The Sustainable Office and Classroom building will occupy a steeply sloping site along the south bank of Slate Run on the University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg Campus. The 16,500 square foot facility will be a state of the art computer lab, classroom, and office building for the campus. Anticipated construction completion is early 2012.

The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg is a rural campus that continues to develop with a consistent, contextual vernacular tied to the turn of the century Lynch Hall. The SOC building extends the campus vernacular while employing both passive sustainable building strategies and new energy technologies.

The two story building will house an 80 student computer lab, student lounge, computer classroom, distance learning classroom, faculty offices, and the campus Computing and Media Services offices, workshops, and training rooms.

The building will feature a high performance building envelope, progressive heat-pump system, radiant floors, and a thoughtful lighting strategy to realize nearly 30% annual energy savings. Both the lobby and the north terrace are covered with green roofs and the roofs feed a rainwater harvesting cistern that provides greywater for the building’s toilets reducing the water usage by over 50%. The site plantings are an extension of the natural site and include demonstrative rain gardens and stormwater bioswales for on site storm water management.

The building and new campus plaza leverage the sloping site and the adjacent campus bridge to create both site and interior student gathering spaces. The site plaza is framed between the new stair lobby and an existing campus building and overlooks the stream and campus beyond. The stair and main lobby connect both the building entrances and provide campus flow and facilitate access to the computer lab, classrooms, and adjacent student lounge.

All of the occupied spaces and classrooms have daylight and views to the surrounding woods and campus. Laptop cafe counters separate the computer lab and the student lounge to create a student ‘porch’ along the north face of the building with ample low glare northern light and campus views.

The interiors of the building are articulated with a natural pallet of durable materials. The gathering spaces expose the structure and authentic frame of the building while providing the warmth of sustainably harvested wood ceilings, bamboo paneling, natural counter tops, and recycled flooring.