Colorado Court Housing
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Colorado Court Housing is a 44-unit housing project designed by the architectural firm Pugh + Scarpa. Colorado Court is the first
United States Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...
(USGBC) "LEED" certified multi-family housing project, achieving "Gold" certification. Located at the corner of a main offramp of the Santa Monica freeway, Colorado Court's highly visible position makes it gateway to the city of
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. The 44-unit, five-story building is the first affordable-housing project the United States to be
LEED certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
and is nearly 100% energy neutra
(Colorado Court Movie Clip)
This project is an excellent model of sustainable development in an urban environment, provides a model for private/public partnerships benefit the community, and promotes diversity in an urban environment through strategically placed affordable housing. Careful attention to the placement and siting of the building has created natural ventilation system. The building's location, orientation, and shape take into account prevailing winds and exposure to the
sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
. As a result, only one small section of the office space on the ground floor is equipped with
air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
. The design of windows further maximizes both ventilation and light levels; for example, special attention was paid to shading and window glazes to mediate southern and western exposures.


Building data

* Location: Santa Monica, CA, USA * Building type(s): Multi-unit residential, Special needs housing, New construction, 30,200 sq. feet (2,800 sq. meters) * Project scope: 5-story building, Urban setting * Completed November 2002 * Rating: U.S. Green Building Council LEED-NC, v2—Level: Gold (44 points)


Environmental aspects

Innovative sustainable energy technologies developed for Colorado Court include natural gas turbine
cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
system that generates the base electrical load and provides the building's hot water needs.
Photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
s integrated into the facade and roof supply most of the peak-load energy demand. Unused energy from these solar panels is fed into the grid during daytime hours and retrieved from the grid at night as needed. The "green electricity" produced at the building site releases no pollutants into the environment. Prevailing breezes cool the building, which has no air conditioning. The building also collects rainwater runoff from the entire city block behind the property funnels it into a series of underground chambers. The water slowly percolates back into soil, which filters the pollutants from the water while preventing contaminated water spilling into Santa Monica Bay.


Energy

The building is sited for climate responsive, passive solar design. The building has three arms that reach out to the prevailing breezes, inducing cross ventilation through every unit. It is organized so that over 90% of the glazing is on the north and south facades. The south facade is shaded by a series of abstract fins and solar panels. The building produces on-site electricity through a combination of solar panels and a natural-gas fired micro turbine. These two on-site electricity-generating systems, have the capacity to meet 100% of the building's electricity consumption. The utility grid serves as a buffer to smooth out any mismatch between building demand and site generation supply. Waste heat from the operation of the micro turbine is employed to generate hot water for domestic use and for space heating via a hydronic radiator heating system. The units are kept cool with a combination of window placement for cross ventilation; double-glazed, krypton-filled, low-e windows with stainless steel spacers; and blown-in recycled
cellulose insulation Cellulose insulation is plant fiber used in wall and roof cavities to insulate, draught proof and reduce noise. Building insulation in general is low- thermal-conductivity material used to reduce building heat loss and gain and reduce noise tr ...
that boosts the thermal value of the wall to 75% above a conventional, type-five wall and reduces envelope infiltration. Building appliances are highly efficient. The specially selected refrigerators consume only 1 kWh per day per unit. Light switches employ motion sensors to avoid wasting energy indoors and outdoors and compact fluorescent lights are used throughout the building.“Utopian Visions Continue to Shape Affordable Architecture,” Los Angeles Business Journal, June 28, 2004.


Awards and honors

* 2004 Exhibit at the National Building Museum, Washington, DC * 2003 National AIA Honor Award for Design Excellence * 2003 National AIA “COTE” Top Ten Green Building Award * 2003 National AIA PIA Award for Design Excellence * 2003 AIACC Honor Awards for Design Excellence * 2003 LA/AIA Honor Awards for Design Excellence * 2003
Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...
, Silver Medal * 2002 BHS&F World Habitat Award Finalist * 2001 Westside Prize for Urban Design


References

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External links


Colorado Court
LEED Case Study Data
Colorado Court Case Study
US Dept. of Energy
Colorado Court Detailed Case Study
by the Bruner Foundation
Colorado Court
at the American Institute of Architects

University of California at Berkeley

Modernist architecture in California Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California Landmarks in Los Angeles Residential buildings completed in 2002 2002 establishments in California