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$3 Million Gift to UC Davis for Sustainable Winery

DAVIS, Calif. — UC Davis announced a $3 million commitment made by Jesse Jackson and Barbara R. Banke of Jackson Family Wines to construct the Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery building. The new facility located within the university’s school for wine and food science.

The announcement was made by Neal Van Alfen, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, at the opening ceremony of the new 34,000-square-foot teaching and research complex built within the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

The building, slated for completion in 2013, will include technology to “maximize the environmental capabilities of the adjacent new winery, brewery and food-processing complex,” according to a statement from the school.

Aimed at becoming the first net-zero winery, the building includes technology to capture and sort out as much carbon dioxide as it produces in the winery’s fermentation, preventing damage to the atmosphere.

The sustainable winery building will allow instructors and researchers to demonstrate how a winery can operate on rainwater when it captures, filters and reuses that water multiple times, the statement said. The system will make it possible to reuse 90 percent of captured rainwater.

Plans for the facility will lead to the UC Davis winery, brewery and food-processing facility eventually operating independent of the main campus water supply.

The building will also include an automated system to clean barrels, tanks and fermenters, and rooftop photovoltaic cells to provide all of the facility’s power at peak load.

Further environmentally-conscious features include new food-processing equipment that minimizes energy and water requirements, use of recycled glass in the flooring, interior paneling recycled from a 1928 wooden aqueduct, and use of lumber harvested from sustainably certified forest operations.

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Academic PPP to Convert Methane Gas to Electricity

GASTON, S.C. — Clemson University is partnering with regional utility Santee Cooper and biogas expert Environmental Fabrics Inc. to construct a new renewable energy facility that will generate power from methane gas, according to Clemson officials.

Burrows Hall Renewable Energy Facility will be the first of its kind in South Carolina, capturing methane gas at a Williamsburg County farm and delivering it to electric customers on the Santee Cooper system.

The 180-kilowatt building — the result of a public-private partnership — is expected to begin generating renewable energy for the grid early this summer, averaging power for approximately 90 South Carolina homes.

Other partners involved in the project are Santee Electric Cooperative, the South Carolina Energy Office and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

The idea was first proposed by Duffy Connolly, owner of Burrows Hall Farm, who approached Santee Cooper four years ago with an idea of building an Anaerobic Digester that could capture the methane gas produced naturally on his hog form into a fuel source for electricity.

Connolly and Santee Cooper then turned to Clemson University’s South Carolina Institute for Energy Studies to help define and implement the project, using a grant administered by the South Carolina Energy Office and funded by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

Clemson’s Institute for Energy Studies evaluated more than 20 different companies and approaches before recommending EFI, a Gaston-based firm, who was chosen to design, build and manage the digester.

Santee Cooper has contracted to purchase the power, which Santee Electric Cooperative will distribute from Burrows Hall to the Santee Cooper transmission network, the statement said.

The venture is expected to benefit the state’s economy by using 100 percent of South Carolina resources, providing cost-effective renewable energy, reducing the need for traditional fuel sources, and outline the potential for similar systems in the state, according to the statement.

“The S.C. Energy Office was glad to work in conjunction with Clemson University and the S.C. Department of Agriculture to facilitate a project that shows the diverse potential for renewable applications in South Carolina,” said Ashlie Lancaster, S.C. Energy Office’s director. “This project taps into indigenous energy resources in our state which not only creates jobs but also helps to reduce harmful emissions.”

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New Indoor Baseball Stadium to Cover All Bases

LINCOLN, Neb. — As part of a two-part project to expand the school’s athletic facilities, University of Nebraska at Lincoln will construct an indoor baseball/softball practice facility at Haymarket Park.

The distinction between warm-weather schools and those in colder region becomes apparent when schools first start out the season. According to reports, the team has previously had to go to other facilities to practice indoors during bad weather.

The new facility, which will be located east of the Bowlin Softball Stadium and north of the Hawks Baseball Field, will feature batting cages, pitching mounds, a turf system suitable for infield practice and a netting system for live hitting.

The addition of on-site batting facilities will enhance Nebraska’s opportunities to host regional baseball and softball tournaments in accordance with NCAA guidelines.

NEBCO, the university’s public-private partner, will oversee construction of the 22,000 square-foot project, while the school’s athletic department will be responsible for the $4.75 million financing, according to the university.

The university is also expanding Memorial Stadium’s east stands, a $55.5 million project that would add about 5,000 seats and 30 new indoor/outdoor suites, along with 20,000 square feet for research space, according to reports.

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Dental School Coming to Florida Medical Campus

BRADENTON, Fla. — After more than a year of investigating the need to open a dental school in Florida, administrators and the Board of Trustees at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) announced plans to open a school at its Bradenton, Florida campus.

The projected costs of building the facility are estimated at $52 million.

“LECOM recognizes that dentists have become an integral team player in improving the health of their patients,” said Silvia Ferretti, senior vice president and dean of Academic Affairs. “The role they play in preventive medicine corresponds with the osteopathic principals of total health care as taught by the College of Osteopathic Medicine and the School of Pharmacy.”

The Dental School received unanimous provisional approval from the Florida Commission for Independent Education and awaits initial accreditation in February from the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Once accredited, the college is expected to recruit students for the Dental School for its first semester in 2012, which will be only the third in the state, according to a statement from the university.

The school will enroll 100 first-year students in its first class, and within four years of its inaugural class, the School of Dental Medicine will enroll 400 students, the university stated.

They have looked into helping the dental students after they are graduated by suggesting how they can find a job or start thier own dentistry. They will do this by suggesting things like theseodentist.com/dental-marketing to grow their business and more training in order to get a job.

The school expects the direct impact of institutional, employee and student spending to reach about $14 million dollars in the Bradenton area, and as much as $35 million through direct and indirect spending statewide.

The Dental School will employ about 200 individuals, and will provide dental clinic care to underserved patients, staffed by faculty and students, for up to 600 individuals daily.

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Treatment, Technology a Focus at Mission Bay

SAN FRANCISCO — The financing plans at the new 878,000-square foot University of California — San Francisco Medical Center called for obtaining $700 million in external loans and an additional $600 million from philanthropic donations — unthinkable to some in these tough economic times.

But by 2014, if things continue to go well, the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay will have parlayed a decade or more of vision and planning into a world-class medical facility with the opening of three breakthrough hospitals: Children’s, Women’s Specialty and Cancer. These advanced healing environments will elevate care in the Bay Area by being the only medical facility to integrate teaching, technology and treatment on the same campus.

With an emphasis on comfort and community, UCSF will join entire families in the healing process. By using patient-centric private rooms filled with natural light and bordered by gardens, incorporating the highest standards of energy efficiency, seismic safety, and sustainability, the Mission Bay hospitals will set new benchmarks for 21st-century health care enterprises.

The new facilities will also allow UCSF, which has outgrown its current hospital facilities, room to grow.

UCSF will further encourage the kind of collaboration-translating laboratory discoveries into next-generation therapies that it has in the past, becoming one of the top 10 medical research facilities in the United States, according to hospital officials. Physicians and scientists will have the unique opportunity to partner, creating the best possible solutions in treating cancer medicine and women’s and children’s health. Advanced patient safety protocols, reliable and efficient electronic records, and cutting-edge technologies from robotics to imaging, will further acknowledge UCSF as a model of modern healing.

“[The University of California] and UCSF medical centers are already renowned leaders in translational medicine-applying cutting edge discoveries to clinical care as well as developing innovative partnerships in biomedical, regeneration medicine and related discipline,” says Cindy Lima, executive director of the Mission Bay Hospitals Project at UCSF, who has been involved in the medical center project for the better part of six years.

“But they do not consistently have facilities of the same caliber in which to support their families and staff and to be maximally responsive to changing medical technology,” Lima said. “The construction of the new Children’s, Women’s Specialty and Cancer Hospitals at UCSF Mission Bay will benefit all UCSF programs and campuses as space is developed for expansion and development of new programs across the enterprise.”

According to Lima, the new 878,000 square-foot UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay that is under construction has been granted an opportunity to be built from the ground up based on extensive study of other facilities, and a vision to create uniquely supportive, welcoming, light-and art-filled spaces which includes 60,000 square feet of rooftop gardens.

Other features include ample space for families to stay in patient rooms, innovative and individualized media access in each patient room, noise reduction (rubber flooring, no overhead paging, sound attenuation), comfortable areas to congregate as well as to find respite, such as meditation areas, and areas dedicated and designed for patient education. There will also be extensive child-life areas such as a San Francisco Unified School District schoolroom, located within the hospital, along with music and pet therapy programs.

As of September 2010, the Campaign for UCSF Medical Center had procured commitments of an estimated $375 million, including two substantial gifts of $100 million or more — making it the only capital project in the hospital’s history to receive two nine-figure gifts.

“We’ve got tremendous momentum to support not only this exciting project but the larger vision of UCSF to advance health worldwide,” says Lima. “Thanks to the vision and generosity of Marc and Lynne Benioff, who donated $100 million to the recently named UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.” [Benioff made his fortune as the founder of SalesForce.com].

UCSF recently completed “Challenge for the Children,” an eight-week social media fundraising campaign that in only a few weeks generated $1 million. The successful campaign enlisted prominent team members from Silicon Valley’s high-tech community to spearhead the fundraiser. The campaign also received celebrity support, with Ashton Kutcher and MC Hammer both signed on to lead teams, collectively having nearly eight million Twitter followers.

Monies from the Challenge for the Children fundraiser will be allocated to the new 183-bed Children’s Hospital, which will offer urgent and emergency care, primary care, specialty and outpatient services, and an on-site helipad.

Funding Glitch

Due to the State of California’s fiscal situation, the funding plan at the Mission Bay facility no longer includes state funds. However, UCSF Medical Center plans to pursue seismic-related state funds, if available, to pay back hospital reserves.

Lima said that the university was fortunate enough to reduce project costs by 20 percent, no easy feat for such a large-scale project. The reductions were achieved through a combination of savings due to the recession, innovations and value engineering. The process was possible due to innovations in architectural technology, with the entire 878,000 square-foot project being virtually “built” via 3D Building Information Modeling.

“We were able to reduce the project cost over $200 million from the 2008 budget,” Lima said. “About half the cost was due to the recession and bidding strategies. The other $100 million was achieved through painstaking review of all the building design and elements, and hundreds of creative ideas that our team of architects, CM advisors, the general contractors and our subs collaboratively proposed and evaluated.”

Sustainable Campus

The UCSF Medical Center’s targeted goal is the coveted LEED Gold certification — a lofty goal given that hospitals are some of the most notorious energy users.

However, the new medical center is one of only six medical centers under development in California planning for LEED certification, and when certified will be one of the largest LEED-certified hospital complexes in the world, according to Lima. The LEED certification level of the hospital complex will be determined as plans become solidified and aided by philanthropic donations pledged to the fundraising campaign in support of the medical center project.

“UCSF and a project like the new Children’s, Women’s Specialty and Cancer hospitals at Mission Bay are efforts that everyone really is proud to be connected with,” says Lima. “I’ve been honored to be able to be part of making it happen.”

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HGA Awarded $58 Million L.A. College Contract

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — HGA Architects and Engineers was awarded the contract to design a new $58 million Student Success Center at East Los Angeles College through a design-build competition that the firm won.

The project, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, totals 130,000 square feet and aims to achieve Net Zero Energy and LEED Gold certification.

“By utilizing the latest technology along with wind studies and day-lighting analysis, HGA’s team has created an ideal sustainable learning environment to help bring together the school’s diverse student body,” said James Matson, HGA’s principal-in-charge. “Thus, our design has not only created an interactive learning environment, we are seeking Net Zero Energy, which underscores one of our firm’s core beliefs of creating sustainable design.”

The building will accommodate nine school departments that were previously dispersed into one flexible learning environment aimed at encouraging student-faculty interaction while incorporating sustainable strategies, the firm reported.

The five-story building will include classrooms, offices, common areas and labs such as language, reading and writing.

The structure allows for natural ventilation with nearly 70 percent of all classrooms and offices to be within 25 feet of operable windows, high-efficiency mechanical systems and lighting, and solar shading.

The center was designed using 3-D BIM technology, wind and daylight studies, and bio-mimicry, a design approach that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s patterns and strategies, the firm said.

Through the design-build process, HGA was able to incorporate Integrated Project Delivery, a growing trend in higher education that allows the firm to deliver projects better, faster and at a lower price by maximizing efficiency through all phases of design and construction, according to the firm.

Expected to be the heart of the campus, the structure will face a new quad that features bioswales and permeable paving.

An open-air, central court that connects the faculty office wing to the classroom wing also serves as the main entrance and vertical circulation spine, with a full-wall, painted graphic mural and brick pavers extending outward toward the campus quad, the firm said.

The building’s flexible classrooms allow re-arrangement of furniture for different learning options, with additional learning spaces and an exterior stepped terrace that can double as a gathering space or outdoor classroom.

The exterior design of the facility “reinterprets the campus’s existing brick architecture” through the use of multicolored black-out shades that add visual variety along the glass classroom wing, the firm said.

Pinner Construction is the general contractor for the design-build project. Consultants include Saiful/Bouquet, structural engineering, FBA Engineering, electrical and Fundament & Associates, mechanical engineering.

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Campus Fuel Cells

SAN FRANCISCO — California state universities may soon run partially off of fuel cell technology thanks to projects authorized by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The CPUC gave the go-ahead for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison to install and operate utility-owned fuel cells on University of California and California State University campuses.

Fuel cell manufacturers FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Conn., and Bloom Energy of Sunnyvale, Calif., are now working with the colleges to finalize the contracts.

PG&E’s fuel cell project will consist of installing and operating three fuel cell generating facilities with a total capacity of 3 megawatts at CSU East Bay and San Francisco State University. Two of the facilities will be located at SFSU, including a 1.4 MW molten carbonate fuel cell and a 200-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell. CSU East Bay will house a 1.4 MW molten carbonate fuel cell. The molten carbonate fuel cells will be designed to utilize the byproducts of the energy conversion process, including waste heat and water to meet other campus needs, such as thermal demands for heating the Olympic-sized swimming pool at CSU East Bay.

The estimated costs for the PG&E project is $20.3 million, plus non-fuel operations and maintenance costs of approximately $9 million.

Edison’s fuel cell project will include adding three fuel cell units with a combined capacity of up to 3 MW on three separate California state university campuses — two systems of 1 to 1.4 MW each at CSU San Bernardino and CSU Long Beach and one 200 kW solid oxide fuel cell at UC Santa Barbara. The two larger systems will demonstrate combined heat and power applications, and the smaller kW system at UC Santa Barbara will demonstrate an electricity-only high efficiency fuel cell where the waste heat is used in the generation process. The fuel cells will interconnect and operate in parallel with Edison’s distribution system.

The estimated cost of the project is $19.1 million, plus non-fuel operations and maintenance costs of approximately $9 million.

The plants have an estimated useful lifespan of 10 years.

Both projects will be integrated into the curriculums of the host campuses, providing educational benefits. Contract approval pending, FuelCell Energy will manufacture the 1 to 1.4 MW cells installed at San Francisco State, CSU East Bay, CSU San Bernardino and CSU Long Beach. Bloom Energy will manufacture the two 200-kW fuel cells.

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