Child Care Center at Hort Woods
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As the first Penn State building to earn LEED Platinum certification, the Child Care Center at Hort Woods aspires to help future generations understand the importance of recognizing that humans are not separate from nature. This state of the art facility was designed to cultivate a love of the outdoors early in life aimed at nurturing environmentally-conscious and sustainability-minded adults.
7group assisted the team in establishing performance targets and provided guidance on effectively achieving project goals through an integrative design process. This process, which began with 7group facilitating workshops, resulted in an exemplary facility that meets the highest level of sustainable building criteria and LEED Platinum certification.
The adjacent Hort Woods provide vast play areas and are key to the user-engaged hybrid ventilation system. The facility’s construction avoided disturbing the root system of this only remaining old-growth arboretum on the campus while utilizing the naturally 10° cooler woodland air for climate control. Light shelves, clerestory windows and skylights allow daylight to permeate spaces, significantly reducing artificial light use while limiting harsh direct summer rays that impact thermal comfort. These strategies reduce energy consumption dramatically; projected annual energy savings are over 43%. Rainwater harvesting, coupled with dual-flush toilets and low-flow/child-sized plumbing fixtures, supplies 100% of flush-water demand, saving nearly 123,000 gallons of potable water annually. This system also provides educational and play opportunities by capturing rainwater that fills a dry stream meandering through the playground before returning to the woods and by providing irrigation for the rooftop garden plants that are used by the center’s kitchen. The sustainable and locally-sourced materials used throughout further remove the barriers between the inside and the outdoors. Animal tracks printed in tinted concrete floors, rock paths continued into interior slate flooring, tree canopies mimicked by wood trusses and aspen fiber ceilings, and safety guardrails transformed into nature walks by translucent resin panels embedded with real grasses are just a few features that strengthen indoor/outdoor connectivity and biophilia in this remarkable facility.
A variety of recycled, rapidly renewable and sustainably harvested materials used throughout the center provide a plethora of images, patterns and textures for the children to explore all while improving function and conserving our natural resources.
When a little weather station in the adjacent woods shows the conditions are right, the children notice green lights in the classrooms alerting them to open the child-sized sliding doors. When the sliding doors are opened, the ventilation system shuts down active air conditioning and the windows high along the opposite, south end of the room are automatically opened and the overhead exhaust fans are turned on.
Three playgrounds designed at the edge of Hort Woods help the center’s children of various ages get in touch with nature. Features include a custom climber, pull-up bars, musical instruments, interactive water features and meandering pathways with special impact-absorbing surfacing material.
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Location
University Park, PA, USA
Project Owner
Penn State University
Architect
studioMLA Architects
Building Size
21,500 sf
Cost
$4,600,000
Completed
Spring 2011
LEED® Status
LEED Platinum (NCv2.2)
Certified
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