A rendering of JPL’s new “green” Flight Projects Center by its architects, LPA.

So Green, It's Gold

From their campus on the edge of the Arroyo Seco, teams of engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory plan and operate decades-long missions throughout our solar system. Now they’ve applied this long perspective to their own quarters, beginning with the groundbreaking May 7 of a six-story “green” building whose efficiencies will benefit JPL and its environment for decades to come.

The new Flight Projects Center will reduce its environmental footprint in ways both low- and high-tech: from bike racks and showers for bicycle commuters to “smart ventilation” that regulates airflow according to usage as measured by CO₂ sensors that determine the number of people in a room.

NASA requires that all new buildings be silver-level certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, established by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council. The rating system encourages the design and construction of buildings that are better for both their occupants and the environment. Says Mark Gutheinz, JPL’s manager of facilities engineering and construction, “I wanted to see if we could push the designers. This will be the first gold-certified building in the NASA inventory.”

The designers managed to go gold while remaining within the building’s $65 million budget, and its demand-reducing features will earn JPL a total of about $100,000 in up-front rebates from both Southern California Edison and Pasadena Water & Power. And then there’s the long-term reduction in utility bills for the lifetime of the building.

The new building will also save JPL money in other ways. “Projects turn over on a regular basis, so we have to keep creating space,” Gutheinz says. “We spend a lot of money here moving people around.” The Flight Projects Center is designed to accommodate each project group during the project’s early phases, when specialists from all over JPL need a common work space. Different groups will cycle through, but the modular work spaces won’t need to be reconfigured.

Less tangible but equally important will be the comfort and morale of the 625 people who will begin to inhabit the building in 2009. The building’s gold certification also recognizes the quality of its indoor environment, giving points for attention to details like thermal comfort and construction from low-vapor-emitting materials.

Expanses of windows on the upper floors will offer views of the first-floor auditorium’s green roof, landscaped with native, drought-resistant plants. “What’s going to be noticed most immediately is the amount of daylight,” Gutheinz says. “You’re going to feel like you’re outside no matter where you are in the building.” But all that greenery isn’t intended merely to refresh the soul—the plantings help keep the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and help filter air pollution all year round. —JA