Environment 3 Goes Platinum

CPA Staff

When work started last August on the Faculty of Environment’s new building project, then dean Deep Saini was quoted as saying: “We have proposed green features that will allow EV3 to achieve a LEED rating — we are aiming for gold.”

In the months following, says interim dean Mark Seasons (left), the administration consulted with students, alumni, and supporters on the goals of the project. The outcome was a decision to aim higher: in fact, highest.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a process of certification administered by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), which assigns a total score for how well a building measures up in terms of sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, choice of materials, and indoor environmental quality, as well as “innovation and design process.” The four levels of certification are certified, silver, gold, and platinum.

Why go for platinum? As Waterloo’s environment faculty, Seasons says, “We need to try for the highest possible rating. We need to be seen to be leading. We also want to show the campus community how it’s done.” He notes that platinum is rare right now, but as environmental technologies develop, “in ten years it could be the general standard. It doesn’t make sense to build a building that’s expected to last decades, and then a few years downstream to have to do retrofits.”

Evironment 3 will be not only the first LEED platinum building on campus, it will be one of only two in the region — and the first public building in the region to have that ranking. (The other platinum candidate is a private building owned by Enermodal Engineering.) According to the CaGBC, there are only 16 fully certified LEED platinum buildings in Canada. Six are in Ontario; none in Waterloo Region. Of the 16, only three are public buildings.

Environment’s project is being financed with $14 million in grants from the federal and provincial governments under the Knowledge Infrastructure Program. The total cost is expected to be about $21 million. Part of the balance will be found by the faculty. Another $3 – $5 million is to be raised through a campaign that has already started, but will become more public and aggressive in the fall. It’s chaired by Waterloo grad Thomas Mueller (MA ’92, Planning), CaGBC president.

What drove the project is the need to accommodate record high enrolment in recent years, successful new units such as the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED), more professors, and more research activity, all squeezed by two rather elderly buildings. (Environment 1 was built in 1966, Environment 2 in 1981.)

The Faculty of Environment will gain updated, greener lab, teaching, and project development space. The 57,000-square-foot, three-storey Environment 3, going up north of EV2, will house SEED and the School of Planning, and will include a 140-seat “smart” classroom.

A long list of green features could be included in the expansion. Key, from the LEED point of view, are solar power, energy conservation (including insulation), “grey water” and rainwater recycling systems, and high-efficiency lighting. Equally important will be metering and monitoring, to be carried out in a lab visible to the public.

Other green features include a spectacular two-storey living wall in the new atrium, connected to the HVAC system to improve air quality; a green roof, with accessible native species garden; a constructed wetland; high-efficiency washroom fixtures; and in-floor heating using recycled heat from computers. The building will serve as a teaching tool in itself, showcasing and demonstrating new green building technologies. As such, it’s expected to be powerfully attractive to potential students.

The project is being built by Cooper Construction and is on track for its scheduled completion date of March 31, 2011.

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A hot and wet July

Brandon Sweet

That's the gist of the University of Waterloo Weather Station's summary for last month.

How hot was it? Weather station coordinator Frank Seglenieks spells it out. "Overall it was a full 2 degrees above average and about 4 degrees hotter than what we saw last year in July." Temperatures reached a high of 33.1 degrees Celsius on July 5, which was the warmest day since August 1, 2007. July also featured five days in a row of temperatures over 30 degrees, the first such heat wave since 2005.

Was it a dry heat? According to the weather station's report, "It was looking like a very average month for precipitation up until the morning of the 23rd, when we received over 35mm between 7:45AM and 8:15AM." This was, according to Seglenieks, a "1 in 10 year precipitation event" that led to some local flooding. It was also the wettest single day since July 11, 2008, with 65.2 mm.

The total precipitation for July ended up at 129.2 mm, well above the average of 92.9 mm. Wet as it was, this July didn't come close to breaking the precipitation record set in 1988 of 223.2 mm.

Two waterlogged months back to back have made up for what Seglenieks said was a "dry beginning to the year" and have brought precipitation levels up to the average for the first half of 2010.

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Notes on a Wednesday

Vice-President, Academic and Provost Feridun Hamdullahpur (left) was the only speaker representing a Canadian institution at the Indo-US Summit on Higher Education, held from July 30 to August 1 in Mumbai, India. Dr. Hamdullahpur participated in a session entitled "Innovative Partnerships: International Dynamics" along with representatives from the Institute for International Education, the Kellogg School of Management, and Harrison Advertising, Inc. The summit was hosted by the Indo-American Society (IAS), which describes itself as "a forum for intellectual and cultural exchange and for the promotion of friendship between the peoples of India and America."

No, you're not losing your mind. There were several concrete columns standing in the between Mathematics 3 and the MC, forming the base of the bridge that will eventually link the two buildings, but they were removed over the weekend, leaving only the rebar behind. The reason? Concrete test results did not meet the design specifications. According to Byron Murdock, Major Projects Construction Co-ordinator, "concrete pours are monitored closely during construction and corrective action taken if and when required." The columns will be reconstructed in a week's time, weather permitting. Feel better?

Upgrades are planned for the Library's latest catalogue tool, Primo. Primo was launched last fall and user feedback has been forwarded to the product developers. A new version of Primo is currently being tested that will feature an improved user interface, new searching and sorting features, and most encouragingly, fewer pop-up windows.

Last call for the Bombshelter (for the rest of term, anyway). The Bombshelter will be closed as of Monday, August 9 according to a recent tweet from the pub. The Bomber's website states that regular hours will commence on September 13. Little known fact: past Federation of Students elections have hinged on the quality of the Bombshelter's hot turkey sandwich, which is no longer a regular menu item.

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