Cambria Office - Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

Categories:

Description:

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's second green office building, Cambria, has more green features and a higher level of environmental awareness than PA DEP's first building—the South Central Regional Office Building. This 36,000 ft2 facility, designed for approximately 125 occupants, has collected data and documented many facets of its green design initiatives.

Preferred carpool parking, a bicycle rack, and shower facilities for employees encourage alternative transportation programs and physical fitness activities. A natural gas fueling facility services alternative-fuel maintenance vehicles. The building is also located near a bus line.

Cambria's site selection, building placement, and parking layouts were integrated with existing site conditions in order to eliminate negative impacts on existing wetlands and to minimize the removal of existing trees.The parking areas utilize grass planting pervious parking surfacing in order to minimize stormwater runoff. Impervious paving is limited to circulation aisles.

The exterior lighting design reduces light pollution. Required clearing of existing vegetation was limited to a maximum of 25 ft (7.6 m) from the building perimeter. The building is oriented along an east-west axis in order to maximize south and north solar exposures. High-albedo roofing materials and strategic planting of deciduous trees help reduce "heat island" effects. A significant portion of the site was left undisturbed. Indigenous plantings and other landscaping efforts resulted in no net increase in the rate of stormwater leaving the site.

Ground-source heat pumps are linked to a closed-loop, ground-source heat pump well field that provides HVAC heating and cooling supply as well as domestic hot water heating. Raised-access flooring provides an underfloor supply air plenum for displacement heating and cooling air distribution through floor-mounted air diffusers.

A 14.3 kW PV array mounted on south-facing sloped roofs provides 28% of the total energy costs. Several of these PV panels are mounted on solar tracking devices.

More infromation can be found at http://leedcasestudies.usgbc.org/site.cfm?ProjectID=47

Location:

Ebenburg, Pennsylvania 15931

Square Footage:

36000ft.

Primary Contact:

Jim Toothaker, Department of Environmental Protection, Rachel Carson Building, P.O. Box 8473 Harrisburg, PA 17105-8473 717-787-4190 (Architecture Contact) John Boecker, L. Robert Kimball and Associates, 4400 Dear Path Road, Suite 105 Harrisburg, PA 17110 717-221-0770 http://www.lrkimball.com/

Start Date:

01/01/2000

Completion Date:

09/01/2000

Attached Photos:

Members:

Request to be listed as a contributor to this project >