The system spans an array of 75 boreholes, each six inches in diameter and 500 feet deep, drilled into the bedrock below the campus quad. Water circulating through a closed-loop system of pipes in those holes will help to heat and cool the building.
Over the course of a year, the geothermal system will provide 88 percent of the heat for offices, laboratories, educational and public spaces, and 50 percent of the cooling needs for the building.
Steam and chilled water from the existing campus power plant will help meet peak demands for heating and cooling. The power plant also supplies electricity to the new building.
If the new building were served exclusively by the campus power plant, it would generate approximately 5,800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The geothermal system will cut that carbon footprint by approximately 2,400 tons per year, according to an energy analysis of the building conducted by engineering consultants BR+A. That’s a 42 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The savings are equivalent to emissions from driving an average gas-powered car 5.5 million miles, or the emissions from using 100,000 tanks of propane in back-yard grills. It is also the equivalent of carbon sequestered by 36,000 tree seedlings growing for 10 years.
The building’s exterior façade is covered with 1,520 sections of a customized system known as a unitized curtain wall. It’s made of prefabricated rectangular units, each with three layers of glass set in insulated aluminum and steel frames. It’s designed to bring natural light into the building, while mitigating temperature impact.
The outer layer of glass is set at an angle, creating a sawtooth façade, rather than a flat surface. On one end of most curtain wall sections, a metal fin extends from the frame to cast shadows on the glass and limit the solar heat gain from direct sunlight. Areas of the outer glass have vertical stripes made of a thin layer of ground glass, called frit, applied to the surface to create a visual feature.
The curtain wall exceeds the state’s building code for thermal performance by 22 percent, meaning it is highly effective at limiting heat loss in winter and reducing heat gain from the sun in summer.
For indoor air quality, the building uses 100% outside air in the HVAC system. So, simply exhausting that air flow would be a large waste of energy. To prevent that waste, energy recovery wheels are key to the design of the system. Pairs of energy recovery wheels, each 16 feet in diameter, are installed within the stacked air handling units (shown in photo) and spin between the intake and exhaust streams.
The wheels are made of triangular wedges, like slices of a pizza, composed of specialized materials that absorb thermal energy or moisture. As the wheels spin, they capture energy and humidity from the exhaust flow of the upper unit and transfer it to the intake air flow below. The wheels will recover 80 percent of the energy used to heat, cool and humidify the building, thereby avoiding the need to heat or cool outdoor air “from scratch”.
To prepare the site for construction, a significant portion of the employee parking garage was demolished eliminating 490 parking spaces.
To compensate, the medical school promotes alternative transportation modes for commuting to campus, including public transportation, ridesharing (carpooling) and providing services for people who commute by bicycle.
The school also added 32 electric vehicle charging ports to the employee garage, bringing the campus total to 98 EV charging spots for faculty, staff, students and UMass Memorial Medical Center patients and visitors. More are planned in the coming year.
An all-fresh air HVAC system, low-emitting building materials, and abundant natural light, foster comfort, health, and productivity.
The new building is lit exclusively with LED fixtures. If areas are not occupied, sensors turn off lights and adjust thermostats. Daylight sensors modulate lighting to leverage sunlight in occupied spaces and save energy.
To conserve regional water resources and limit the use of potable water, all plumbing fixtures are designed to maintain adequate water pressure while using considerably less water.
By design, the project used materials from manufacturers with verified environmental life-cycle impacts. For example: recycled steel, reclaimed gravel and fill, and Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.
Interior surfaces with high reflectance values are used to better distribute and amplify available light, making spaces appear brighter and more inviting while using less energy.
High reflectance surfaces bounce daylight deeper into the space, reducing the need for artificial lighting. This enhances visual comfort for occupants and contributes to overall energy efficiency.
A total of 165 tons of steel and 8,280 tons of concrete were reclaimed during the garage deconstruction and were processed for use as new building materials. That equates to 99 percent of all the material (by weight) removed.
During the excavation phase, approximately 52,000 tons of gravel and bedrock was removed and hauled off site in 1,575 tractor trailer loads. The rock was crushed and reused as gravel in a variety of infrastructure and building projects at other locations.
Outdoor seating, gathering and vegetated spaces encourage social interaction, passive recreation, and connect the building with the environment.
To limit the heat-island effect that comes from solar gain of dark colored roofs, a light gray roofing system was installed to reflect more of the sun’s rays.
Light-colored paving materials were used for their higher solar reflectance to minimize the amount of heat that is absorbed into the pavement. This reduces heat island effect and makes for a more pleasant outdoor pedestrian experience.
