storm water is not a practical and dependable strategy. A more focused design approach was required. Rainwater received on-site is treated as an educational tool for the community, teaching the users on-site how rainwater makes its way from the building site to the ocean. Single-sloped roofs capture rainwater and channel it via rain chains down into a rock basin. Water is then channeled into bioswales where it is treated and clarified by plant materials before it leaves the site to recharge aquifers and ultimately make its way to Newport Bay. All the planting across the 4.75-acre ENC campus is comprised of California Native plants. There is no irrigation system installed at the ENC. Water efficiency measures make their way inside the building as well with efficient fixtures and faucets, reducing the potable water use by 35%.

      With a focus on passive, efficient design, the ENC campus is serving as a living laboratory and educational tool for smart green design and conservation.

    8. City of Lake Forest City Hall Administration Building

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Water

      The new Lake Forest City Hall Administration Building and site were designed to support and enhance outdoor activities, to serve as the City’s 100 year home, with facilities addressing community’s needs. The 53,265 SF City Hall project achieved Silver certification under the LEED v2009 BD+C New Construction rating system. Incorporating into the design and construction the many LEED pre-requisites and credits make this building beautiful and a remarkable project. The Green Building Education program educates occupants and visitors about the sustainable strategies achieved on this project.

      The project met 10 out of 10 available Water Efficiency credits plus 2 Exemplary Performance credits, plus 2 Regional Priority credits. Lake Forest, like most of Southern California, is an arid region where the need to reduce water demand is essential. Water efficiency landscaping, innovative wastewater technology and water use reduction strategies were applied to reduce the burden on municipal water supply and wastewater systems.

      Innovative Wastewater Technology 

      The municipal plant generates 155,727.25 gal of treated non-potable water, equal to the captured site water. It fulfills the demand for the flush water. The flush water demands equals the water generated with 100% of demand of flush fixtures is through municipal treated wastewater.

      Water Efficient Landscaping 

      The project selected drought tolerant and native species where possible and 75% of the plant species are rated as either low or very low by WUCOLS standards including California’s official state grass “Purple Needlegrass” and the critically endangered species “Torrey Pine.” Irrigation drip and bubbler systems are only operated between 9:00pm and 6:00am to prevent water evaporation loss. The irrigation schedule operates on a weather-based controller automatically adjusting based on local weather conditions. 100% of water used for landscaping is non-potable treated recycled water from the municipality.




    9. Department of General Services, California Air Resources Board, Southern California Consolidation Project

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Energy/Operational Carbon


      Designed by the design-build team comprised of the general contractor, architect, and MEP engineer, the new 403,306 SF Southern California Consolidation Project (SCCP) for the CaliforniaDepartment of General Services, California Air Resources Board (CARB) will be one of the largest and most advanced vehicle emissions testing and research facilities in the world.
      The headquarters project will centralize the organization’s five existing locations, currently spread throughout the Los  Angeles area, into a single 19-acre site in Riverside, housing more than 450 employees.

      Designed with the certification goals of LEED Platinum®, CalGreen Tier 2, and the International Living Future Institute, Net Zero certification, the unique three-story, pinwheel-shaped building strives to create a beautiful destination, be a good neighbor within the city and provide a compelling environment that will bring people together and foster a strong sense of pride and place for CARB and its employees.

      Contributing to occupant comfort as well as building performance, the architectural form lends its elf to easy circulation, views, daylighting, and self-shading, and features abundant open and greens paces, as well as a nature walk around the perimeter of the property. The massing of the office building is consolidated into three stories that extend in three directions parallel to light duty testing, chemistry, and toward the conference buildings. This creates a smaller building footprint on the site and shortens horizontal circulation networks, while using vertical connectivity to increase proximity between offices, testing areas, support spaces, and laboratories, resulting in increased flexibility, optimized adjacencies, and greater opportunities for interaction.

      The office becomes a nexus of the overall building, a “Central Command Control,” and a crucial link between all the key components of the CARB mission—testing, chemistry analysis, compliance, education, and outreach.
      A variety of types and scales of meeting spaces, as well as coffee bars and cafés promote interaction and collaboration, especially for staff who circulate between the various departments throughout the day. Overall, the planning creates an efficiency of motion, which will increase productivity and connectivity between teams.

      The layout of the office building establishes two principal outdoor spaces—the main courtyard to the east and a more private courtyard to the west. Shading provided by the building and large trees create comfortable respite spaces. In addition, the lunchroom spills out onto the lower level of the main courtyard, with tables and a terraced seating area. The main courtyard also serves as overflow space for large gatherings occurring in the auditorium, with flexibility for catered events to make use of the adjacent lunchroom. Incorporating direct vehicular access into the main courtyard from the north provides additional flexibility for event programming. This securable entry will allow controlled access for demonstration vehicles, food trucks, and other event or maintenance related equipment.
    10. CSU San Bernardino Center for Global Innovation

      2020 Sustainable Innovation Awards
      Health and Wellbeing

      Design for Integration - Outside In
      CSU San Bernardino sits at the base of the San Bernardino mountains in a unique setting near a seismic fault with blustery and high temperature conditions.The university is ever trying to address this juxtaposition of elements to promote lifelong learning while providing a home for students on campus.
      The Center forGlobal Innovation (CGI) is located at the heart of the campus adjacent a major pedestrian thoroughfare and across from the university library. CGI is a LEED Platinum, 70,000-square-foot, three-story building housing classrooms and administration offices for the College of Extended Learning.The building form responds to climatic conditions and a university directive to integrate a meaningful social experience with academics on campus. By shifting and folding floor plates, the design incorporates a variety of indoor and outdoor social and learning spaces that are shaded and protected from the elements, including a rooftop terrace. Additionally, the design incorporates increased structural strength measures due to the project’s proximity to the San Andreas fault.The building’s exterior is wrapped in a pleated metal panel system, a modern reinterpretation of the fluted concrete found on campus. Further articulation takes cues from existing surrounding buildings, allowing CGI to reinforce the idea of ‘campus building’.

      Design for Community - Inside Out
      The university’s large international student population became the driving force of the design: a global connection. Using inspiration from a typical town square found in any given city around the world, the lobby or global gallery is conceptualized as a gathering space around which the rest of the programmatic elements are arranged. This space acts as a home base for students on campus. With digital screens, writable surfaces and flexible furniture, students can gather in small to large groups to socialize or study in a series of decks on every floor of the facility.
      The global gallery creates an opportunity for students to embrace and be connected to their campus environment.Classroom spaces are located on the lower floors for easy way finding and campus access, while student services become a destination on the top floor.

      Designing for Resources - Sustainability
      The LEED Platinum certified project relied on an integrated design approach, where all involved disciplines informed the process, and allowed numerous sustainable design strategies to be introduced including:• Meets the AIA 2030 commitment with an EUI of 29.2; a 76% reduction over baseline.• Exceeds Title-24 by 26%• Optimization of access to daylight with controls, occupancy sensors and meaningful views to the exterior.• Mixed-mode naturally ventilated lobby with operable windows.• Energy Star cool roof kept free of mechanical equipment.• 160kw photovoltaic array on roof; enough to offset 50% of building’s energy use.• 100% of stormwater collected on site and polished via bioswales.• Native and water efficient landscaping with 100% reclaimed water for irrigation.• Dual flush plumbing and low flow fixture reduce building water use by 27% from baseline.• Integration with campus chilled water loop and energy management systems.• Use of recycled content and locally produced materials.