Austin Ronald McDonald House

Platinum LEED in Austin!!! WOOT!

So, I called them up and said "Hey, I'm an Architecture and Engineering Student in Austin, I've just found out about your LEED Certification... "
"Ah yes, excellent" Nice guy- Danny...replied quickly. "Would you like written documentation or a tour?"

Both please!

So I head over there after a full perusal of the site and an in depth look at the public information there. Check out this Power-point presentation. It has a great high level summary of LEED and what Platinum LEED certification really means.

I was really surprised... by how normal it all looked. If you weren't paying attention all the green features fade into the background - except for the elevated gardens. Nice touch there but they still had really large amount of rooftop space floored with just a white rubbery surface. Walking out on the lower roof provided really close up access to the solar panel installations which was really cool - bit of forethought there for tours just like mine... it was simple to get there and yet secure. I even got to see the mechanical room - neat, lots of pipes and air ducts and important looking paneling - but I'd have killed to see a copy of the plans themselves. For that I'll have to get a hold of Don Echols - the building's architect.

Water & waste water was still a municipal problem - obvious and expected by a building this small, but obviously perfect for what it was designed to do... provide a shelter and retreat for families whose children are in the hospital.

Really cool bits:

• Air flow from the rooms was not intermixed - good for pathogen and pollutant safety
• Air flow had energy reclamation via a wheel based heat exchanger. Warming or cooling incoming air with the exhaust air - nice touch.
• Building placement - well analyzed and shading was exquisitely placed for eliminating this area's fierce solar heat without cutting out a good quantity of indirect solar ambient light.
• Curved site-lines. I really liked the design. The House's short and somewhat narrow hallways with a pretty severe curve in them made it feel 'closed in' and even with the bright windows everywhere it created semi private areas in front of your door.
• I'm wondering what it does to sound... Contains and channels while muffling details I would assume. It was very quiet at Ronald McDonald House. I'd mitigate it with small fountains as white noise generators in the hallways to prevent weird echoes - would also provide microclimate cooling for exterior exposed hallways.