Nestled into a steep embankment, the University of the Sciences Integrated Professional Education Complex (IPEX) in Philadelphia, PA., combines nature and innovation to offer high efficiency in a modern atmosphere.
The new 57,000-square-foot, three-story building facilitates integrated healthcare education and houses common spaces, classrooms, laboratories and a variety of therapy rooms. Through strict adherence to quality aesthetics and performance, the IPEX garnered an exemplary certification of Three Green Globes.
“We incorporated Green Globes early in the design process, and as we answered the survey questions and received responses an evolution took place,” recalls the project’s architect Todd Grant, Associate at Philadelphia’s L2Partridge. “Every time I filled out a questionnaire, the feedback loop helped push us to the next level. I could examine how our project might incorporate the suggested options and then show the client which ones had negligible cost impacts.”
Water retention was one example. Without having any impact on the building foundation, the team increased the soil depth to four inches across the site. This micro shift had a massive impact on helping the site retain more water and exceeded a threshold that garnered a tax incentive from the city.
Items Earning High Marks in Green Globes Include:
- A green roof with 98 percent of the surface area (20,000-square-feet) covered in vegetation
- Eight solatubes in the lobby’s 60-foot atrium provide lighting equivalent to 30 foot-candles to the bottom floor
- Combined energy efficiency measures that are predicted to save 41 perfect over a baseline building
- A steel super structure made from recycled metal, and recycled materials in the furniture systems, carpets, gypsum wall board and aluminum
- Site and roof stormwater runoff directed to bioswales for filtration
Once the team rallied around the idea of achieving Green Globes, everyone looked for ways to raise the bar. An original application of floor-to-ceiling glass was already in process. Grant and his team created an exterior triple-glazed curtain wall with an R-19 insulation rating, allowing it to be considered a solid wall rather than a fenestration.
Knowledgeable Advocate
Grant cites Green Globes’ responsiveness as a major differentiator. “I signed up for Green Globes and the phone rang. You don’t get that level of attention anywhere else,” Grant remarks. “I could easily ask questions, and the team simply put all the documentation they normally produce onto the FTP for review. It actually felt like Green Globes came to us.”
During the on-site review, Grant says the assessor pointed out things the team accomplished on the project but had overlooked in terms of attaining certification. For example, the assessor found that the team had performed soil testing and remediation, but the sections that provide credits for those were left blank. Once those sections were documented, the project earned additional points.
“Green Globes is completely different philosophically. I didn’t feel like I was being set up to fail,” says Grant. “The certification is much more lifecycle-based, rather than taking a first-cost approach. Throughout the process it easy to see that Green Globes is trying to help you succeed.”
