Serving multi-million dollar savings

UC Santa Barbara, San Joaquin Villages, Portola Dining Commons

Santa Barbara, CA

The Portola Dining Commons is part of University of California Santa Barbara’s San Joaquin apartment complex, which provides accommodation for 1,000 students, as well as additional amenities and housing for faculty and staff.

The new 25,000ft² facility includes a ground floor, 800-seat dining hall with the capacity to serve 2,500 people a day. It provides students with a lively eating environment in which to enjoy their meals, and features indoor and outdoor dining areas, views to the mountains, and a dynamic interchange with the urban street edge.

Achieved 56% energy savings compared to the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Baseline for Restaurants

Recycled content is used for 43% of all project materials and 22% of all materials are manufactured locally

LEED for Homes Platinum certified

Challenge

The challenge for Buro Happold was to incorporate sustainable strategies that targeted LEED Platinum certification for the dining hall, as well as across the whole residential development.

Solution

Designed to showcase high performance design, including passive measures, cutting edge active systems, and renewable energy, the design team also worked with the university facilities and maintenance team to select Energy Star rated appliances and lighting, ensuring that the project will achieve high energy savings throughout its extended life time.  A high value is placed on improved air quality and carefully selected building materials. In the Portola Dining Commons, recycled content is used for 43% of all project materials and 22% of all materials are manufactured locally.

Value

The new LEED for Homes Platinum certified Portola Dining Commons is a high performance campus dining facility, achieving a measured site EUI (kbtu/sqft) of 142 (electricity and natural gas) between June 2017 and August 2018. This represents a 56% savings compared to the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Baseline for Restaurants. Designed to exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2007 by 17%, the project also went through Fundamental Commissioning. This offset the project’s operational carbon via 70% of electricity through Renewable Energy Certificates and Off-Site renewable Solar Energy for 45% of the project’s total energy cost.