Four buildings in the Washington State Penitentiary North Close Custody expansion project have been awarded LEED Silver certification. HDR Architecture, Inc. and Turner Construction Company, in a joint venture, provided design and construction services for this integrated design-build project. Buildings earning LEED Silver certification included the administration building, a core services facility, an intensive management/segregation unit, and four-unit close-custody housing facility.
 
The 270,000-sq.-ft. project, an expansion of the existing Washington State Penitentiary, called for 768 close custody beds, 100 intensive management beds and 98 segregation beds. Other support services, including administration, recreation, education and food service, were included in the assignment.
 
These facilities represent only a handful of correctional facilities that have been able to achieve any level of certification, commented Jeff Goodale, director of detention/correction design for HDR. "Correctional facilities are among the most mission-critical of all buildings. They simply must support their purpose: safe and secure containment of the incarcerated. Over the past 100 years, correctional agencies have adopted new technologies or standards only when it was clear that they would support this mission. Since 2005, a LEED Silver certification standard has been mandated by the Washington State legislature for all state-funded building projects. It was imperative, then, that we had to push the creativity envelope to meet the Department of Correction's (DOC) unique functional requirements for these buildings while addressing the high-performance demands of LEED certification."
 
In fact, Goodale added, security concerns and budget constraints prohibited the design team from considering many common sustainable features that could earn LEED credit points. Essentially, he said, buildings that are inmate accessible have multiple restrictions that are simply not conducive to earning LEED credit points.
 
"By being innovative in some of our design strategies, though, we were able to design buildings which use less energy and potable water, thus decreasing the operating costs over the life of these facilities," describes David Gibney, western regional director, sustainability design solutions for HDR Architecture. "Also, by providing Washington State Prison personnel with a more pleasant and healthy indoor environment, the DOC should realize additional reductions in operations costs as a result of reduced absenteeism, longer retention rates, and greater productivity.
 
"With unprecedented construction cost escalations in the past five years, everything a facility owner can do to reduce the lifetime cost of a facility represents sound financial stewardship of taxpayers' dollars," Gibney notes.
 
Complementary to the design-build approach, the team used HDR's LEED Tracking Tools to lead the eco-charrette process, and to document progress throughout the design and construction processes. In addition, the HDR-Turner team used the Pacificorp Energy FinAnswer program to apply for energy rebates for the DOC.
 
Some of the project's sustainable design features as they relate to LEED include:

-A secondary public bus stop was installed less than 200 yards from the project site to provide public transportation access.

-Bicycle locker racks and showering facilities promote alternatives to automobile commuting.

-Post-development stormwater run-off from the project site has been completely eliminated.

-Unlike most prisons, which advocate very high illumination levels, the exterior lighting design of the entire WSP Campus, including the expansion, meets the strict criteria of the Illumination Engineers Society of North America's Recommended Practice Manual: Lighting for Exterior Environments.

-An automated irrigation system controlled by moisture sensors reduces water demand by more than 50 percent compared to a code-compliant system.

-Low-flow or zero-flow fixtures and mechanical equipment require little potable water; the total potable water demand for domestic purposes was reduced by over 20 percent.

-Computer-simulated energy models of proposed designs provided key life cycle analysis information to the design team. Increased energy efficiency rates beyond Washington State's already rigorous energy efficiency requirements range from 10 to 25 percent improvement.

-Third-party commissioning agents reviewed design and construction documents, reviewed construction, and provided Functional Performance Testing of all electrical and mechanical systems.

-Sub-meters provide supplemental post-occupancy information concerning electricity, natural gas and potable water consumption. Coupled with a Measurement & Verification plan, the owner can monitor where each of these resources are being consumed throughout the life of the buildings.

-Over 30 percent of construction materials are manufactured within 500 miles of the project site, thus reducing the negative environmental impacts from fossil fuel consumption in transportation.

-The total rate of diversion of construction waste materials from the local landfill exceeded 95 percent.

-Approximately 30 percent recycled content materials were utilized.

-Approximately 50 percent of wood products used originated from Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests.

-All sealants, adhesives, paints and coatings, carpeting and composite wood products met zero- to-low thresholds for Volatile Organic Compounds.

-Central and distributed mechanical system controls regulate and monitor comfort levels beyond what is required by building code.