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Thinking Green |
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Going green is not just for the big institution or the newly constructed one anymore. Going green is on the minds of all sizes of museums. What we want to try to do with this page is offer you lots of resources --enough to get you started thinking about reducing your museum's waste and environmental footprint. So, here goes.... Museum Greening From Around New York
State
Key activities to date include:
Writes Sciencenter Director Charlie Trautmann, "The move to 100%
wind-generated electricity will eliminate 180 tons of carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere annually. this CO2 reduction is equivalent
to planting 270,000 trees or not driving 3.4 million miles every
year."
Realizing that the best ideas often come from within, MoMA devised ways to solicit energy saving suggestions from its staff. The Museum recently introduced an energy conservation page to its internal staff website and launched a monthly contest. The best ideas and suggestions regarding energy saving tips were awarded an eco-friendly prize. MoMA acts upon the suggestions and as a result has recently switched to recycled paper products in its public spaces, recycled copier paper in office spaces, double-sided printing as a default mode on photocopy machines, and power strips in areas that use “phantom electricity”. Staff graphic artists designed and placed throughout office areas an energy conservation logo as a reminder to turn off lights, printers and computers each night. The staff has enthusiastically embraced these conservation measures. A grassroots group periodically meets in the sculpture garden during lunch hours to exchange ideas and develop additional means of “greening the Museum.” The Burchfield-Penney Art Center (Buffalo) is building a new 75,000 square foot green museum, designed by Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects, that is scheduled to open in the spring of 2008. The two-story building will be the Burchfield-Penney’s first free-standing home and have a major presence on Elmwood Avenue in the heart of Buffalo’s Museum District. The new facility doubles gallery exhibition areas and provides more than six times as much space available for education and public programs. You can watch the progress of the construction via a live web cam at the Center's website, www.burchfield-penney.org.
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
is slated to be the first “green” museum in New York City, certified
by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program
of the U.S. Green Building Council. HIGH-PERFORMANCE/SUSTAINABLE FEATURES Geothermal Heating and Cooling System The Museum will be the first cultural institution in New York City to tap into geothermal wells for its heating and cooling needs. The site has been tested and proven suitable for using water from aquifers underneath Brooklyn for more efficient heating and cooling. Water from aquifers remains at a constant temperature, so it requires less energy to heat or cool the interior (depending on the season), making it a more efficient heat source and cooling medium. Condenser water for the heat pump, air-handling units and a reversible chiller will be provided by four deep-well pumps; spent condenser water may be utilized for lawn irrigation and fire protection or discharged to dry wells. This sustainable system will avoid the use of cooling towers, with their noise and emissions. Solar Energy Photovoltaic (PV) systems integrated into the building design will convert solar energy directly into electrical power. As with the geothermal heating and cooling system, the Museum will be the first cultural institution in New York City to use this technology. It is estimated that solar energy captured through PV panels on the Museum’s roof could provide about 2.5% of the electricity the Museum will need each year. Energy-Saving Sensors State-of-the-art sensors will control the performance of the heating and lighting systems, ensuring the comfort of the Museum’s visitors and reducing energy use at the same time.
Renewable and Recyclable Materials Sustainability is a primary consideration in the choice of finish materials and surface treatments. Special attention is being paid to materials with high levels of renewable or recycled content, including bamboo, cork, rubber and linoleum flooring and carpet. REDUCTION IN OPERATING COSTS The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is providing approximately $250,000 towards the cost of the photovoltaic panels and energy analyses. The New York Power Authority is providing $500,000 of financing for the geothermal heating system and other high-performance features. The Museum estimates a savings to the City of New York – which owns the building in which the Museum is housed – of $103,000 per year in energy costs. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION & EXHIBITS In most “green” buildings, high-performance features are invisible to the occupants. But most “green” buildings aren’t dedicated to teaching, as Brooklyn Children’s Museum is. The Museum will educate its growing audience about its environmentally friendly building through interactive exhibits and signage that highlight the building’s high performance features. Exhibits in the planning stages include an Energy Garden – to demonstrate how the Museum harvests its solar power – and Energy Exploration areas where children can learn how the Museum uses water from deep in the earth to heat and cool the building, and how the heat and light sensors work. Visitors will also learn about renewable resources, such as bamboo – chosen for the Museum’s flooring because it is both an extraordinarily hard natural product, perfect for flooring in high-traffic areas, and one of the world’s fastest-growing plants. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Kimberly Snyder, Communications Director Museum Greening
from Across the Country In October 2007, the Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) will open the doors of its new $60 million building, becoming the first and only art museum in the world whose entire facility is LEED certified. The building, designed by wHY Architecture led by principal Kulapat Yantrasast, will open to the public on October 5, 2007. In line with its green design, the new GRAM will feature sustainable systems and inaugural programming which includes an exhibition focusing on the future of sustainable design. Achieving the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is a particular challenge for art museums given the exacting climate standards for art preservation and volume of visitorship that they receive. The Museum will incorporate energy-efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems and recycling systems for water and paper supplies. Natural light will be utilized throughout the public and private spaces of the building. The central urban location of the museum will allow for easy access by public transportation and bicycle. As part of the LEED certification, GRAM will also build awareness of environmentally friendly efficiencies through education programs and activities. “With the museum opening approaching, we take pride in making this vibrant contribution to green design worldwide, as well as to the growing cultural life of the northern Great Lakes region,” said Celeste Adams, Museum Director. “We are about to begin a new chapter in the life of GRAM.” Sited in the heart of the growing West Michigan community, the new museum building will be located adjacent to architect Maya Lin’s Ecliptic (designed in 2000), an urban park in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The new building comprises 125,000 square feet and will provide more than three times the gallery space of its former building for its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, as well as increase space for education and public programs. The Museum has raised $73 million of its $75 million capital campaign goal, which includes the new museum facility, site acquisition, and endowment. Construction of the new museum began in September 2004. THE BUILDING The 125,000 square-foot concrete and glass building will capitalize on the city’s dramatic vistas and striking landscape, creating continuity between the art within the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the natural environment surrounding it. The building is organized around a central pavilion of glass and light-colored concrete flanked by a reflecting pool, a pocket park with a water wall and open-air sculpture and dining courtyards. As visitors move from the pavilion towards the gallery wing, natural light will give the space a sense of upward procession towards the special exhibition and permanent collection galleries, which total nearly 18,000 square feet. The three-floor gallery wing will feature glass skylight lanterns which admit natural light into the space, and which will illuminate the building at night. In addition to its galleries, the building design includes a multi-use, flexible seating auditorium, education center, art reference library, café, museum shop, and conference and study rooms. Outside, a large portico with an expansive roof canopy cantilevered toward the park will extend the building’s connection to Ecliptic, providing shaded comfort in warm weather and a protected area from which to view ice skaters on the Ecliptic rink in the winter. Among other public amenities is a warming shelter for the skating rink within Maya Lin’s Ecliptic. The building also includes lower-level underground loading dock, central security, and staff parking. ABOUT wHY ARCHITECTURE AND KULAPAT YANTRASAST wHY Architecture, an architectural design and planning office, is based in Los Angeles. The two founding partners, Yo Hakomori and Kulapat Yantrasast, pursue design solutions to create architecture of tranquility and simplicity with keen attention and sensitivity to materials and detail. Kulapat, the principal on this project, has particular expertise in museum design and experience working on cultural facilities around the world. A native of Thailand, he studied in Japan where he received his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture from the University of Tokyo. In Japan he worked with world-renowned Pritzker Prize laureate architect, Tadao Ando, with whom he remains closely associated. He has served as project architect on many major museums and buildings in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, he has also worked on the ARMANI/TEATRO for Giorgio Armani in Milan, The Foundation Francois Pinault in Paris, and the Calder Museum in Philadelphia. He continues his professional relationship with Ando through work on Tadao Ando's US projects and association in teaching at University of California, Berkeley, where Ando was appointed Regents Professor. Current wHY Architecture projects include the Grand Rapids Art Museum; gallery designs and reinstallations for the Art Institute of Chicago; the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, California; the Cesar Chavez Memorial on the campus of San Jose State University; the Art Bridge crossing the L.A. River in North Hollywood, California; as well as several private residential and commercial projects. wHY is also collaborating with Tadao Ando on several major public and private projects including the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. From the U.S. Green Building Council:
Green Building 101
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