Select Medical Health Education Pavilion

This new classroom and laboratory building located on Harrisburg Area Community College’s main campus is Pennsylvania’s first LEED certified community college facility. With an explicit target to integrate the physical environment with the learning environment and the community, the project utilized 7group’s integrative design process. Students and faculty at the new Pavilion pursue education and careers in health, nursing, nutrition and physical education while working in a sustainable and comfortable environment.

In addition to integrative design services, 7group also provided energy modeling and daylighting design services to determine where energy consumption could be reduced. The results indicated energy consumption would be reduced by more than 30% and water consumption would be reduced by over 40% by employing smart design choices.

Today, the Pavilion stands as a model of sustainable design in higher education. The elimination of a costly perimeter heating system and a reduction of the building’s cooling capacity to 550 sf/ton are attributable to high performance windows and an extremely well-insulated thermal envelope. Beyond energy performance, a key concern was the building materials’ sustainability; 15% of building materials by cost are recycled, over 60% were manufactured locally and over 5% qualify as rapidly renewable. Innovative recycled materials like carpeting made from soda bottles, insulation made from newspapers, and trim work made from trees cleared onsite were utilized, minimizing impacts on landfills and natural resources. Occupant comfort was also an essential consideration; daylighting all educational spaces was a high priority with daylight factors exceeding 2.0 in all spaces resulting from bilateral daylighting. Modeling software was used to design all daylighting components, including place-specific solar shading devices on the south facade, and photocell sensor dimming (with occupant sensors) resulted in reducing lighting power density by over 50%, averaging less than 1.0 W/sf.

Download PDF

• Low-VOC, solvent-free paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants were used throughout the building and low-flow plumbing fixtures and waterless urinals contribute to an occupant-friendly and efficient design.
• Energy Star roofing materials have a minimum 0.9 emissivity, and high-albedo site surfaces reduce heat island effects.
• Indoor CO2 monitors in the building’s interior maintain a CO2 differential of less than 530 ppm, and an underfloor supply air plenum distribution system provides 100% ventilation efficiency.

Location
Harrisburg, PA, USA

Project Owner
Harrisburg Area
Community College

Architect
L. Robert Kimball
and Associates,
John Boecker,
Design Architect

Building Size
48,000 sf

Completed
August 2005

Cost
$8,026,000

LEED^® Status
LEED Gold (NCv2.1)
Certified