Architect Steven Shaffer looks up at the two-story, 18,000 square foot museum, admiring his work from across Elmwood Avenue. He stops, squinting, as he tilts his head back with his face in the direction of an overcast sky. With one downward motion, followed by a slight bounce upwards, he nods, as though spring-loaded with satisfaction. “This is it. The back looks more like a typical college building would,” he says, “But the front here…it’s like art constructed to hold art.”

The $33 million Burchfield-Penney Art Center, scheduled to open November 22, is more than just an ordinary art space architected to display extraordinary works. The building, in itself, is an exhibition of a highly evolved method of design that is impossible to overlook. From the extensive consideration of material type, source, and origin to the adherence to the U.S. Green Building Council’s guidelines, the new museum was fashioned around the increasingly popular idea of “green” building construction.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) reference book, “green building design strives to balance environmental responsibility, resource efficiency, occupant comfort and well-being, and community sensitivity.” The Burchfield-Penney Art Center will be the first museum in New York State to be certified by the Council’s LEED program when the certification process is completed approximately six months from now.

The LEED green building rating system is a certification program developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council. The USGBC is made up of over 15,000 organizations that are committed to the Council’s comprehensive vision of a progressive building industry, creating structures and shaping communities to be environmentally and socially responsible, profitable and efficient, and healthy and comfortable. “I think the whole concept of green and sustainable practices is resulting in new jobs and new opportunities for businesses to not only pay attention to their bottom line, but to address environmental concerns and aspects of green buildings that relate to human health and productivity,” says Tracie Hall, executive director of the upstate New York chapter of LEED. Organizations and individuals, themselves, are encouraged to join the USGBC to raise awareness and increase involvement in green building. Members are able to utilize the benefits of the committees and chapters as networking tools to cultivate ideas and advancements.

According to the USGBC website, “LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.” By providing specific guidelines to people such as engineers, architects, interior designers, and construction managers, the LEED program encourages sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, eco-friendly materials selection and indoor environmental quality. The system assigns points for positive contributions in each of these five areas. A total of 26 points must be attained for a new building project to be LEED certified, and the maximum attainable point total is 69. The four levels of LEED certification are certified, silver, gold, and platinum; the Burchfield-Penney Art Center is currently working to attain a silver rating of 33 to 38 points.

The curved face of the building is covered in 2x10 zinc panels that are reflective of outside light. Block lettering displays the name of the building. Zinc, a metal, is a naturally green building material. The interior is stylistically crisp and modern with grey marble and hardwood maple flooring. The main walls are white with silver accents of three dimensional, Helvetica lettering displaying the names of different rooms and areas within the center. Ten different design firms and nineteen construction companies were involved in the creation of the center. It will soon hold more than 7,500 works of art produced by individuals such as Charles Burchfield, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Cindy Sherman, among others.

A small café with unexpected purple hanging lights is to the direct left inside of the main entrance. The new gift shop features wallpaper printed with doodles from Charles E. Burchfield’s notebook. A studio classroom a bit further inside awaits eager children to take part in hands-on projects and organized artistically-based activities. One of the main rooms within the art center is the rotunda. Curved silver benches surround the outside of the small room. According to Shaffer, this particular space was created because Burchfield had said that if he ever had a place to display his artwork, he would want it to be round, displaying the four seasons. “This is the architect’s response to his wishes,” Shaffer says. Another room, like a black-box theater, features an array of video and audio connections on the ceiling. It is designed to accommodate any sort of installation or performance art that the art center might choose to display. A cutting edge conservation laboratory will be the site of meticulous, precise work to preserve and restore important cultural and artistic materials. It is complete with fully waterproof floors and new laboratory equipment. There is also an archives room, which Shaffer describes as, “a sort of library for historians.” The center also contains a conference room, spacious office areas, and an impressive auditorium with seating for 156 guests, a stage, and retractable drapes to adjust acoustics from performance to performance. An area on the second floor features a glass enclosed corner, overlooking the downstairs gallery space. With no railings, the glass walls simply connect to the floor and ceiling. For guests, this will provide a unique feeling and perhaps some sweaty palms.

While the Burchfield-Penney Art Center has a lot of palpable resources to offer the public, the way in which it was designed and constructed is impressive for other reasons as well. The lighting system is designed in a way that complies with the LEED indoor environmental quality standards. The amount of daylight utilized and the controllability of lighting systems were taken into consideration. Automatic shades are built into many of the windows to control the amount of light based on the artwork being displayed. The shades can make the windows somewhat translucent, or completely opaque, limiting natural light only when necessary for the artistic experience. There is a daylight control system that allows natural light to be utilized to the fullest extent. When the sun is bright, the lights will dim, using less energy to keep the center optimally illuminated. “Most lights only come on with motion detectors,” says Shaffer, as he enters one of the storage rooms that had been dark before he stepped foot inside. “It would be unnecessary to keep them all lit, all the time,” he explains. According to the Sustainable Building Technical Manual, a well-designed daytime lit building is estimated to reduce lighting energy expenditure by 50% to 80%. While most of the lights within the art center are controlled by a motion detector, there is also a computer system controlling them so that they can be completely off or left on if necessary.

The smooth wood-flooring that can be seen in several areas of the art center is made from young trees that will be replaced. They are grown in specially managed forests that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC is an organization that encourages sustainable forestry and strives to eliminate negatives associated with logging, such as pollution and habitat destruction. FSC-approved products are widely available through retailers like The Home Depot and Lowe’s and are an integral part of building according to LEED standards. The usage of rapidly renewable certified wood earns the new Burchfield-Penney art center several points in the LEED system that is being put toward their certification. Criteria for the certified wood credit on the “LEED for New Construction Project Checklist” requires that a minimum of 50% of wood-based materials used be FSC-certified.

Each year, the U.S. produces a water deficit of approximately 3,700 billion gallons, depleting natural water sources within our environment. From an environmental standpoint, it is important for green buildings to be water-conscious in every way possible. The new art center’s landscaping features plants such as birch tees, oak trees, and grass, because these plants do not require irrigation. Dual-flush toilets are installed within the restrooms at the center. Signs indicate to users that liquid waste should be expunged by pushing the flush handle up, and solid waste by pressing flush handle down. Less water is used if the user indicates that the waste is liquid. Urinals within the mens’ restrooms are waterless. Advanced hydraulic design and a special buoyancy fluid is used in place of water. Waterless Co. estimates that their No-Flush urinals save up to 45,000 gallons of water per year, per urinal. These advanced fixtures are designed to be odorless and sanitary.

All of the steel that makes up the new building’s basic structure is recycled. This is probably one of the largest categories of a recycled component that went into the building process. Other material, such as the particle board that lies beneath the Formica covering atop the windowsills is being reused. According to the LEED reference guide, it is important to reuse materials because it results in an overall reduction in, “environmental impacts associated with extracting, harvesting, and manufacturing virgin materials” that negatively effect the environment. The use of such materials in the construction of the Burchfield-Penney center contributes to the point total which will translate into their anticipated silver LEED certification. Points are also assigned applauding the center’s easily accessible recycling storage and collection facility. The recycling room is a part of Buffalo State College’s established recycling program.

Those working on the art center thoroughly considered energy expenditure through transportation during construction and utilization of the building. Most of the building products that were purchased to create the new building were transported from within a 500-mile radius to the site of construction. This saves energy in the transport process. Patrons’ usage of mass transportation and alternate fuel vehicles is encouraged as well. Bike racks are made available around the building and there is a bus stop within 100 yards of the property. Alternative fuel vehicle charging stations are built into the parking lot area, also. All of these energy-saving, transportation-relevant considerations earn the Burchfield-Penney art center even more points toward the LEED certification.

The structural components of the building are only a fraction of what makes the art center “green.” Indoor environmental quality has to do with the general quality of air within the space and low-levels of harmful emissions from any materials present. “The building contains a carbon dioxide censor system,” explains Shaffer, “This way, the air is only changed when necessary, and it isn’t re-heated or re-cooled more than it needs to be.” This feedback system allows for low levels of carbon dioxide, resulting in more “fresh air” and higher indoor air quality with minimal energy expenditure.

Upholstery textiles and adhesives used to install the carpets used in the building produce the lowest possible levels of harmful emissions. The carpeting materials meet the requirements of the Carpet and Rug Institute’s Green Label Indoor Air Quality Test Program, which the LEED system encourages new buildings to model their installations after. These harmful emissions, or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as any organic compound that participates in a photochemical reaction. High levels of exposure to VOCs can have both short-term and long-term health effects including the triggering of asthma and allergies, itchy and watery eyes, scratchy throat, and even respiratory disease or cancer. “Any time you have the public coming into an indoor space where they are going to spend time, you need to think about what they’re going to be breathing in,” says Mandi Joyner, communications manager of Greenguard Environmental Institute (GEI). GEI is a non-profit, third party vertification company that sets its standards based on proven health criteria from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources board. Companies seeking LEED certifications for newly constructed buildings might look towards Greenguard-certified manufactured goods to help keeps levels of VOCs low.

According to the EPA, “‘sick building syndrome’ [SBS] is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified.” Women, children, and people who already have respiratory diseases are at the highest risk for SBS. Symptoms of the illness typically cannot be measured objectively and include an array of irritations and discomforts along with dizziness and nausea. Increased ventilation systems to prevent mold from forming are installed and materials that emit only low levels of VOCs are used in the new Burchfield-Penney art center as a preventative measure. “You would hate for any type of indoor environment, especially a new building, to have those types of consequences or effects on people,” says Joyner.

The Harris Hill Volunteer Fire Company in Williamsville, The Audubon Machinery Corporation in North Tonawanda, and Ecology and Environment Incorporated in Lancaster are all local examples of LEED certified buildings. In 2008, Ecology and Environment Incorporated was granted a platinum LEED certification. It was very cutting edge in its environmental design, as programs for water and energy conservation and recycling were, among other things, put in place when it was built in 1987, far before they became widespread.

Buildings on the University at Buffalo campus, such as the Creekside Village Community Center and the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex (BLSC), are also LEED certified buildings. The BLSC has a silver certification and was the first building to be LEED certified building in Western New York when it was constructed in 2002.

“A common misconception is that it costs a lot more to build green,” says Hall. “A lot of it is depending on the experience and knowledge of your project team, but it doesn’t have to cost more to build green,” she says. In many instances, it costs more in raw materials to build green initially, but soon, the benefits and saving of maintaining a green building outweigh the costs. “Everyone profits because the operating costs go down for the building owner, and for the building occupants it’s a healthier, more pleasant place to live, work, learn, and shop.”

In an interview with the Buffalo News, Ted Pietrzak, executive director of the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, remarked that expectations of the new center are high. Yearly attendance is expected to reach 60,000, which is three times the yearly average. If Pietrzak’s predicted successes follow through, the likelihood of more green buildings cropping up throughout Upstate New York is high. Within the past several decades, the number of green corporations has increased substantially. According to the USGBC, by next year “80% of corporate America is expected to be engaged in green at least 16% of the time.”As more and more people turn to the greener end of the spectrum, Hall comments, “We see a huge growth in this green collar work force development and I think that green buildings, are just one small part of the whole sustainability picture, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction for businesses, for municipalities, for schools. We’re seeing more and more adoption of the LEED grading system by nontraditional audiences.”