April 20, 2017

Mithun and ZGF win COTE awards

Photo by Bruce Damonte [enlarge]

Mithun says Chatham University’s Eden Hall Campus in Pennsylvania is the world’s first net-positive campus.

Photo by Proehl Studios [enlarge]

ZGF Architects’ design for this facility at Stanford University is the heart of the campus energy system.

Mithun and ZGF Architects both won 2017 Top Ten Awards from the AIA Committee on the Environment. The awards focus on sustainable design.

AIA said in a press release that the winners integrate design and performance.

Submissions had to show how each project aligns with COTE's criteria for social, economic and ecological value.

All the recipients will be honored at the 2017 AIA Conference on Architecture April 27-29 in Orlando. Go to http://tiny.cc/bocnky for all the winners.

Mithun's winning project is Chatham University's Eden Hall Campus in Richland Township, Pennsylvania.

The firm said this is the world's first net-positive campus, and houses Falk School of Sustainability. The campus generates more energy than it uses. It also is a water resource, produces food, recycles nutrients, and supports habitat and healthy soils while educating people who are interested in environmental stewardship. The buildings, landscape and infrastructure all support an active research environment. New building forms, outdoor gathering spaces and artwork all help to interpret natural site systems, while making sustainable strategies transparent.

ZGF Architects' winning project is Stanford University's Central Energy Facility in Stanford, California.

The high-tech facility is the heart of Stanford's campus-wide energy system. The systems replace a 100 percent fossil-fuel-based cogeneration plant with primarily electrical power — 65 percent of which comes from renewable sources — and an innovative heat recovery system. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and the use of fossil fuels and water.

The facility has a net-positive-energy administrative building, a heat recovery chiller plant, a cooling and heating plant, a service yard, and a new electrical substation for the campus. It was designed to integrate with the surrounding campus.