Kendeda Building’s construction marks completion of first large LBC project in Deep South

This article was adapted from a similar post on The Kendeda Fund’s Living Building Chronicle web publication.

In the closing days of construction on the Southeast’s largest Living Building Challenge project, work was hitting a familiar rhythm for veteran contractors.

Most tradespeople had packed up and left, but those still on the job were tying up loose ends feverishly. Much of the focus had turned to the landscape, where fall plantings will continue even after Skanska USA turns control of the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design over to the Georgia Institute of Technology.

In the weeks before, however, things were a lot more hectic.

Take the 18-hour August day endured by Skanska USA’s Jimmy Mitchell and his colleague Matt Williams.

“We get in at 5:30 in the morning to open up the site and get everybody working at six.” said Mitchell, Skanska’s sustainability leader on the project. “And then the opportunity presents itself at around 4 [p.m.] that we can finish [an interior air quality] test if we stay until 11:30 [p.m.]. And we say to each other, ‘Yeah, let’s stay. Let’s get finished and knock out this milestone.’ … Then, we come back this morning and start it up again. It’s kind of a wild time.”

It has been a challenging but invigorating journey. Georgia Tech announced in September 2015 that the Kendeda Fund had granted $30 million to the university to build a 42,000-square-foot building to LBC standards, and then to operate and certify it. It would be the first building in Georgia designed and constructed to achieve Living Building Certification—meeting all seven Petals and 20 Imperatives.

The Kendeda Fund’s goal for the building was fairly ambitious: To kickstart the regenerative design and construction movement in the Southeast, and to demonstrate that it can be done in hot and humid climates.

In March 2016, a team led by architects Lord Aeck Sargent and The Miller Hull Partnership won an “ideas competition” to design the building, which will look out over the campus’ Eco-Commons, a soon-to-be-restored landscape. That September, Georgia Tech announced that Skanska would serve as construction manager.

A series of charrettes and workshops followed — replete with education about regenerative design and construction. Among the sessions were a workshop on biophilic design, and various gatherings to come up with ways to meet and perhaps exceed the LBC’s Equity Petal.

It was unlike the design process for any previous building on Georgia Tech’s 400-acre campus. Forty-plus architects, mechanical engineers, landscape architects, structural engineers, contractors, consultants, university administrators, facility managers and other specialists often shared the room together.

The design team was assembled with the idea that it would help to build a knowledge base for regenerative design in the region. Seattle-based Miller Hull, architects of the Bullitt Center and other Living Buildings, played a lead design role early on; Atlanta-based LAS took on an increasing share as the calendar moved forward. That relationship was mirrored by the mechanical engineers: PAE Engineers of Portland, Oregon, mechanical engineers for the Bullitt Center, teamed up with Atlanta-based Newcomb & Boyd, for whom this was the first LBC project.

“A lot of our projects use integrated design. But this was different. Everything was much more integrated and collaborative,” Georgia Tech Senior Project Manager John DuConge recalled recently. “I’ll give you one way to think about it. We believe we do a particularly good job of getting teams to integrate landscape design and mechanical systems into the architecture. With this project, the performance requirements necessitated that we integrate a much broader range of design disciplines into the early stages of the process.”

Like other Living Building projects, the Kendeda Building drove its share of innovations. In an upcoming series of columns for the Kendeda Living Building Chronicle, team members share those challenges and solutions, Petal by Petal. Some of the highlights:

• Chris Hellstern, Miller Hull’s Living Building Challenge services director, points to the Material Task Force’s work with Kawneer, a manufacturer of storefront and curtainwall systems based in metro Atlanta: “Kawneer’s work on the Kendeda project helped the company remove Red List ingredients from the curtainwall systems that were used on the building. The company took an additional step by providing Declare Label documentation for many of its products to promote transparency.”
• Erin English of Biohabitats helped to analyze and design the water system for the building and the grounds. She points to the restorative approach the building takes to the surrounding ecosystem and the example it sets for people by not relying on the overly stressed Chattahoochee River for drinking water.
• Mechanical Engineer Todd Mowinski explains that the design team settled on two primary strategies to reduce humidity. One strategy is dedicated to outside air “to decouple space cooling from dehumidification.”  The other is to use air curtains at every entrance “to keep moisture from finding its way into the building.”
• Mowinski points to another unique feature, which could model an idea for regenerative projects on other campuses. In the process of producing high-temperature condenser water for the building’s radiant floor, two chillers inside the building will export their cold-water byproduct to the campus’ chilled water loop, “lightening the load on the campus plants, not unlike when the buildings photovoltaic array exports excess electricity to the campus power network.”

In fall 2017, the project faced a critical moment. The Kendeda Building was completing its design process just as national construction was booming. Bids were coming in higher than expected — higher still when subcontractors were unsure about specifications that differed from the typical project. DuConge, who was tasked with overseeing the project, convened Skanska and design team leaders to figure out how to pare the budget.

It was a painful process. Some popular ideas were jettisoned, but many of the changes actually improved sustainability measures. Clerestory windows in the atrium were downsized; even though that detracted from daylighting, the height of the building was reduced to save materials and moderate systems requirements. A garage-style door between the auditorium and the atrium also was made smaller, improving the interior separations between two different HVAC systems.

The cuts also forced the design team to reduce the size of the building from 42,000 square feet to 37,000. But even that step ended up doubling down on a practice common to LBC projects: Rely on non-conditioned and outdoor spaces where possible. Even as they downsized the interior, 10,000 square feet of programmable exterior spaces were enhanced, including an outdoor classroom on the green deck over the auditorium.

Site preparation finally began in early 2018, with construction expected to take about 18 months.

“We had never done a project like this,” DuConge says. “But we benefited from the fact that we had team members with experience on Living Buildings.”

Among those LBC veterans were Hellstern, the Miller Hull architect who serves as the firm’s internal expert on Living Building projects. Hellstern stressed the need to settle on a clear process to research and select materials and products early in the design phase. That would reduce the chances that during construction hard-to-find items might arrive onsite late and cause delays.

While the early start on vetting materials helped, the fact that the Kendeda Building was the first large LBC project in the Deep South did present supply-chain challenges. One example: Forest Stewardship Council certified wood is difficult to procure in the Southeast. The team ended up having to contract with an Upstate New York company for its glue-laminated posts and beams.

And then came the rains. Topping off above 70 inches, 2018 turned out to be the second-wettest year on record in Atlanta. 2019 started out extremely rainy as well. By the time the torrents ended, most of the construction work had moved inside.

The delays kicked back the “substantial completion” date — when Skanska turns the controls over to Georgia Tech — from an early projection of June 1 to Sept. 13.

Georgia Tech’s decision to extend a “soft opening” through the fall and to hold off on regularly scheduled classes in the building until January 2020 has provided some breathing room. Meanwhile, the building won’t be idle. More than 60 events have already been scheduled in the building this fall. Among them: An Oct. 24 building dedication, and a tour associated with the U.S. Green Building Council’s massive Greenbuild conference in November.

“There are always things you can look back at and say, ‘We could have moved faster,’” DuConge says. “Overall, though, the team did a pretty good job of keeping things moving.”

The project team plans to have loose ends such as minor electric work and punch-list items wrapped up by the time of the dedication. One challenge familiar for LBC projects became a focus last month in a meeting between key stakeholders. Per Living Building requirements, The Kendeda Building must treat rainwater to supply potable water to sinks, showers and drinking fountains. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) is requiring that the building obtain its own municipal water permit, much like a utility.

Before that permit is issued, the onsite treatment system must undergo 30 days of testing and show that the treated water is safe and reliable. The test is anticipated to begin in mid-September. During the testing period, Georgia Tech will provide temporary, stand-alone sinks and water coolers. After the test, the building will use City of Atlanta water until EPD confirms that the onsite system is safe and grants the permit.

“Some of the items that need to be resolved are unusual, but [the late rush of work is] not really that different from what happens on any building. You always have these things,” Lord Aeck Sargent architect Alissa Kingsley said as she stood on the second floor in mid-August, looking down on the building’s atrium. “I’m just incredibly eager to see it open.”

Cover image courtesy of the Georgia Institute of Technology.