The Greenest Building in America, Maybe the World – Here in Wisconsin

By Roger Kuhns

The diminutive, white-haired woman in the front row was one of the honored guests at this month’s U.S. Green Building Council convention in Chicago. The woman is no stranger to environmental awareness and innovation. Nina Leopold Bradley, a writer and conservationist in her own right, is also the daughter of Aldo Leopold, a founding conservationist and the father of wildlife management. The honor being given was for the green building design of the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Wisconsin.

The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center was completed earlier 2007, and is located north of Devils Lake in Sauk County on the Wisconsin River. This month it was awarded the Platinum LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for achieving 61 points of 69 possible from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. This is the highest LEED score of any building rated so far in the world. Such an achievement was the result of innovative architectural design, engineering, and construction that utilized on-site timber, renewable energy and high efficiency design. The building is a carbon neutral structure, which means there is no net gain in carbon dioxide emissions on an annual basis through its operation. It uses 70% less energy than a building that would satisfy local building codes.

Nina Leopold Bradley and her team were presented with the Platinum LEED Certification award by USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi as over 8,000 people looked on from their seats in the McCormick Center in Chicago.

Fedrizzi said, “This building does things that people dream of.”

The designers of the building presented the details in their talk entitled, "The Land Ethic" A Convergence of Ecology, Aesthetics, and Engineering". Present where Joel Krueger and Tom Kubala with The Kubala Washatko Architects group, Buddy Huffaker with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and Michael Utzinger, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee; School of Architecture.

Buddy Huffaker spoke about Aldo Leopold’s vision of the land, and his understanding of the land ethic. He quoted from Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, and described how Leopold had come to realize the ecology, first through what his family did on the land, then through his travels across America to gain experience, and finally in understanding the land ethic. Huffaker said the Leopold Foundation strived to live up to the founder’s legacy and purpose, and answered the question as to why the Foundation would build anything on the land in the first place. “We did this because of the continued interest in the legacy of the land, this was growing. Aldo Leopold said, ‘There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from a furnace.’” Huffacker said that the Foundation wanted to make sure people would remember and learn from Aldo Leopold.

“Our goal,” Huffaker said, “was to utilize local materials, and maintain a carbon neutral building.” The team harvested 90,000 board feet of pine. “Trees were thinned from above,” he said, “they needed to be thinned so that there was room to grow. We took the worse trees out and left the best.”

The architectural design of the building took innovation and creativity to optimize its energy use and conservation, and the optimal use of green building materials. Architect Tom Kubala said, “The architectural process was one of letting the land ethic affect our design process." He recounted Leopold’s code of decency, which addresses the man-to-land conduct. “Becoming aware of the whole was important,” he said. “In understanding the characteristics of this man-to-land conduct we drew up this awareness.”

Kubla described the rediscovery and use of intuitive observation, and the need for close collaboration, commitment and mindful action within the sphere of environmental awareness that Leopold realized. Kubla said, “Architects come from a background that is abstract, ego-driven, competitive technology driven and object oriented. We had to unlearn this and become intuitive, ego-less, and practice cooperation within a process driven mode; relationship oriented.” He contrasted Leopold’s way with the traditional architect’s way, and described a process of unlearning, realization, and ultimate insight. “Aldo’s way is one of differentiation, not assemblage, of the whole, not the parts, of pattern language, not a program as parts that we find with traditional architects.”

Once Kubla and his associates had realized Leopold’s way, they then looked at the pattern of the environments. “We described the issue, and then wrote a solution statement for the patterns.” These included looking at the historical thread to pre- settlement ecology, an understanding of the property as a home base, as a portal to the Leopold legacy, and as a hub of activity, and many other aspects to the land. “We used this to design. For example, we put the kitchen in the middle – you travel through the building, which surrounds the kitchen and has more natural light and wood heat to intensify the experience.” Kubla stressed that the designers did not follow a LEED checklist, but wove the design around the Leopold insights. He said using Leopold’s way was “…a completely different way of seeing the world. This project is a model of collaboration: ecology, engineering, energy modeling, architecture, system controls, mechanical and plumbing, structural and electrical engineering, and construction, and so on.”

Professor Michael Utzinger ran the numbers to make it all work. He looked at the energy requirements of the 12,000 ft2 building. “We wanted a carbon neutral design, and asked ourselves what we should do to generate rather than denigrate. What boundary do you use? What kind of construction and source of materials? Our task was to design a building to fit energy sources, not build a building and then find out what energy we wanted. We concluded we could design for a 39kw peak photovoltaic system.” In essence the team set solar budget for site, and then designed the building to fit that budget.

The result is perhaps one of the greenest buildings in the world. Its zero- carbon footprint, architecturally innovative and beautiful design, and high-science components mark the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center as an example of what is needed in America’s buildings. Many of the innovations and tried-and-true applications can be used in residential and commercial structures at competitive costs when well thought out designs are considered.

Nina Leopold Bradley quoted her father in her “Living in a World of Wounds” commentary, “A thing is right when it preserves the integrity, stability, and beauty of the community.” In his philosophy, it is right when an act “strengthens and re-knits the web of relationships, and so tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community.”

And the Leopold Legacy Center building is true to Nina Leopold Bradley’s father’s vision.

INFORMATION BOX: The Details

• 3000ft2 PV panels = 50,000 kilowatt hours per year (kWh/yr).

• Lights off when the suns up.

• HVAC off when weather is mild.

• All offices & occupied spaces have natural ventilation.

• Incoming fresh air goes through in-ground large pipes (Earth Tubes).

• In-slab radiant heating and cooling.

• Displacement ventilation from; low velocity fans from floor, pick up heat and rises.

• 16 wells 220ft deep for water-water heat pump on ground loop.

• 500 gal storage tanks hold hot water during heating (105-115oF) system and cold (45-55oF) water during cooling season.

• Used World Resources Institute for Greenhouse gas protocols.

• Carbon Emissions Accounting, including commuting vehicles for staff, solar generation, green power contract, wooded areas, business travel, solid waste removal, and other features.

• Carbon Sequestration - Carbon absorbed by managed forest.

• Thermal Zoning in building using natural ventilation, wood stove, heat pump on ground loop.

• Around $300/ft2; total $4million.

• $300,000 for photovoltaic system.

• Metal roof installed to reduce maintenance

For more information: www.aldoleopold.org/