Last week we were invited to a special grand opening of the Cascade Meadows Center up in Rochester, MN along with Cemstone. We were able to sit through presentations on what made this project unique, the design principles around it, and the unique construction materials and  used to construct a building that’s sole purpose is to educate and teach children on new and innovative ways to save energy and conserve resources. (View previous blog on the Cascade Meadows Center )

There was the full array of solar power, photovoltaic systems, wind turbines, radiant floors, geothermal heat loop, as well as passive day lighting with a beautiful view (or it will be once the wetlands grows).

A couple of highlights I heard was that the geothermal uses the ground water from the lake next to the building, to pump through the system for the heating and cooling. Its a continuous cycle that will occur every day as its below the freeze line for the water. Also, the aggregate mix for the concrete in the ICF wall all came from the lake as well  as they were digging it out to expand the wetland, they pumped all the sediment to the nearby ready mix facility and they in turn used it for the concrete mix design! Hows that for regional materials!

Sustainable Strategies

Numerous strategies were in place for the construction of the Cascade Meadows Center. The site and the design was based all around the concept of water, deliberately using the form of water and the natural watersheds in the area. The construction manger identified 5 different strategies for Storm water management.Some other notable features:

• Insulating concrete forms and sips were used for the walls and roof line respectively, along with hollow plank floors.

• Basement ceilings stuck out of the ground and had green roofs on them

• Roof overhang served as a rainwater harvesting system to ruse for non-potable uses, fire mitigation, and or to send back to the lake.

They used the integrated design approach to get the general contractor, owners and the architect all involved from the initial phase in order to make decisions together  so construction will go smoothly and so the owner would be satisfied with his building.

Insulating Concrete Form Nature Center Pictures

Here is a selection of photos from the Cascade Meadows Science Center, one showing the construction phase and the other showing the exterior completed from the front. There are so many elements to this nature center I want to share in later posts, including the thought process behind the design of the building and highlights from the construction waste recycling program they implemented, as well as some of the interior displays and goals the center has for the public.

More photos viewable at banksphotos.com

Come back soon for further posts on this project.

Carleton College is up for the 2010 annual Greensite awards in the Institutional category. We have blogged numerous times on this project, its sustainable properties and the efforts of the college to to receive a LEED Gold certification. So along with an ICFA, ICF Builder, and Minnesota ARM award, this project wants YOUR votes so we can add to its trophy case!

(Catch up on this ICF dormitory)

To read about the Greensite awards and to view Carleton College entry go to the official Greensite page.

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To skip reading over everything, and just trust us that this is the best project of the bunch just go ahead…

VOTE for Carleton College

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Project Details:
Quantity of Insulating Concrete Forms – 2,200 13″ Forms

Ready Mix used: 11,000 cubic yards

The Cascade Meadow Science Center is a research and education facility dedicated to environmental education, with a focus on energy, water and wetlands. Upon completion, the Center will house a reception area, interactive exhibit spaces, a large conference and meeting space, a science lab for the study of native wetlands, a conference room, and offices for staff and on-site educators. The grounds will feature a restored wetland and lake with outdoor learning stations and trails.

In pursuit of LEED® Platinum Certification, one component of the 16,000 square foot center is Reward® Insulating Concrete Form (ICF) technology for the above grade exterior walls. ICFs offer many sustainability benefits for both commercial and residential structures, including energy savings of up to 50-80 percent over traditional wood framed buildings. ICF walls have also been tested to withstand tornado winds exceeding 200 mph. They are far quieter and provide for a clean indoor air environment that eliminates the possibility of mold growth within the exterior walls.

“The Cascade Meadows Science Center will serve as a catalyst for meaningful and enduring learning that promotes sustainable living through exhibits, events, seminars, conventions and more. Cemstone and Reward are proud to play a role in this important and significant endeavor by demonstrating how the use of ICF technology can help create a more sustainable structure.   The ICF portion of the Cascade Meadow Science Center went really smoothly. We’ve done several ICF projects together with Reward and Cemstone. It’s easy construction in terms of design – and our contractor has lots of ICF experience. The most important advantage for the building owner is energy efficiency and a higher R-value. In addition, ICF buildings are quieter inside, which is very important in many residential applications.  Using concrete in an ICF building also helps contribute to LEED points. It’s also a benefit to LHB to have representatives from Reward and Cemstone available to answer questions. We’d recommend ICF construction – the buildings speak for themselves!”

Anne Ryan, Project Architect, LHB, Inc.

See the updated blog post with finished pictures of the Cascade Meadows Wetlands and Environmental Science Center.

ICF Construction and Design Team

Owner: Pegasus Group/Carleton College
Architect: LHB
General Contractor: J.E. Dunn Construction
ICF Installer: Northland Concrete and Masonry
ICF Distributor: Cemstone

Some Cool ICF Pictures

The picture above shows a sunny, however frigid day in Minnesota. If you have been up there in the winter months you know it can get pretty serious. But with the dorms needing to be ready for fall semester they worked through the winter in sub freezing temperatures. Many days hit below zero, but luckily ICFs allow for concrete placement and curing with sub freezing temperatures.

This picture below is a meat thermometer(highly sophisticated measurement) stuck in an ICF and the concrete after placement. It shows what the curing temperature is of the concrete…100 degrees. The outside air temperature was under 20 degrees.

Finished Insulating Concrete Form School

Please enjoy the pictures of this awarding winning school.

As the year goes on and hopefully this projects racks up a couple more awards and we’ll post some updates on the continual energy use and any more ambitions from that campus.

Once in awhile an opportunity comes up where we can get our product on TV. It worked out at the end of the year in 2009 to partner with Hometime on PBS, as they planned to build the foundation of a beautiful home out of ICFs just outside of Minneapolis. The show also teamed up with Cemstone, and their pretty blue trucks, in Minnesota for the concrete placement.

Below is the show broken into 5 parts, for ease of downloading. If you would like to request a full version to use for your home shows involving Reward please contact us and we will see what we can do.

I got rid of the embedded players, so to view videos they will download and start when you click a link. Files sizes range from 5mb to 10mb, so please be patient.

ICFs on Hometime Part 1

ICFs on Hometime Part 2

ICFs on Hometime Part 3

ICFs on Hometime Part 4

ICFs on Hometime Part 5

ICF Project Statistics

• Location: Northfield, Minn.
• Type: MultiFamily—Two Student Residence Halls
• Size: 91,536 sq. ft. (floor) 52,150 + 39,376
• ICF Use: 63,840 sq. ft. (walls)
• Height: 4 stories plus gables
• Cost: $26 million (budgeted)

Live Energy Use Data

One of the unique features of the project is that there are energy use monitors installed in the Residence Halls. This allows the school to track energy use per building, per floor, and for each individual dorm rooms as well. They can identify energy hogs, and maybe advise heavy energy offenders how to cut energy use as well. This is a huge advantage when educating responsible behaviors to students and getting them thinking about the cost of energy.

Along with energy use monitors, they also have the ability to track the energy creation through photo-voltaics and steam generation as well. Those systems were put in place to help heat the water and to offset energy use. Carleton understood the importance of securing the building envelope so it made sense to add P/V systems.

Energy creation is good…and seems to be the only thing to get the government’s attention…but won’t be a feasible source (cost wise) if buildings don’t start limiting their energy consumption. ICFs can limit a building’s energy use! See their live energy use data.

Beyond the Insulating Concrete Form

Carleton College has identified over 36 distinct green attributes to these buildings, other than the use of ICFs and fly ash in the concrete. From reflective roof tiles, to using local vegetation for landscaping, this college is on the leading edge of sustainability.

As you can see there are wonderful things going on in the ICF world up in Minnesota. Next week we’ll go over the star contributors to this project and show some great cold weather concreting pictures.

This was one of our favorite projects for 2009. There were so many features to these buildings and Carleton College truly showed their commitment to a sustainable campus. In the next few posts I will attempt to give our due diligence to this project, show you different construction phases and the finished project as well. Carleton College Residence Halls also won an ICF Builder Award, which was announced at World of Concrete 2010.

Building Energy Modeling Analysis

A building energy modeling analysis (from The Weidt Group) was completed during design, and it was determined that total energy consumption would decrease a minimum of 28% compared to a standard baseline building performance. Carleton did not install ANY A/C as well due to the tight thermal envelope created by ICFs. I asked Maureen Ness, AIA, LEED AP, CDT, with LHB to explain how the modeling worked:

“It basically shows that by spending $54,941 more than a typical building on specific energy-saving strategies, the annual energy savings will be $29,476. There are a lot of factors in the modeling and one of them that we’ve seen on non-air conditioned housing projects is that you don’t really get credit for not air-conditioning, even though that is a lot of savings over a conventional building.”

The total payback, of the additional costs, of making these ICF Dormitories energy efficient is 1.5 years!

(Do you want an energy analysis done on your current home being designed? We are offering a free energy analysis to show you the dramatic savings you can get with ICFs.)

Sustainable features of Carleton College

Overall, Carleton College has identified over 36 distinct aspects to these building that are considered sustainable features. From low flush toilets that will save 30% on water, to copper tiles on southern facing roofs to deflect heat gain, LED lighting, as well as natural foliage planted around campus that is sturdy and weather resistant. All of these features are contributing to their LEED Gold certification.

Next week, we will show you all the live energy data from the school as well as some more highlights of this project. In the meantime check out the rest of our highlighted ICF projects or our ICF gallery section on rewardwalls.com.