Saints Ride into Platinum Sunset with Cebula Hall

Sunset Air St. Martin's Cebula Hall
Fr. Richard Cebula, O.S.B. Hall, the home of The Hal and Inge Marcus School of Engineering.
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Sunset Air St. Martin's Cebula HallWith the help of local business Sunset Air, the Saint Martin’s College Fr. Richard Cebula, O.S.B. Hall Engineering building was merited the highest-rated LEED-certified building in the entire Western Hemisphere.  Through dedicated design, workmanship, planning, and effort, this green building achieved beautiful, useful, and local success.

Sunset Air president Brian Fluetsch worked closely with members of the Saint Martin’s University faculty and staff as well as local builders and designers on this project.  From the first planning meeting, the goal was Platinum LEED certification, joining the ranks of other Olympia designees such as the Hands On Children’s Museum, LOTT Clean Water Alliance and the Washington Public Utility Districts Association.  By incorporating geothermal heating, solar panel arrays, and other green techniques, the building became a showpiece for sustainability and a teaching tool for Saint Martin’s engineering students.  Says Fluetsch, the project was “great for students” since the school “put their money where their mouth is” design-wise.

As a learning tool, designers made sure to leave access panels for building maintenance visible to students.  The availability of these mechanical workspaces offers an amazing view into the daily functioning of the building for study and repair purposes.  Saint Martin’s facilities director Alan Tyler says that “it was a lot of fun to design and construct a building that in itself is a learning tool.  I was a student in the first AutoCAD course in the new build and the lab performed excellently.  That was not just my perception as the project director; it was a shared perception of the students and faculty alike.”

Even though Washington weather is notoriously overcast, what light we receive is made more efficient by cloud cover bounce-back and lower ambient temperatures.  Tyler believes that our weather, current technology trends, and Saint Martin’s effective operating approach are all factors which add up to utility savings of approximately 30%.  As such, the school is already preparing another green build for the future.

Sunset Air is no stranger to LEED-certification success.  Their Lacey building is the first privately owned gold-certified building in Washington and they have a team of experienced professionals to facilitate LEED projects from start to finish.  When a project is determined to have a LEED-certification goal, their design/build process can help insure it has lower construction and operations costs, insured sustainability, and a green presence in the community.  Says Sunset Air’s Joseph Bettridge, “It doesn’t take a lot of ‘green’ to be green—just smarter choices and the commitment to optimize the design for the maximum benefit at the lowest cost.”  This high standard is the key to their continued local and global success.

The United States Green Building Council determines and decides LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status through a series of point-determined categories.  To achieve platinum level—the highest to date—requires a score of 80+.  Through teamwork, careful design, and professional workmanship, Sunset Air led Saint Martin’s new Cebula Hall to a score of 97, the #3 building worldwide.  Company president Brian Fluetsch and his team are firm believers in green buildings and their attainability on every level.  They believe too, that such noteworthiness is a teaching too not to be ignored.  From the solar panels installed on Roosevelt Elementary to the interactive access panels on Cebula Hall, students of any age can inspect and learn from the pinnacles of sustainable, green buildings.  Fluetsch knows that attracting visitors to the community, whether students or admirers, benefits us all for successful generations to come.

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