Last modified: Thursday, June 14, 2007 10:39 AM CDT

New community college building to have "green" roof

By Mary Shapiro

A 40-foot crane was used Wednesday to hoist 1,000 trays of sedum groundcover to the south-wing roof of the new St. Louis Community College building in Wildwood.

The "green" roof will be the first on a college campus in the St. Louis area, officials said.

Classes will start in August at the new building, which is phase one of the college campus. The 75,000-square-foot building is on 66.1 acres at 2645 Generations Drive, near the intersection of Highway 109 and Manchester Road.

The building's construction cost is $18 million, though fixtures and furnishings will bring that cost to $23.1 million, said Lori Thompson, SLCC director of physical facilities.

"We're set to move into the building on July 27 and open for business July 30 -- on time and on budget," Thompson said.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis will offer some classes in fall at the Wildwood campus. A joint registration day is set for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 21 at the campus, before the official move-in date.

Each of the roof blocks weighs about 44 pounds dry and contains five to six species of the "juvenile-growth-stage-version" of the groundcover, along with dirt and small rocks, said Dennis W. Dill, SLCC's manager of maintenance, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

"Sedum is a hardy, drought-tolerant plant," he said.

The plants will help overcome the "heat island" effect by preventing heat absorption into the roofing materials, as well as insulating the building, he said.

"The different species will mean they'll have different flowers and colors," he said. "And we expect birds to bring in even more kinds of plant seeds over the coming years. We're anxious to see what we'll end up with in five to six years.

"We can't wait for our 2,000 students and 26 full-time staff (and about 60 adjunct staff) to start enjoying seeing all this," he said.

The "green" roof is one of the energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features that will qualify the campus for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Dill is overseeing the LEED application.

LEED emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Architectural firm Wm. B. Ittner orchestrated the planting of the green roof, which company officials said has the potential to lower storm-water runoff from the roof by as much as 94 percent.

Other LEED features installed at the campus include "daylight lighting." The building's lighting system automatically balances to accommodate variations in natural light. Light shelves deflect sunlight for indirect lighting and activate photocells that regulate interior lights appropriately.

Officials said the rooms have T-shaped windows to allow more natural light in, as well as light shelves to reflect light further into the room. Seventy-five percent of the building is capable of harvesting natural light, and "90 percent of those in the building will have a view of the outside, to keep people happier and more productive," Dill said.

Each room also is equipped with a ceiling fan to uniformly distribute fresh air, enhance ventilation and reduce energy consumption.

There are two- and three-story cisterns at the college entrance to collect rainwater for irrigation.

Officials said the use of low-emissive building materials will minimize the spread of airborne particles. Drought-resistant landscaping on the ground level will include native prairie grasses.

"We don't feel that LEED features have added more than five to seven percent to our costs," Thompson said. "And those costs will be recovered through energy savings paybacks."

LEED features are expected to save the campus more than 30 percent in electricity costs, "so we'll have a quick turnaround for our investment," Dill said.

"And most features would have been done anyway, even without the LEED application," he said. "We try to build efficient buildings, regardless."

You can contact Mary Shapiro at mshapiro@yourjournal.com.