RB+B and Northern Water celebrate the LEED Siver Certification of Northern Water’s Building F. The 3-story building, located on the Berthoud, CO Campus, includes 25,000 SF of administrative areas, including single- and multi-occupant office space, conference space, a training room, and support areas.

Northern Water—the entity responsible for delivering water to Northeastern Colorado for agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial uses—focuses on water conservation, water quality, environmental stewardship, and regional water supply planning. With more growth on the front range and increased responsibilities of Northern Water, they have continued to experience employee growth and increased equipment, as well as increased need for more office and storage buildings to accommodate them.

The site design included an outdoor water use reduction of 50%, inclusion of open space, protection of sensitive land, and light pollution reduction strategies. Inside, water use is further reduced by 35%. Energy and Atmosphere credits included enhanced commissioning, and energy performance optimization, as well as 10% of building energy derived from renewable energy. Daylighting, quality views, low-emitting materials, indoor air quality, and thermal comfort were all prioritized.

Five of the six available Innovation credits were achieved, including those for green building education and biophilic design. Seventy-five percent of construction waste was also diverted during the project.

All buildings on the campus have been designed with similar agrarian building forms and materials to mimic the facility’s rural setting and to create a unified campus feel. Care was taken to design efficient vehicular and pedestrian connections from building to building and demonstration gardens were incorporated throughout the landscape to create a park-like feel throughout.

RB+B and the Northern Water community celebrated a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony last week at the organization’s newly expanded West Slope Headquarters Campus. Northern Water—the entity responsible for delivering water to Northeastern Colorado for agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial uses—focuses on water conservation, water quality, environmental stewardship, and regional water supply planning. With more growth on the front range and increased responsibilities of Northern Water, they have continued to experience employee growth and increased equipment, as well as increased need for more office and storage buildings to accommodate them.

The most recently completed phases of the expansion to LEED Silver pending Building A include extensively renovated existing office space, reconfiguration and expansion of the board room, and a new secure lobby and a three-story office wing. A covered outdoor meeting area with restrooms was added to assist with educational programs and internal conference needs. Illustrating NW’s mission to encourage responsible water usage, the project will be one of the first in Colorado to achieve SITES certification. 

RB+B’s master plan for the Northern Water expansion called for approximately doubling the building square footage on this site over several phases and updating their security and functional operations with a new System Control Center. New site amenities include increased parking for employees, additional parking for guests, and a new demonstration garden and pavilion.

Previous phases of this multi-phase project included the addition of three new buildings and their associated site work, including a three-story LEED Silver Operations Building, a long-term storage building and fleet vehicle storage building with a small conference room and locker room wing.

All buildings were designed with similar agrarian building forms and materials for a unified feel in this rural setting. Care was taken to design efficient vehicular and pedestrian connections from building to building and demonstration gardens were incorporated throughout the landscape to create a park-like feel throughout.

(Images courtesy of Northern Water)

The new campus design for Northern Water’s Granby, CO facility has officially been Certified as LEED Silver. The 45,000-square-foot facility, which opened in August 2022, combines conference facilities, offices, and an operations/control center with large vehicle and equipment maintenance and storage solutions for Northern Water, the municipality that helps to deliver clean water to more than one million residents in Northeastern Colorado. 

Key sustainable achievements as part of the Certification include:

• Achievement of the maximum Rainwater Management points in response to managing the stormwater runoff on site and through the natural environment.
• Through thoughtful landscaping, a 100% reduction in Outdoor Water Use (post establishment period) was achieved.
• The building’s envelope, HVAC, and lighting design resulted in a 29% energy cost savings per year and additional achievement of all three LEED Daylighting credits
• This building earned significant Materials credits, including all three points under the Low Emitting Materials credits, and the materials Optimization points, which illustrates that materials were installed in the building that went above and beyond industry standard for environmental impacts and human health impacts.

With its remote mountain location, there were no utilities existing on this site prior to the project’s commencement. Power, fiber, and gas were brought to the site and a well with filtration and purification systems was used for fresh water. An onsite water treatment system was specifically designed for wastewater and a pond and pumphouse were constructed to provide water for fire suppression.

The building, situated on a wide-open ranch, is positioned to take advantage of southern exposure for north/south daylighting and beautiful views to the east from the conference area. With concerns for the snow this site receives, maximizing the solar exposure of the entrance and main yard while having no north-facing doors was very important. Natural lighting is implemented in the shops and vehicle bays. Natural materials with colors and textures blending with the rustic surroundings were also integral to the design. 

Numerous partners helped the RB+B Architects Team bring this achievement to fruition, including:

• Adolfson & Peterson Construction, Contractor/CM
• Design Point Engineering, Mechanical Engineer
• RJ McNutt & Associates, Electrical Engineer
• BHA Design, Landscape Architect
• Farnsworth Group, Civil Engineer
• JVA, Inc., Structural Engineer
• Group14 Engineering, Sustainability Consultant
• AE Design, Inc., Lighting Consultant
• Wave Engineering, Acoustics Consultant
• CTL Thompson, Geotechnical

RB+B Architects, together with thinkSMART planning, inc., is privileged to announce that High Plains PK-8 School in Loveland, CO has achieved one of the highest honors awarded in educational planning excellence. The Association 4 Learning Environments’ (A4LE) LEsolutions Awards recognize projects that stimulate systemic change in the educational system by addressing difficult questions, challenging the status quo, and raising expectations. The awards embody great architectural design solutions, and the successful components and characteristics of these projects have been founded in an interactive process that engages multiple stakeholders to create educational environments that hold purpose and distinction within a community.*

High Plains was one of eight schools selected from an international pool of 59 entries to receive an LEsolutions Award. Categories of recognition included New Learning Environment, Post-Secondary, Renovation/Addition, Small Project, Exceptional Planning (the category of award for High Plains), and a Juror’s Choice award.

“We like to say that the best projects come from the best clients, and High Plains is no exception. Without the Facilities and Administrative leadership from Thompson School District, as well as the collaborative involvement from High Plains’ Design Advisory Group and Construction Review Committees, this project would not have achieved the results that it has. Significant support from these groups, the Loveland community, the professional talents of our entire Design Consulting Team, and Heath Construction are what truly made this project a success,” says Corky Bradley, the project’s Principal in Charge.

About the Association 4 Learning Environments
The A4LE believes that great schools begin with open dialog and deliberate planning. As such, the Association is committed to recognizing learning environments that positively affect the teaching and learning process while serving as an example of sound planning principles. They result in appropriate and effective design solutions that reflect the community to which they belong.
 
Click here for more information on the award winners from the A4LE website.

*Information from the A4LE.

Designed as a replacement facility for Weld County School District 6, Prairie Heights Middle School (Evans, CO) incorporates a number of high performance design strategies. As any well-designed building should, the LEED Gold Certified school incorporates a number of passive design elements that help lower operating costs and provide a healthy environment for students.

Supplementing the sustainable building strategies is a 499 kW photovoltaic (PV) array located onsite. The array is a ground mounted single axis tracking system which tracks the sun from sunrise to sunset, maximizing production throughout the day. The PV system is currently offsetting 92% of the building’s energy loads.

Other high performance design features of the school include:

• Aggressive daylighting and integrated south shading to provide high levels of natural light and exterior views;
• Displacement ventilation, an energy efficient HVAC system that delivers fresh air low at the students’ level and is very quiet due to low-velocity air movement;
• Skylights serve the central atrium hallway spaces, providing light to both the front and back of classrooms;
• A rooftop garden above the main entry, accessed from the library.

Prairie Heights was designed as a joint venture of RB+B Architects and HCM. Want more details on this school? Check out our portfolio.

In March 2013, the architectural team for the new High Plains PK-8 School was selected by Thompson School District to design a vibrant new learning facility that would accommodate 600 students in Loveland, Colorado. Four years later, RB+B Architects is pleased to announce that High Plains has achieved LEED Gold certification and is now the second RB+B project to achieve LEED status in 2017 through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Design began with significant inclusion of a Design Advisory Group (DAG), which included District staff, administrators, educators, facilities personnel, parents, designers, and community members who helped to set the vision and direction of the new school. The DAG discussed curriculum options, how the facility might serve that curriculum, and formulated high performance design goals.

The aesthetic of the 63,000-square-foot building is a modern interpretation of a traditional hillside village. Generous amounts of north and south facing windows provide optimal daylighting throughout the building to enhance creativity and learning. The ground source heat pump system, coupled with 100% LEDs for lighting, allow for major reductions in energy consumption, potentially saving the district thousands of dollars a year in operating costs.

The school’s 870-square-foot green roof—situated over the gallery—boasts 200 square feet of inhabitable space. The green roof, along with proposed ground-mounted planters to the south of the school, offer gardening experiences to students and a unique outdoor learning space where various topics, including plant biology, could be taught.

Durable materials and learning concepts built directly into the design all help to contribute to this vibrant, functional, and high performing school. The $15.7 million project opened to students in August 2016.

RB+B Architects is pleased to announce that the Boulder Jewish Community Center has achieved LEED Certified status through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

Grounded in the past, the new 53,000-square-foot Boulder Jewish Community Center (JCC) is a contemporary interpretation of today’s sustainable design. The facility, which has been in the planning stages for the last 10 years, is the first building to populate the Boulder Jewish Commons at the SE corner of Arapahoe Road and Cherryvale Road in west Boulder. It embodies the timeless quality planned for architecture in that development with the use of local natural materials, simple forms and qualities of solidity, permanence and integrity found in Jewish tradition.* (*summarized from Barrett Studio’s Design Patterns, Standards and Guidelines.)

The entry courtyard features a signature stone wall and serves as a protected space for gatherings and events of all sizes. One half of the building is utilized by the early childhood center while the other half houses a community hall with glorious views of the Flatirons, a fitness center, Jewish library and classrooms that serve all ages, from infants to seniors.

The facility also features numerous outdoor spaces, including community gardens, play structures and outdoor classrooms, play facilities and pavilions for summer camp. A pool is planned for Phase 2.

The $18.8 million project was completed in spring 2016.