Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Southeast Regional Office Building

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (PA DEP) Southeast Regional Office Building (SROB) in downtown Norristown was intended by PA DEP to be Pennsylvania’s “Greenest Building”. In line with the building’s conception, it received the Environmental Design and Construction Excellence in Design Award Grand Prize in 2005 for government buildings.

7group provided LEED consulting and documentation, charrette facilitation, energy modeling, renewable energy consulting and extensive commissioning services for the PA DEP SROB facilities. Energy savings measures achieved a 41% reduction compared to an ASHRAE 90.1-1999 baseline building, along with water savings of 83% less than a standard office building. Integrative design was employed to achieve these results at a construction cost below that of comparable office buildings.

Constructed on an urban brownfield site, the project served as the key pivotal project in the revitalization of Main Street in downtown Norristown. Features include the diversion of over 75% of construction waste from landfills, a building envelope comprised of super-insulated modified refrigeration panels and wood-frame windows, underfloor air distribution and a four story central atrium that provides daylighting to all office spaces. The use of blended cement to displace portland cement in concrete resulted in a CO₂ reduction of 40%. 7group’s functional testing during commissioning evolved into troubleshooting the shell/air infiltration and underfloor air distribution issues. The difficulties encountered were highly educational from a commissioning and performance perspective, resulting in 7group’s development of protocols for UFAD smoke testing and plenum pressurization techniques; which has been utilized for subsequent projects.

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• A four story atrium in the center of the building gathers and distributes daylight into surrounding office and conference spaces. This open plan included CO2 sensors, floor-mounted air distribution diffusers that provide 100% ventilation efficiency, and individual thermal comfort and lighting controls for all occupants. (Images copyright Jim Schafer.)
• Indoor rainwater collection piping is displayed in the building’s atrium, funneling rainwater to a cistern for collection and toilet flushing. (Images copyright Jim Schafer.)
• A cistern collects rainwater used for flushing toilets; the filtration and pumping station equipment in an adjacent space is visible though a glass wall for educational purposes. (Images copyright Jim Schafer.)

Location
Norristown, PA, USA

Project Owner
Tiger Norristown

Architect
L. Robert Kimball & Associates,
John Boecker, Project Architect

Building Size
111,700 sf

Cost
$12,032,000

Completed
April 2004

LEED^® Status
LEED Gold (NCv2.0)
Certified