Green Building On A Large Scale With LEED
By using the United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) LEED program for the design and construction of Colorado Court, the building became a significant breakthrough in large-scale green design. By taking advantage of solar energy and sustainable building techniques, Colorado Court recieved a Gold LEED rating.

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In Production:
Green buiding techniques can be applied to any size structure. This video clip is from a documentary that is in production at Syncronos Design. The video follows the design and construction of Colorado Court, a multi-unit low-income housing project in Santa Monica, California. Through interviews with the architects and the organizations involved, the process and obstacles of building a large sustainable green structure unfold. Since the owner of the building will be paying all of the utility bills for the individual apartments, extreme energy-efficiency became a major economic incentive. This is usually not of concern in building construction and design as energy costs are almost always passed along to the tennants of the building.

Colorado Court is a multi-award winning LEED Gold certified (the major certifica-
tion program for green building in the United States) residential housing complex
which helped to pave the way for future green, large-scale commercial construction projects. Through both innovative design, and by using cutting-edge sustainable building techniques, the structure breaks one’s perception of what affordable housing looks like.

The construction process was filmed in order to give an inside view as to the advantages of green building—both to the occupants and to the community. The production crew worked closely with the architects to gain access to both the construction site and to the hurdles that had to be overcome in order to move the building from concept to reality. By watching the process, the viewer will learn what is needed to make sustainable structures mainstream.

Electricity is generated through a combination of solar panels and a natural-gas-fired micro turbine. These two on-site electricity-generating systems, have the capacity to meet over 90% of the building’s electrical needs. During daylight hours, power generated from the photovoltaic panels is fed into the grid. The utility grid serves as a storage battery to supply electricity at night and on cloudy days. A natural-gas-fired micro turbin on the roof generates additional electricity. Waste heat from the micro turbine is used to create hot water for domestic use and for space heating via a hydronic radiator heating system. This building generates over 90% of it own energy for electricity, hot tap water, and interior heating. The building was able to eliminate the need for air conditioners by taking advantage of prevailing winds and the use of operable insulative windows.

Interesting stories unfold during the construction process of Colorado Court. The code officials insisted on a certain wiring schematic for the photovoltaic system that converts sunlight into electricity. The code officials were told by the builders that the code's mandatory requirements would severely damage the inverters. The code officials still insisted on their wiring, and it destroyed thousands of dollars of inverters. The builders bought replacement equipment and were then permitted to wire the inverters properly. This was just one of the hurdles that had to be overcome when building a structure with new technology.

In the end, through the architects own words, we hear why it was worth the extra effort to to create a structure that moves way beyond what code requires.

Some of the topics that are covered:
Solar Cooling Load Reduction
Colorado Court uses light-colored exterior walls and roofs. The number of east and west windows were reduced to prevent overheating. South windows with exterior louvers, awnings, or trellises also help to prevent unwanted heat gain in the summer.

Non-Solar Cooling Loads
The building uses operable windows to capture summer breezes to reduce internal heat gain.

Photovoltaics and Energy Efficiency
Colorado Court incorporates building-integrated photovoltaics (PV) to generate electricity on-site In the future, it is hoped that excess electricity can be sold into the grid. Ooccupancy sensors are used to turn the lights off when not needed.

Building Awards
AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects in 2003
AIA California Chapter in 2003;
Design/Honor AIA Honor Awards for Architecture in 2003
Rudy Bruner Prize in 2003
AIA Housing PIA Award in 2003
Multi-Family/Design Building Social Housing Foundation in 2003
World Habitat Award/Finalist

Total project cost (land excluded):
$4,674,000

Primary Building Design Team Members

Angela Brooks, AIA
Pugh Scarpa Kodama
Project architect and commissioning agent
Santa Monica, CA

Lawrence Scarpa, AIA
Pugh Scarpa Kodama
Architect (Principal-in-charge)
Santa Monica, CA

Community Corporation of Santa Monica
Owner/developer
Santa Monica, CA