Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Art and Design annex – certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold building – has captured a notable design award from the American Institute of Architects.
The $9 million, 29,000-square-foot addition, adjacent to the original facility and completed in Fall 2012, is the recipient of an AIA Central States Citation Award of Excellence in the commercial architecture category. The AIA region includes five states—Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. St. Louis-based Trivers Associates was the project architect.
Certified by the USGBC as a LEED Gold building in September, SIUE’s Art and Design Building was awarded the AIA honor in late October. LEED’s detailed credentialing system recognizes the owner and architect’s commitment to understand and practice green building practices. To achieve certification at the Gold level, the Art and Design Building surpassed the total number of design points (60) required in these categories: sustainable sites; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; material resources; indoor environmental quality; and designing a building that has a high level of safety and health for occupants.
This is SIUE’s first building to receive LEED Gold certification, but not the first time the AIA has honored the campus’ design. In 2007, the AIA Illinois Council featured the University’s buildings among the top 150 Illinois Great Places. According to the AIA, SIUE design ranks with such popular structures as the Illinois State Capitol, the Old State Capitol, the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), Wrigley Field, the home of Abraham Lincoln and locally Cahokia Mounds.
“SIUE is committed to environmental stability both inside and outside the classroom, and the Art and Design Building is testament to that,” said SIUE Chancellor Julie Furst-Bowe. “We’re grateful to the AIA for this select honor.”
Trivers Associate Joel Fuoss, AIA LEED AP and lead designer on the SIUE project, said both the University and design firm were committed to creating a sustainable building with the utmost provisions for both health and safety.
“Safety was a huge priority for all of us,” said Fuoss, adding that a special consultant was enlisted to protect the building’s occupants – particularly those teaching and learning art-related substances – of any potential environmental impact. “There is off-gassing (evaporation of volatile chemicals) and other substances utilized in art creation, and they’re not to be dealt with lightly,” he said. “As the design team, we were committed to recognizing and exemplifying the University’s goals and approach to a sustainable environment. To be recognized by the AIA for this project is truly exciting.”
The two-story building’s positioning of the drawing and painting studios on the north side of the upper floor offers artists many options for use of natural light. “The Art and Design Building, from the core, lauds the wonderful and extensive natural environment that surrounds the SIUE campus,” Fuoss said.
The new building’s second floor also houses the art education and faculty offices, with the university’s art gallery and art history auditorium on the ground level.
More than 95 percent of the construction debris from the project was recycled or reused, according to Fuoss. Eighty-four percent of locally sourced materials also contributed to the project’s AIA commendation. “Even the limestone for the facade was sourced within 500 miles of Edwardsville,” he said.
Incorporating the building addition’s design to complement and enhance the adjacent, original 47,000-square-foot Art and Design facility was a key design objective. “Making the addition highly visible to engage both the campus and the community with the arts was extremely important to the University,” said Fuoss. “The general design concept was to link to the rivers and bluffs that are prevalent in our area,” he said. “The pedestrian flow on the addition’s western side is metaphorical to the river flows.”
SIUE’s award-winning building uses 40 percent less water than a comparable facility that is not designed according to LEED Gold standards. Additional sustainable features include: the state-of-the art heating and air conditioning systems to reduce overall energy consumption by 26 percent; the use of prairie grass in landscaping to eliminate irrigation and set aside green space for the building; and occupancy sensors to regulate lighting when spaces are not in use.