LDEO Building Seeks LEED Certification
Date: July 31, 2007

Geochem ExteriorThe Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has been registered with the United States Green Building Council as a LEED building, says Charles Klee, AIA/LEED. Klee is an associate of the Boston architectural firm Payette Associates, designers of the new structure in Palisades, NY.

Of the University's three LEED-registered buildings currently under construction – McVickar Hall, Northwest Science, and the Comer Geochemistry Building – the geochemistry building will be the first to open, says Joseph Ienuso, Executive Vice President for Columbia University Facilities.
Construction is on schedule, as is the goal to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy from the town by Nov. 30, says Patrick J. O'Reilly, assistant director for Facilities and Engineering at LDEO. He says he's planning to move the entire Geochemistry Division into their new home shortly thereafter, completing the move by July 1, 2008.

The United States Green Building Council describes the LEED system as "the nationally accepted benchmark for design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings."

The geochemistry building replaces an existing building that houses the Geochemistry Division. "It will be "a 'state-of-the-art' laboratory building consisting of wet and dry chemistry labs, including ultra clean chemistry labs," O'Reilly says.

"The building is designed to provide a safe and healthy work place for our scientists, and to ensure they can conduct their precise research on samples collected from all over and within the globe without risk of having their results skewed by contamination from building materials or airborne particulates," O'Reilly says.

The new geochemistry building's sustainable features comprise every aspect of its design and construction, including site selection that has provided for conservation of trees, vegetation, open space, and wildlife habitat as well as the mitigation of impact on the Hudson River, Palisades Interstate Park and Lamont Nature Sanctuary view sheds.

Porous pavement and infiltration systems collect storm water from the roof and parking lot, O'Reilly says, reducing runoff by 20 percent and providing 100 percent soil contact for pollutant removal.

The building's exterior lights and signs have been selected to minimize light pollution.

Besides the shuttle service between the Morningside campus and LDEO, the building is close to public transportation, has bike racks and showers, and will provide preferred parking spaces for fuel-efficient vehicles and car pools.

Water conservation includes the use of ultra-low-flow plumbing fixtures and irrigation-free landscaping.Geochem Interior

The building has an air conditioning system that uses high efficiency chillers with non-depleting refrigerants, natural ventilation for offices, occupancy sensors to control lighting and temperatures, energy recovery from the ventilation system, daylight harvesting and high efficiency light fixtures. O'Reilly says that 90 percent of the building's occupied spaces will have daylight and views.

Because Comer Geochemistry is a laboratory building with about 75 chemical-safety fume hoods, it requires more outside air intake for ventilation than a conventional building.This fresh air must be heated, cooled and humidity controlled, all requiring a great deal of energy.

Some of that energy will be recovered by a heat exchange system that uses a set of coils to transfer heat or cold from the exhaust air to water. The water is pumped back to coils in the fresh air intakes on the building to pre-heat or pre-cool the incoming ventilation air. The process will save thousands of Btu's each year, as create large energy savings.

Also indoors, environmental quality has been enhanced by high ventilation levels and low-emitting VOC paints, adhesives, sealants and carpeting.

O'Reilly says that the LDEO campus-wide recycling program is an integral part of the new geochemistry building design, with reuse of materials such as asphalt, stone, soil and concrete on the job site.

LDEO has been consistent in its all-campus sustainability efforts. Last spring this activity translated to two first place wins and a third place in Recyclemania – a competition among 201 other colleges and universities nationwide, all of them working toward Recyclemania's goal of raising campus consciousness about recycling and reducing waste.

----Barbara King Lord

Architects' drawings by Payette Associates
1. Architect's drawing of the Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The building has been registered with the United States Green Building Council as a LEED building.

2. Interior of the Comer Geochemistry Building, which has natural ventilation for offices, occupancy sensors to control lighting and temperatures, daylight harvesting, and high efficiency light fixtures.