Research & Consulting

Green Buildings

Green Classrooms

Forest (Re)Building

Charrettes & Conferences

Graduate Theses Research

The IBE has been carrying out its goals through various projects, charrettes and research since 1995.

City of Ft. Collins Transit Center at CSU
The City of Ft. Collins Transit Center is a 2006 addition to the Lory Student Center on the Colorado State University campus. The Transit Center has been awarded LEED-NC Gold Certification by the United States Green Building Council. LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. Some of the green features at the Transit Center include low-flow water fixtures, low-emitting materials, indoor air quality management, and over 85% construction waste management.

Institute for the Built Environment (IBE) staff and student interns have provided green building research and LEED coordination and documentation for the Transit Center project team. On top of support, IBE students prepared content for permanent educational panels for display in the Transit Center lobby.

Burr Oak
Burr Oak is a tenant-owned office building being constructed in south Fort Collins. The building tenants, John Dengler Architects and BHA Design, Landscape Architects, lead the planning and design for the two-story building. The project team has focused on making a high performance sustainable building to support the firms’ commitment to sustainability and green design.

IBE staff and student interns are providing LEED support and documentation for the Burr Oak project team. By attending project meetings, offering advice, and assisting the team with specific LEED documentation, the Burr Oak office building is on its way to achieving LEED-NC 2.2 certification.

Colorado’s New Central Resource for Energy in Buildings Information
The Institute for the Built Environment is partnering with The Brendle Group as primary recipient of a Colorado Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation (OEMC) grant focused on creating a central resource related to energy efficiency and renewable energy for Colorado building professionals. This central resource consists of a website, events calendar, educational events, and links to energy information for all building professionals

IBE is providing assistance in the content development for the website as well as updating the events calendar. IBE is also taking the lead in developing the educational events that will inform Colorado’s architects, engineers, builders, designers, and others of this new central resource.

Dorsey Residence
The Dorsey Residence is a state of the art high performance home built in Old Town Fort Collins. This home was designed by a collaborative team lead by Denny Sovick Design-Builders and Archer Homes. The design team employed the LEED for Homes guidelines and the Built Green rating system. The home owners are interested in achieving LEED Certification under the LEED for Homes Pilot Program. This home features many green characteristics, such as a geo-thermal heat pump with radiant floor heating, low-flow water fixtures, xeric landscaping, environmentally preferable products and materials, a tankless hot water heater, and PV electric panels on the roof.

The green home project is serving as the focus of thesis research for Amy Kreye, one of IBE’s graduate interns. The research involves comparing four different residential green building rating systems or guidelines based on this particular home. As part of this work, Amy has supported the project team by assisting in the LEED for Homes pilot process.

7 Generations Office Park
The 7 Generations development is located just east of Timberline Road in SE Ft. Collins, near the intersection of Eastbrook and Vermont Drives. The development is designed for 50,000 square feet of ownable and leaseable office space. The 7 Generations project team is committed to high quality sustainable design and construction features and seeks to become the premier green office complex in the Fort Collins region.

In 2006, IBE conducted two half-day charrettes for the 7 Generations project team. Through the charrette process, many green ideas and goals were developed by the entire project team and various other participants. IBE will continue to support the Eastbrook project team, including RB+B Architects and Dohn Construction through the LEED certification process.

North Flats Townhomes
The North Flats development is part of a new residential development called Old Town North. North Flats will consist of eight six-plexes, reaching a total of 48 residences. The developers are seeking to bring a distinctive new product to Fort Collins by providing affordable green urban living and they hope to serve as a model for future urban development.

IBE facilitated a design charrette for the North Flats project team, led by Greg Fischer Architecture. The charrette participants developed significant green goals to guide the project team through design and construction.

Sundance Offices
Sundance is a professional and medical office building located in Loveland, Colorado. It is being developed and partially occupied by a dental practice with the remaining spaces ready for tenant fit out. Due to the nature of the project, the project team elected to participate in the LEED Core and Shell pilot program.

IBE staff and student interns are researching and assisting the project team in green design and construction decisions. IBE is also responsible for managing and reviewing LEED documentation.

Academic Village at Colorado State University
The New Academic Village is a project on the Colorado State University campus. It is designed as an on-campus living/learning laboratory. Two buildings will provide living accommodations and class rooms while a third building will function as a dining facility and house other community services. The project has goals of implementing many green features as well as being a “building that teaches.” Located in a campus setting, it is a perfect opportunity for campus and community members to learn about the benefits and details of specific green features.

IBE staff and student interns have served in an advisory capacity for the project. IBE participated in the planning stages by researching possible green features, giving suggestions, and assisting the project team in the decision-making process. In addition, IBE agreed to compile and draft Sustainable Design Guidelines for CSU Housing and Dining Services. Upon approval and implementation, the guidelines will insure that all future new and remodeled buildings operated and maintained by Housing and Dining will be green, high performance facilities.

Green Building Video Series & Colorado Green Consortium
The Green Building in the Rockies video series is a production of the Colorado Green Consortium (CGC) in association with The Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University. The CGC is comprised of Colorado State University, MediaTech Productions of Ft. Collins, and Porter Industries of Loveland, Colorado. The videos were designed and scripted by IBE and produced and edited by MediaTech Productions.

The initial video was produced in 2005 and is entitled, Sustaining Our Communities. The next two videos in the series, Greening New Construction and Greening Existing Buildings, were scripted and produced in 2006 with an official release in November. Clips of the videos and more information can be found at http://www.greenconsortium.com.

New Belgium Brewing
New Belgium Brewing, is on a continual mission to discover practices and technologies that are energy efficient and socially responsible. New Belgium has particularly focused on sustainable practices such as green building, greenhouse gas reductions, healthy watersheds, resource efficiency, recycling, clean energy and corporate sustainability.

In partnership with The Brendle Group, IBE has been working with New Belgium Brewing on their corporate sustainability education and implementation of higher forms of sustainable business practices, also know as a Sustainable Management System. In addition, IBE staff and students have done research work such as green roof design and permeable paving for New Belgium’s Ft. Collins Brewery.

PAST PROJECTS

Green Classrooms of Guggenheim Hall
Guggenheim Hall is a historic building on the Colorado State University campus, built in 1910. Guggenheim is home to Construction Management program, so there were many opportunities to engage students and faculty in this unique project. Considerable collaboration between the department and industry made this sustainable project a great success.

The project was chosen to take part in the LEED-CI (Commercial Interiors) pilot program and became the first university to received LEED-CI v1.0 Silver Certification in 2006. In addition to providing a great space for learning coursework, the green classrooms of Guggenheim Hall also teach design and construction students about the benefits of green building.
IBE advised the project concerning green building strategies and techniques and also facilitated the LEED-CI process.

Urban Horticulture Outreach Center - Colorado State University

The IBE facilitated a workshop with 25 campus and community members from diverse backgrounds to begin design efforts for an environmentally sustainable campus building and landscape for this new Outreach Center. Colorado State instructor Joe McGrane has led the site plan design efforts.

Fossil Ridge High School
Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Colorado is strongly committed to sustainable design, particularly minimizing energy use in their school buildings. The District routinely follows a set of internally develop Sustainable Design Guidelines that has resulted in a collection of nationally renowned K-12 facilities.

As the project team developed the sustainable school design for Fossil Ridge High School project, LEED certification was not an initial design goal. At the urging of a project consultant, the district decided to seek LEED certification toward the end of the design process. Due to the strong integrated design approach led by RB+B Architects, the project received a LEED-NC Silver rating from the US Green Building Council.

IBE has a long standing partnership with the Poudre School District and has participated in the development of their Sustainable Design Guidelines, performed green building research for Zach and Bacon Elementary Schools, and coordinated, documented and submitted the complete LEED package for the Fossil Ridge High School project.

Sustainable Elementary School Prototype - Poudre School District

Stepping in as the Green Building Research Consultants for the new elementary school, the IBE researched materials for various building components. The goal of the research was to rate the sustainability of materials being considered for use and offer guidance on selection. The IBE worked in conjunction with RB+B Architects, Ft. Collins and Poudre R-1 Facilities.

REI - Denver

IBE faculty and students have been involved in researching the REI Denver building, a large renovation project near downtown Denver. The project, designed by Mithun Architects and renovated in 2000 by Hensel Phelps, Inc., has received awards and acclaim from historic preservationists, architects, retailers, and constructors. IBE has been involved in a 3 part research project to determine:

1. if the project could be certified as a "green building,"
2. if the multifaceted collaboration can be used as a model for other retailers, and
3. if the sustainable design approach and the effort to preserve the history of the building have made an impact on store customers.

Last updated on May 23, 2007