Civic buildings are created first and foremost to serve the needs of their local communities. However, those municipalities with a more encompassing view recognize that such buildings can also benefit the larger global community. Such was the case when the City of Burbank, Calif.,  decided to create a new Community Services Building.

Replacing a municipal services building that had been damaged during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the new building, which was designed to consolidate many city services into one location, has been submitted for LEED NC 2.1 certification.

Celebrating its grand opening in August 2008, the new Burbank Community Services Building was designed by international architecture, planning, engineering, interior design and program management firm LEO A DALY. While many cities and municipalities have codified green requirements for public (and in some cases private) construction projects, the City of Burbank does not yet have a specific law mandating such. However, the City Council mandated that the facility become LEED certified near the completion of the schematic design phase (however, this re-directive was not disruptive to the design process since LEO A DALY sought to create a highly efficient design from the start).

LEO A DALY provided full architectural, engineering and interior design services for the $38 million, three-story, 72,000-square-foot building. Featuring a striking, light-filled central atrium, the building is the new home of the Community Development Department; Public Works Department; the Park, Recreation and Community Services Department; and the Public Information Office. The building provides Burbank citizens a centralized location for their municipal permitting needs.

According to City of Burbank Director of Public Works Bonnie Teaford, “We wanted to provide a centralized location for the public to get permits for construction, and promote by example the benefits of sustainable architecture.”

Architectural Intent

The Burbank Community Services Building features an efficient building envelope and several sustainable design features inside and out. Photo by David Lena Photography.

The Burbank Community Services Building was designed to be an active, vibrant and environmentally sustainable civic structure to better serve citizens while providing a functional, high-quality work environment for city employees.

The interior of the building features a dramatic, three-story central atrium that visually unites the various programmatic functions and minimizes the need for artificial lighting. By consolidating all permitting functions around a central, welcoming, easy-to-access battery of counters at the ground floor of the facility, the architecture of the building communicates a sense of an accessible government that is ready to provide service to the community.

According to LEO A DALY Los Angeles Director of Design Hraztan Zeitlian, AIA, LEED AP, “Our strategy in creating meaningful civic architecture consisted of weaving the ‘memory of the place’ in the architectural elements and embodying a sense of democratic transparency and openness in the conception of the architectural spaces.”

LEO A DALY Project Manager/Project Architect Nicos A. Katsellis, AIA, LEED AP, who managed the LEED initiatives and submission materials for the project, adds that, “With minimal interior finishes used, the building’s seismic bracing system was intentionally exposed, revealing the structural components found in the perimeter walls. This was another functional design feature that plays into the history of the building’s location in earthquake-prone California.”

The vast open core of the building had its benefits (creating a sense of openness and activity, providing generous amounts of daylight), but also posed an acoustical challenge. Designers incorporated a “white-noise” system to address the potential sound issues that could have arisen from the open atrium space.

Zeitlian adds, “By judiciously using large glass curtain wall ‘windows’ at the main points of entry, we strived to bring a sense of transparency and openness to the building. The building’s architecture embodies the tenets of democracy and transparent civic decision making: The open atrium allows for the citizens to ‘see’ into the government offices, strengthening the sense of accountability and openness.”

In addition to the permitting and office spaces, the building houses a large community room, which features an elaborate audio-visual system, for public assembly and committee meetings.

Teaford points out that, “We are happily settling into our new, light-filled work space, and the 197-person capacity community room is in almost constant use.”

The granite-encased entrance to the room was designed to evoke the oversized doorway of the nearby Burbank City Hall building, tying the new structure more closely to its surroundings. An exterior courtyard and fountain greet visitors at the North Third Street entrance (one of two primary entrances), while an assortment of sculptures and other public art further enhance the building’s active connection to and engagement with the citizenry.

Systems and Strategies

The three-level atrium is the focal point for the one-stop permitting center, and displays images representing the building trades. Photo by David Lena Photography.

 “The most rewarding aspect of working on this project was engaging the various green systems and strategies into the building in a way that they also served to create its unique architectural aesthetic,” says Katsellis.

LEO A DALY designers used a number of strategies to help make the building’s impact on the environment as minimal as possible, and were focused on energy efficiency, water conservation and indoor air quality. Designers were also mindful to specify sustainable and recycled goods and finishes, including terrazzo flooring, carpet tiles and window coverings, throughout the interior of the building. Additionally, roughly 90 percent of the structural steel came from recycled sources.

Through the design of the building envelope, the lighting systems, and the heating/ventilation systems, the building achieved an annual energy usage efficiency of 20 percent greater than the standard for California codes.

The building envelope was designed with Low-E glazing, while insulation with an R-value of 13 was selected for solid walls, and an R-value of 21 for walls with an outward finish of spandrel glazing. The interior lighting scheme was designed to have a power density of 1.09 watts per square foot for both open and private offices utilizing indirect/direct lighting with T5 lamps. Katsellis notes that around the perimeter spaces of the building, daylight sensors were deployed to reduce overhead electric lighting when daylight is sufficient.

The HVAC systems were designed around an air-cooled chilled water system and gas-fired boiler heating hot water system. Both chilled and hot water systems operate variable primary water flow, allowing pump energy reduction when load conditions are less than the maximum designed. The air handling system is provided with an economizer control sequence based on outside air enthalpy (internal energy content) and not purely on temperature.

According to Katsellis, the building offers a number of water conservation features, too. “We installed a smart partial-drip irrigation system that has a low water flow and minimizes evaporation loss. The system also uses an automated master valve and flow sensor, eliminating accidental water losses. Further, the landscape design incorporates low-water plants.” The building uses highly water-efficient plumbing fixtures, reducing water consumption by more than 30 percent as compared to standard technologies. Such fixtures include waterless urinals, ultra-low flow lavatory faucets with electronic sensors, low-flow showerheads and low-flow water closets.

Designers also focused their efforts on maximizing indoor environmental quality by including a ventilation system with high air-change effectiveness, providing direct access to airflow, temperature and lighting controls to the occupants, and incorporating a large percentage of exterior glazing on all sides of the building to allow for a daylight factor of at least two percent in more than 75 percent of the spaces allocated for critical visual tasks.

Setting an Example

Indoor environmental quality was maximized by including a ventilation system with high airchange effectiveness. Shown is the Community Room. Photo by David Lena Photography.

Created as the first phase of a proposed Civic Center Master Plan, which could potentially include a new civic plaza, central library, parking structure and pedestrian improvements, the building has set an important precedent for the city and its citizens.

While the project’s LEED certification is pending, it has already been recognized with California Construction Magazine’s Best of ’08 Award in the Civic Category and a 2008 Project of the Year award from Southern California Chapter of the American Public Works Association.

Katsellis notes that, “Everyone who worked, visited, or is currently working in the building loves it. I’m as objective as I can be in saying that this is a success story. Combing sustainable design concepts with aesthetic and architectural elements that reflect the city’s values has resulted in a truly democratic building.”

Sidebar: Burbank Community Services Building

Location: 150 North Third Street, Burbank, Calif.

Size: Three-stories, 72,000-square feet, 1.97 acres

Cost: $38 million

Opened: August 2008

Certification: Submitted for LEED NC 2.1 certification in    November 2008

Client: City of Burbank — www.ci.burbank.ca.us

Tenants: Community Development Department; Public Works    Department; Park, Recreation and Community Services    Department; and the Public Information Office

LEO A DALY Team: Brian Kite, AIA, Principal-in-charge; Nicos    Katsellis, AIA, LEED AP, Project Manager/Project Architect;    Roxana Salcedo, Job Captain; Quang Hua, Senior Designer;    Leon Reed, Senior Interior Designer; Eunju Cho, LEED AP,    Interior Designer; and Ernest Barron, Construction    Administrator Assistant.

Contractor: Swinerton Builders


Products + Resources:

Acoustic ceiling tiles – Armstrong

Carpet tile – C&A

Energy-efficient central heating and cooling equipment – Energy Labs

High-emissivity roofing membrane – Sarnafil

High-level insulation – Thermafiber

Light-gauge framing – Haworth Wall Systems

Low-emitting composite wood – Haworth

Low-emitting paints – ICI Paints

Low-energy consumption motion sensors/photo sensors/timers – Lutron

Precast concrete panels – Clark Pacific

Resilient sheet flooring – nora systems Inc.

Terrazzo flooring – Sherwin-Williams

Wall fabric – Designtex

Wall panels – Trespa Design

Waterless urinals – Duravit

Window coverings – MechoShade