The 110,000 square foot, four-story Joint Use Facility on the Ocean Campus of the Community College of San Francisco includes classrooms, offices, and instruction laboratories. The facility incorporates novel building elements such as a living green roof, four story atrium, and generous student collaboration space. The building was designed to be ultra-efficient with innovative architectural and mechanical systems.
The building uses natural convection and a series of exhaust fans above the atrium to provide ventilation to the building, removing the need for air handlers and ductwork. Heating and cooling are provided by a radiant floor system and ventilation for the space is delivered by outside air louver sections. Each zone is controlled to achieve optimal student comfort via a complex algorithm that includes CO2 levels, space temperature, outdoor air temperature, dewpoint, wind direction, and indoor humidity.
As the Joint Use Facility is planned to be the first in a multi-building campus, a large, complex, and efficient central plant was built that incorporates ground source heat rejection. The plant uses a primary, secondary, tertiary distribution system to distribute utilities around the campus.
To control the complex mechanical systems, CCSF again chose to partner with Syserco. Syserco installed an Alerton EMCS to control the natural ventilation louvers, radiant heating and cooling floor system, atrium building ventilation system, and complex campus central plant. The campus’ advanced weather station is used by Syserco for enhanced control of the natural ventilation systems.
Through Syserco’s energy efficiency efforts and systems, the Joint Use Facility has achieved LEED Platinum Certification, the highest level of LEED Certification that can be awarded to buildings for improved environmental quality, saved energy and resources, and lower operating costs.
