Painters Community Center Pringle Creek Community | Salem, Oregon

The fi rst project to achieve Net-Zero Energy Certifi cation and Petal Recognition by the Living Building Challenge, Pringle Creek’s LEED Platinum Painters Hall Community Center has become the heart and hub of this truly innovative community. In keeping with its function as a teaching A Case in tool, the building systems engage the building users in operating the systems. Sustainable CO2 sensors activate indicator lights to instruct the occupants to open Design for fresh air intake. Users can also control thermal temperature, with ample operable Pringle Creek Community Center is windows in every space. envisioned to become the heart and hub of Pringle Creek Community. It offers With energy consumption signifi cantly offi ce and conference spaces for Pringle reduced, annual energy use is supplied Creek Staff, but also the facilities for by an expansive mounted hosting events and classes. Providing photovoltaic array. Annual energy use for a forum for sustainability education is the building is around 20,000 kWh and a primary function of the Community the PV array generates approximately Center. And to create a building that 25,000 kWh. The Community Center could embody these principles of not only has net-zero energy use, it also Pringle Creek Community sustainability, the project team employed feeds additional energy into the grid for Center is frequently used a living a high effi ciency, yet simple systems. use by other on site. laboratory and classroom for students from the University The Community Center is located in The Community Center is also highly of Oregon and Portland State the renovated Painters Hall, a building innovative in its water usage. Low-fl ow University. The photograph remaining from the site’s former use as the fi xtures and dual fl ush toilets reduce annual above was taken during a creek Fairview Training Center. The Community water consumption by over 5,000 gallons. restoration project undertaken by Center is connected to the rest of Pringle Rainwater is collected in barrels adjacent local middle school students. For Creek by a network of green streets to the building and piped in for use in all of the activities and classes and porous paths. Below ground, the fl ushing to reduce potable water use for that take place at Pringle Creek, Community Center is connected to wastewater conveyance by 100%. This has the Community Center acts as the the larger development through the the added benefi t of signifi cantly reducing base and gathering space. groundwater heat pump, geothermal on-site stormwater runoff. system that is a key contributor to the building’s energy effi ciency. The heat To reduce the use of virgin materials, many pump serves the primary heating needs of the materials in the Community Center of the facility, while passive ventilation were reused from other deconstructed provides cooling and fresh air ventilation buildings at the site. New materials were during the summer months. are selected for their recycled or rapidly highly insulated, with R-19 walls and R-30 renewable properties, and nearly all of the fl oors and . construction waste was recycled.

opsis www.opsisarch.com Painters Hall achieved Living Building Challenge Petal Recognition for Energy, Equity and Beauty.

• Net-zero has been acheived by signifi cant Community Center improvements to the building envelope, the use of simple and effi cient ground water heat pump and natural ventilation cooling systems, and augmented by Sustainability Features a photovoltaic array that generates 25,483 kWh.

Sustainable Sites Materials and Resources • The building is located in one of the most sustainable • Construction waste was carefully managed, diverting communities in the nation, complete with green streets 36 tons, or 99%, of the waste generated during the and 13 acres of open space. renovation from a landfi ll. • Bioswales collect and treat stormwater runoff from the site • Many of the project’s materials were reused, either area. collected from buildings that had been deconstructed • The neighboring Flower Power Coop offers a biodiesel at the site. 24% of the materials used on the project, alternative fuel option calculated by cost, were reused; this not only reduces the impacts from extracting and processing virgin materials, it also reduces emissions resulting from Water Effi ciency transporting those materials. • Low water native vegetation reduces water use for irrigation by 25,901 gallons annually. The remaining water needed for irrigating the landscape uses greywater Indoor Environmental Quality discharged from the site’s geothermal system. • All paints, adhesives, and composite wood products used on the project were low VOC. • Low fl ow fi xtures and dual fl ush toilets reduce the water used in the building by 6,359 gallons per year, a 36% • Extensive daylighting and natural ventilation provide a reduction. The building saves an additional 6,916 gallons high degree of user comfort, as well as the ability for a year by using rainwater collected in reclaimed totes to occupants to control their own and thermal collect and store rainwater at the site, which is piped into comfort. the building and used for toilet fl ushing. Innovation and Design Energy and Atmosphere • The building is intended to be a living laboratory and • The community center has a net-zero annual energy use, teaching tool. Students, teachers, and government and during the majority of the year will have a net-positive offi cials will be using the building to study the energy generation, producing more energy than it uses. principles of green design and planning principles. opsis architecture www.opsisarch.com opsis architecture www.opsisarch.com