From Green to Gold: Svigals + Partners and Yale University Earn National Recognition for Country’s First Sustainable Lab Renovation
Groundbreaking Design Earns LEED Certification from U.S. Green Building Council

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Three and a half years ago, New Haven architectural firm, Svigals + Partners, and Yale University set their sights on silver. By going green. And they ultimately achieved gold – by successfully completing the nation’s first LEED CI certified sustainable laboratory renovation.

It all started in November 2003, when the Yale School of Medicine decided to renovate the third floor of its Sterling Hall’s C-wing (commonly referred to as C-3), a 16,439 square foot space originally constructed in the 1920s. In keeping with campus sustainability goals, the University turned to the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards to earn LEED certification for the project.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted standard developed by the USBGC, a coalition of leaders from across the construction industry dedicated to making buildings environmentally responsible or “green.” LEED certification distinguishes building projects that have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability by meeting the highest performance standards. Certification is awarded on four levels: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

However, the University faced a challenge when it contacted LEED for its lab renovation standards prior to initiating the C-wing project.

“A LEED standard for sustainable laboratory renovations did not exist to work with or measure success by,” said Virginia Chapman, director, facilities construction and renovation, Yale School of Medicine. “Therefore, we opted to use the C-3 project [as outlined in the grant received for this project from the Yale Green Fund] as a case study for development of a LEED standard for laboratory renovations – a standard that could then be applied to all future projects at the Medical School and central campus… as well as any other lab renovation project undertaken elsewhere in the United States.”

Yale hired Svigals + Partners to work with the University on the project.

“Our goal in entering into the C-wing project was two-fold,” explained Robert Skolozdra, associate at Svigals + Partners and project architect. “To provide a benchmark for future lab renovations at Yale – and nationwide – and to make this a LEED certified laboratory. We hoped to achieve LEED silver certification, since this was the first project of its kind attempted by Yale – and no standards existed for comparisons. Obviously, we were absolutely delighted to learn we had exceeded that goal and instead earned a LEED gold rating.”

Completed in late spring, 2006, the renovated third floor of Sterling Hall’s C-wing currently houses the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Neurobiology. The space as it is now designed and built incorporates a variety of sustainable design features – including rapidly renewable materials, such as “agboard” made from wheat straw and insulation manufactured from recycled blue jeans. As such, it provides an excellent example for Yale to use as a standard for forthcoming laboratory renovations, Skolozdra said.

“Earning LEED certification makes this the first LEED Commercial Interiors (CI) renovation project in the state of Connecticut, one of only 61general CI projects certified nationwide and the first involving a laboratory renovation,” he reported.

According to Skolozdra, the Svigals + Partners design team faced a number of challenges in its sustainability plan for the C-wing, key among them meeting the energy code requirements set by LEED for office buildings – since no standard existed for laboratories.

“Compared to a typical office building, laboratories consume tremendous quantities of energy in the form of water and electricity,” Skolozdra stated. “However, we were able to reduce water consumption by 34.78 percent, thereby earning points toward gold certification.”

The project earned additional LEED points for several other significant achievements:
• Utilizing adhesives, sealants, paints, coatings, carpet systems, furniture, seating and composite woods with low or no toxic gassing.
• Ensuring 86 percent of all spaces occupied for visual tasks have access to daylight and views.
• Diverting more than 85 percent of construction, demolition and packaging debris to uses other than landfill.

Additionally it earned a special recognition for displaying “innovation [in the] design process” and “exemplary performance for…[use of] rapidly renewable materials.”

Each of these considerations and many more played a critical role in allowing Yale and Svigals + Partners to achieve LEED gold certification for the project, indicated Barry Svigals, managing partner, Svigals + Partners.

“This is a tremendous accomplishment for Yale and our firm,” he stated, “and we’re very proud we were part of the team that made it happen.”

Other team members included R.G. Vanderweil Engineers, LLP, a Boston-based multi-disciplinary consulting engineering firm specializing in electrical and mechanical system design; The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Baltimore, one of the nation’s largest domestic general builders; and The RETEC Group Inc., New Haven, Conn., an environmental management consulting and engineering firm. 

Yale President Richard C. Levin committed the University in 2005 to reducing its greenhouse gas
emissions to 10 percent below its 1990 levels by the year 2020 through a variety of means, including a strong energy conservation program of which facility construction and renovation is an important component. To meet its goals, Yale will reduce emissions by 43 percent.