Building "green" for Nature Conservancy

Posted : 05/25/2010

The Indiana Nature Conservancy makes a statement with its new headquarters.

"As a global conservation organization, we should take a leadership role in portraying our values," says executive director Mary McConnell.  "I wanted to build the most sustainable building at an efficient price."

The Nature Conservancy's new downtown Indianapolis headquarters, The Efroymson Conservation Center, opens in February.  The Conservancy hopes the building will earn Indiana's first platinum designation from the U.S.  Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

The Nature Conservancy’s 35 employees will be heated and cooled with air from 38 geothermal wells dug into the Earth’s constant 55-degree layer below the frost line.  Natural light reaches every room in the building, a LEED requirement, even in the basement boardroom, which looks out to a “living wall” of native Indiana cliff-dwelling plants.  When lights are necessary, they will be “smart” ones that turn on and off automatically as illumination fluctuates.  Three on-site windmills will supplement electric power.

Wilhelm project manager Jeremy Ayres sticks closely to the design by Axis Architects’ lead architect Eric Anderson.   "I've never had a project that looks as close to the renderings the way this one has," says Anderson.

"Wilhelm's guys in the field did a very good job of bringing up issues that arise during construction: they have a good idea of the LEED process and what it requires," Anderson says.

Everything about the eye-catching, modern building is geared to conserving energy and resources.

The main surface of the exterior walls is brick recycled from the previous building on the site, Indiana limestone and Pennsylvania bluestone.  (The bluestone is from within the 500 miles radius LEED requires.)  Parts of the exterior and interior are cement board that resists rot and insects.

Ayres says, "The hardwood flooring and trim is milled from poplar, tulip and shagbark hickory harvested on Hoosier lands managed by The Conservancy.  That’s a neat feature."

On the roof, green plants absorb the sun's heat and capture rainwater.  The water is piped into a tank in the basement from which it is distributed for the building’s toilets and to irrigate plants.  In the parking lot, rainwater runs off concrete into permeable stone and below ground into a 48-inch PVC pipe.  The stored water seeps through the porous pipe into the ground.  The fully contained water system releases no water into Indianapolis’ overburdened storm sewers.

McConnell loves the results.

"Probably the greatest story of all is that we are paying a tiny premium for building and we will make it back quickly in energy efficiency," says McConnell. "We are not building a Cadillac, we are building a striking, energy-efficient, cost-effective Prius."

 

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