To reflect their environmental and educational mission, The Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay hired Re:Vision Architecture to design a series of youthful green buildings that can also be used as teaching tools about environmental stewardship and green design. To kick-off the projects, RVA helped secure funding for a series of public design meetings ("charrettes") at each camp. In all, over one hundred designers (architects, engineers, Council staff, Girl Scouts, neighbors, volunteers, donors and legislators) helped to design high-performance spaces that reflect the core values of the Girl Scouts.
The flagship building within the expansion master plan is the LEED-Platinum rated Lynn W. Williams Science & Technology Lodge. This multi-functional program center was designed to facilitate a wide range of recreational and educational programs for The Girl Scouts, as well as serve as a multi-generational resource for the community. The building design stems from the natural resources available on the site, as well as the desire to minimize impact to the environmentally sensitive, sloped site. In response, the building is perched on the land and visitors enter across a bridge and exit onto a cantilevered sleeping porch that overlooks the wooded site. Throughout the passive solar building, there are strong indoor-outdoor connections to facilitate the flow of visitors between the building and the site beyond. From the minute a visitor enters the building, they can enjoy daylight, views, and natural ventilation from every key area in the building.
The “contemporary cottage” aesthetic of the building complements the existing farmhouse buildings on the site while providing a more distinctive and appealing public face to the complex.
Green Highlights:
- Achieved LEED NC Platinum certification (first Platinum certification in the state of Delaware)
- Passive solar design reduces the building’s reliance on mechanical and electrical systems
- Super insulation and a tight envelope in the form of structural insulated panels (SIPs) and bio-based spray foam further reduce energy consumption
- Emphasis on natural light and ventilation
- 12 kW PV Array provided over 43% of the building’s electricity in the first year of operation, twice the predicted contribution
- Solar thermal array provides domestic hot water
for the building
- Rainwater harvesting system uses water captured from the roof for toilet flushing; this is one of the first installations in the county
- Demonstration green roof on the pump house which is easily visible from the main outdoor deck
- Optical sensors detect the ambient light levels and automatically dim the lights when the sun is shining bright, thus helping to save energy.
- Occupancy sensors detect when rooms are vacant and automatically turn off lights that may have been left on.
- Recycled slag replaced 40% of the Portland cement in the concrete mixes, thereby lowering CO2 production associated with Portland cement manufacturing
- Energy Recovery Ventilators provide 100% preconditioned fresh outside air to improve energy efficiency within the building
- Natural, healthful, low-maintenance materials
were specified
- Over 90% of construction debris was salvaged or
recycled
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