PreDesign:

The U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Rating System was used in setting goals for the project before the design commenced. Benchmarking tours of other green projects and CBF's educational centers were influential in the design.

 

Design:

A peer review of the concept design was organized by the Sustainable Building Industries Council (funded by the Department of Energy) and included reviewers from the Maryland Energy Administration, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, World Wildlife Fund and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. An integrated approach to design was used, and in-house engineers worked closely with architects.

 

Construction:

Construction administration was performed by the team architect already familiar with the design and project goals. The contractor did not have a lot of experience with the building systems and the green process, and the project might have benefited if the contractor shared the client's goals.

 

Commissioning:

The owner used the design team, rather than an independent third-party, as Commissioning Agent. As a result, the contractor felt that the Commissioning Agent could not be a neutral arbiter. The contractor had a difficult time understanding the intent of commissioning systems as opposed to testing individual pieces of equipment.

 

 

Post-Occupancy:

CBF has done extensive work with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Department of Energy National Laboratory) to evaluate the performance of the building in terms of energy and resource efficiency.

An in-depth post-occupancy evaluation of human factors in the building was published in April, 2005. An online survey and in-person interviews of Merrill Center occupants were used to collect the information. The online survey tool used is from the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California at Berkeley. A report summarizing the results is available.

 

Source: https://buildingdata.energy.gov/project/chesapeake-bay-foundations-philip-merrill environmental-center