Sabine Science Hall, Richland College's new LEED Platinum centerpiece, is a thriving testament to environmental stewardship, sustainability and scientific scholarship. This view of the pedestrian mall that surrounds the building shows the stairs leading to the green roof, existing mature live oaks, benches, multi-loop bike racks (DuMor), at-grade plantings and bioswales.

Following Richland College's mission of "teaching, learning and community building," the new Sabine Hall Science Building at the heart of the 243-acre campus provides a home for 16 state-of-the-art sustainable science labs, faculty offices, a tutoring lab, campus bookstore and coffee shop.

The building, built to enhance the campus master plan and earn LEED platinum certification, opened in 2010.

Sabine Hall and its surrounding spaces showcase energy efficient technologies, putting science on display with creative, learning-oriented wall murals and sculptures, and exposing non-science students to the studies of biology, geology, physics, anatomy and physiology, and microbiology taking place in the building.

The bioswales contain 50 percent aggregate sand, 30 percent planting soil/sandy loam and 20 percent double-shredded hardwood bark mulch. Extensive water collection was installed to meet one of the college leadership's primary design goals – keeping stormwater runoff from the developed site at the levels measured prior to construction.

Design
At the start of the project, the design team of architects, engineers and landscape architects worked closely with Richland College administration, faculty, staff, students and construction managers to seamlessly integrate the new building's design.

The design team realized early in the planning stages that the building and surrounding plaza needed to be melded with the rest of the college architecture to provide a campus "outdoor living room," large enough to bring the science majors and greater college community together.

Plantings in the bioswales along the pedestrian mall include lavender crepe myrtles, maiden grass, "Stella D'Oro' daylilies and "Silver Mound' artemisia.

An overarching goal from the earliest design stages specified that every drop of rain falling on site would be captured in bioswales, directed to cisterns and used effectively on site. The goal of the landscape design and subsequent planning was to minimize impact on the downstream watershed, keeping runoff from the developed site at or near the volume and velocity of runoff prior to construction. The water capture dovetailed with another of Richland's design goals, which stated that the facility would deliver visible lessons on the day-to-day benefits of environmentally healthy and energy-efficient grounds and facilities.

Young lavender crepe myrtles, red yucca and Liriope muscari flourish in a bioswale planted at the center of the roundabout driveway that provides access to Sabine Hall, adjacent to the parking lot. Removable dark bronze safety bollards (Urbaco Chateauneuf) separate the roadway from the benches and pedestrian area.

Entrance & Pedestrian Mall
Sabine Hall has a circular roundabout drop off and plaza that create a sense of arrival on campus. Marble molecular sculptures at the building's main entrance and an archeological dig containing various geological formations located at the northeast corner sets a collegiate, scholarly tone for the overall space.

The building's north fa?????ade is highlighted by a glass curtain wall, which creates a light, bright and airy space that allows daylight into every nook and crevice. On the north side of the glass wall, the new campus "living room" has spectacular views of large mature live oaks. The plantings and benches in the student mall were selected to maintain a consistent theme within the architecture.

Campus standard exposed aggregate walkways and stained brown concrete banding are illuminated by Spectra lighting fixtures (Architectural Area Lighting) with 42w compact fluorescent lamps. Turfgrass bordered by dwarf fountain grass provides water catchment beneath the trellis at the pedestrian mall's west entry, and brick faced, multi-level planting beds continue the "outdoor living room" atmosphere specified by Richmond College during the project's planning stage.

The water catchment systems installed at Sabine Hall and its parking lots harvest water from bioinfiltration swales, green roofs, air conditioning condensate, disconnected downspouts and rain tank water harvesting. The bioswales are composed of a combination of 30 percent planting soil/sandy loam, 20 percent double-shredded hardwood bark mulch and 50 percent ASTM C33 fine aggregate sand.

The plaza sends all of its collected and biofiltered water to a 40,000-gallon cistern. These tools greatly decrease stormwater runoff and dramatically increase rainwater concentration time. Landscape architects Linda Tycher & Associates specified a modular rain tank system (Atlantis Raintank) for the project, becoming one of the first sites in Dallas to use it. The system allows for reconfiguration of the below-grade tanks when unexpected underground utilities or obstructions are encountered. The collected water, in addition to serving as a plant irrigation source, provides gray water for the building. Tejas black rock outlines the cistern's location and dimensions.

The planting beds of native and adaptive species along the new student pedestrian mall were designed to restore half of the open space site area, excluding the building's footprint. Hardy plants along the student mall include maiden grass, dwarf Texas sage, red yucca, "Stella D'Oro' daylilies, lavender crepe myrtles and Liriope muscari.

Parking Lot Precipitation Station
In addition to collecting water from the north side of the site, the new parking lot for Sabine Hall was planned with a series of large, uncurbed lot islands that serve as bioswales to filter stormwater and direct it into cisterns. An overflow drain is located in each bioswale to accommodate heavy downpours. A small band of pavement at the edge of each bioswale directs water and prevents erosion.

Bioswales improve the appearance of the parking lot, and cleanse the water before it travels along drop inlets to a 27,400-gallon cistern dedicated to the area.

Rain Tank personnel monitored installation of all modular cisterns, supervising excavation and placement of the impermeable liner, two-foot wide compacted sand and geotextile fabric wrap. Special attention was paid to the air gaps between two-inch supply and maximum water levels, as well as installation of maintenance ports.

Care was taken to preserve the root zones of the large existing oaks during construction, and no new trees were planted over rain tank locations, mitigating future tree root involvement.

A Verdant View
Red yucca, artemisia and daylilies thrive on Sabine Hall's second-floor vegetated roof. Plantings are semi-extensive, and soil depth does not exceed 5.5 inches to save water and ease any infrastructure concerns. Ample seating and a shade trellis project from the building, where students can take a grand staircase to reach the roof terrace in addition to access provided by the building's second floor.

Large cast concrete planters with ornamental grasses march up the staircase, delineating the walkway. Chad Sichello of GSky Plant Systems, Inc., Vancouver, B.C., designed the green wall on the second floor. Installation required three separate phases: one for the frames, one for the irrigation system and a third for the panels. Construction was interrupted when winter weather arrived early, which prevented the panel installation until the following spring.

The green wall plant-growing medium is 60 percent organic material, coated with a synthetic stabilizer to expand the life of the organic composition. The remaining 40 percent of the growing medium is a synthetic mesh that holds the organic material. The plants, euonymus Japonicus and Microphyllus, were grown by Ponto Nursery and installed by the contractor, ValleyCrest Landscape Development, Dallas. The wall has an automated winterization system with sensors that detects when temperatures are close to freezing, which shuts down the watering program. Drains located below the watering valves allow all water to gravity drain out of the lines, preventing frozen pipes. The system detects when the weather has warmed up enough to automatically open the watering to the drip lines. This smart irrigation is vital to the survival of the wall plants.

This project uses myriad opportunities to teach students, faculty and visitors the value of sustainability, emphasizing Richland College's strong commitment to the sciences and the future viability of the environment.

Team List
Richland College Leadership
Janet James, Executive Assistant to the President
Eddie Hueston, Emeritus Director of Facilities

Landscape Architects
Linda Tycher & Associates, Inc.
Linda Tycher, RLA, ASLA

Architects
Perkins + Will
Richard Miller, AIA, LEED AP BD+C

Artist
Larry Kirkland

Atlantis Raintank System
Construction EcoServices

Civil & Structural Engineers
Jaster Quintanilla

Construction
Gilbane

Green Wall System
GSky Plant Systems, Inc.

Landscape Contractor
Valleycrest

MEP Engineers
Shah Smith & Associates

Photographer
Charles Smith