NGA New Campus East leads way in environmentally friendly design
By Louis J. Brune III
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photos by Marc Barnes
This aerial photo shows the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency New Campus East, taken from the southeast. The new complex includes “green” innovations.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is transforming how geospatial-intelligence supports the nation’s leaders and U.S. warfighters half a world away. The NGA is developing a state-of-the-art facility which will better provide critical operational support and foster collaboration among NGA employees, other intelligence community components and NCE external stakeholders, such as Fort Belvoir and Fairfax County.
NGA’s design and construction of its New Campus East are also leading the way in helping transform the way the intelligence community does business.
“The design and construction of the … project incorporates energy-efficient and environmentally responsible initiatives in each of the buildings and site infrastructure,” said Eric Mucklow, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Resident Engineer, NCE.
Part of Belvoir’s North Area, the NCE consists of several unifying elements - a main campus, access roads, visitor center and related parking, technology center, central utility plant, remote inspection facility, parking garage, antiterrorism and force protection systems, storm water management and landscaping.
The project has been submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council and is anticipated to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification. Most of the strategies being incorporated are well-known, such as a green roof and the use of sustainable materials.
However, the project also includes technologies that have only recently begun being incorporated into projects in the U.S.
The bulk of the project consists of a 2.4-million-square-foot office building, complete with an eight-story, glass and trapezoidal precast-concrete exterior, with a structured steel frame supported by a caisson and spread footing foundation.
The complete interior fit-out package includes a 50,000-square-foot central atrium covered by a transparent ethylene tetrafluoroethylene roof, a technology made famous by its use on the Beijing National Aquatics Center’s “Water Cube” design, 2008 Summer Olympics.
“NGA is on the forefront with its ‘green building’ initiatives, incorporating innovative technologies, such as chilled beam construction and an ETFE roofing system,” noted chief NCE electrical engineer, Carey Griffin. “In addition to creating a much more comfortable work environment for the employees, these technologies conserve energy usage in a much more efficient way.”
How do these technologies work? Chilled beams act as radiant overhead panels using chilled water to absorb heat. Since water is much more efficient at heat transfer, this is a more efficient way to adjust temperature.
Fresh air for ventilation is delivered across the surface of the chilled beam, and this induces airflow in the space. Since the air delivered is only what is required for ventilation volume, it reduces the overall amount of conditioning that needs to be done, reducing fan sizes, reducing ductwork sizes, and reducing overall energy used.
Other buildings being built on the campus use different green strategies for cooling. For example, high-efficiency cooling at the Tech Center is accomplished by higher-temperature chilled water, which reduces the amount of chiller capacity needed.
The use of an ETFE skylight system over a central atrium is another strategy benefiting the budget as well as the environment.
ETFE is a kind of plastic. Compared to glass, it is 1 percent the weight, transmits more light, and can cost as much as 70 percent less to install. It’s also able to bear 400 times its own weight, has a self-cleaning, nonstick surface, and is recyclable. Significantly less structural material is needed because of the considerably lighter weight.
Tom Bukoski, assistant program manager for design and construction at NCE, notes, “LEED certification is important to NGA because we are constructing our new home in an environmentally friendly way with the local community, and we are proud of that.”
NCE’s environmentally-friendly design also stresses what NGA director, Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, likes to call the “human element” of technology - a focus on providing an environment and tools that make the analysts’ jobs easier.
(Brune is with the NGA NCE Program Management Office.)
