Clemson builds green

GEORGETOWN — The design of the new Coastal Ecology and Forest Science building at Hobcaw Barony wildlife refuge was driven partly by Clemson's specific needs for more offices, classrooms and meeting space.

It also was driven by the six-year-old commitment from University President James Barker that all of Clemson's new buildings attain at least a silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program, a sort of Good Housekeeping seal indicating the buildings would conserve energy.

And then there were the red-cockaded woodpeckers.

These endangered birds have been living in this area for at least 40 years, and the dwindling number of mature pines along the coast poses the greatest threat to the species.

So before the building could take shape, the architects had to find a suitable site for it, one at least 200 feet away from the pine trees where the woodpeckers are roosting.

Charleston architects LS3P Associates learned that would rule out building an expansion next to Clemson's existing building.

"Their question to us was how far were we willing to walk between the two buildings?" recalls Dr. Thomas M. Williams of Clemson's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.

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Clemson's new Coastal Ecology and Forest Science building at the Baruch Institute

Clemson's new Coastal Ecology and Forest Science building at the Baruch Institute outside Georgetown was shaped by a host of environmental considerations.

The site is about a football field away, connected by a concrete path landscaped with indigenous plants. But the woodpeckers' influence was not over.

LS3P Architect Byron Edwards says the building's two-story massing is a response to them, too. Its size both minimizes the building's footprint (and the number of trees and plants that are built over) while remaining under 40 feet, an upper limit set by the woodpeckers' flyway.

Also, the building's construction was suspended — or at least altered — between April 15 and July 31, the birds' mating season.

The 17,500-acre Hobcaw Barony wildlife refuge, home to Clemson's coastal ecology and forest science program, also is home to between 35 and 100 red-cockaded woodpeckers. Pines where the birds have nested are ringed with white circles and can be seen from Clemson's new building.

The architecture also is driven by the desire to get as high a LEED rating as possible, and Edwards says they expect to get gold. The building is angled at 13.5 degrees off the pure east-west axis so the summer sun doesn't shine directly into offices but the winter sun does.

Its two-story interior corridor maximizes daylight and views, and the space is supported by a series of wooden columns with arms reaching upward.

"It's a forestry program, so we tried to pick up on the tree shape with the columns," LS3P architect Byron Edwards says. "You get a cathedral effect, not unlike being in the woods."

The lights in both classrooms and offices are on motion sensors, which helps conserve energy and occasionally requires a sedentary worker to wave his arm a bit to turn them back on. There's also a shower for those who bike to work.

The architecture does almost everything possible to conserve energy: One of the two stairwells is located outside to minimize the amount of space that needs to be heated and cooled.

However, Edwards notes there were a few things that could not be incorporated, such as a low-energy geothermal heating and cooling system.

The installation of such a system would have required dozens of wells to be drilled around the building, and that would have harmed too many nearby trees — and woodpeckers.

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St., Charleston, SC 29403.