September 2010

project of the month
Marian University College of Health and Healing Arts
Indianapolis, Indiana

The Marian University Health and Healing Arts will be the home to the new college of osteopathic medicine and the existing school of nursing.  The building will be approximately 140,000 SF and sit on a prominent corner of the campus at 30^th Street and Cold Spring road.  Construction will start in December of 2010 and is scheduled to be complete in June of 2012.  One of the main project goals is to achieve a LEED Gold status.  One of the key design elements to help reach this goal is the use of a water cooled VRV system.  This system is anticipated to exceed ASHRAE 90.1 standards by 20% for energy savings.

In addition to energy efficiency, a rain garden was developed for the project as an integral part of its storm water management program.  After minimizing the building footprint with a multi-story arrangement and preserving grades around significant trees, it proved out that ground level space for storm water detention is very limited. However, as a public display of sustainability goals, it was decided early in planning that storm water would be featured in the overall design, not relegated to underground piping. Acknowledging this emphasis, the rain garden is located in the western ellipse. It occupies a position that is important in the overall campus linkage of the project. Pedestrians approaching the building from the remainder of campus will pass by or through the rain garden basin. A channel of water bisecting the ellipse will carry storm water from the building to the rain garden and visually bind the aesthetic of this campus green space.

Other sustainable design initiatives include shading devices strategically located around the building to allow natural light into the building while passively addressing heat gain and glare, use of low flow plumbing fixtures, and encouraging alternate forms of transportation through bike racks and easy access to bus routes.


news
September 2010 - Sustainable Stan Award Winner

Leonard Porter, Schmidt Associates' Plumbing Engineer earned this month's Sustainable Stan Award for achieving LEED Green Associate accreditation. Leonard has been involved in many of the office's LEED projects, including the recent Ivy Tech Fall Creek Campus Expansion. Leonard has done an exceptional job integrating high efficiency plumbing fixtures and design into our work. It is likely that Leonard's passing of the LEED exam will start a trend with the Schmidt Associates engineers. Congratulations Leonard, LEED GA.


Random Acts of Greenness

On August 20, Schmidt Associates conducted its annual Random Act of Greenness. This year we cleaned Massachusetts Avenue, just before the Indy Fringe Festival, which has attracted over 65,000 people over the last 5 years and continues to grow. This was Schmidt Associates third year o perform the community cleaning effort. Staff worked hard at picking up trash and weeding along each block. It is estimated that over 400 pounds of trash were collected.  Thanks to all who participated and for taking pride in our locality.


events

• (PARK)ing Day: today September 17, Hosted by Architecture for Humanity located in front of Borders at Meridian and Washington St. A temporary park has been constructed in what are normally parking spaces for people to gather and enjoy the community.
• Carpool to Work day: October sometime
• Thermal Comfort/Fresh Air Day: tbd
• Re-tie-rement Swap Party - this fall or not at all

opinion

Even in this bad economy, this is an exciting time in the building design profession. Building technology is becoming more and more important, and there are many new tools to help us understand how designs will perform. Today, not only does your design need to  look good but it needs to perform well too.  In some ways this down economy has brought to light that smarter design can save Owner's money.  Schmidt Associates has done a remarkable job implementing high performance practices into their designs and utilizing technology to understand it better. How can you not be excited?
Yours Truly,
Sustainable Stan