| Almost every man-made element has an effect on our
environment and uses up some of our earth's resources. Although it is difficult to
construct a large building totally out of renewable or sustainable resources, it was
important to try to incorporate at least one or two environmentally sustainable elements
in the new Upper Newport Bay Peter and Mary Muth Interpretive Center. In the early design
stages of the building, Ron Yeo, a Corona Del Mar architect, and his associate Patrick
Marr, first started out to see if they could develop a structure using "waste
products" directly from the Newport Bay. The concept of using the silt and mud that
has to be dredged from the bay seemed like an intriguing concept. |
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Ron and Pat loaded buckets of mud into their
rowboat. They then rolled it into bricks and had it fired in a kiln. The results were
positive and being inspired by the work of Nader Khalili's domes, they studied the
possibility of using a form of construction as old as civilization itself – a
building created from the clay of the earth. Unfortunately a dome structure did not fit
into the required building program and resulted in a structure that they felt was too tall
for the sensitive site on the northwest banks of the estuary. Since the building site was
used by native Americans as a camping area, Ron and Pat felt that it would be good to use
the Indian concept of creating their structures out of materials at hand. The Shoshone
Gabrielinos constructed their shelters out of fresh water marsh plants of tules, rushes
and cattails. It obviously would not be feasible to build the permanent structure like the
Gabrielinos did, but they felt that it would be a good goal to build out of as many
discarded and recycled materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Considering
that California generates more trash than any other state, this seemed like one of the
major goals. (56 million tons in 1998).Working with the Landscape Architecture and Planning firm
of EDAW, which was responsible for the environmental and master planning as well as
resource management planning and design of the entire regional park site, Ron Yeo
developed a view analysis and studied various building locations and concepts. It became
very evident that the best solution for the building was to place it underground and plant
native grasses on the roof. This not only eliminated any potential view impairment to the
surrounding residential area, but also provided the opportunity to achieve energy-saving
benefits of an earth sheltered building. Many cost saving elements were implemented into
the planning phase. The first step was to reduce many of the initial elements such as the
natural ventilation air towers and elevator system. The second step was to revise the
freeform structure into a more logical structural system. This is when Ron worked out the
triangular waffle slab system. The cost savings for typical above ground structure
alternates were then studied. The final compromise was to stay with the earth sheltered
concept for half of the building.
CONCRETE STRUCTURE
Concrete was the logical material for
construction of this type of structure. Along with cement, concrete is made from primarily
renewable materials, including sand, gravel and water obtained from up stream river beds
along the Aliso and Trabuco Creeks.
REINFORCING STEEL
The concrete is made stronger with 100% recycled
steel reinforcing bars – rebar. The rebar was milled by Tamco, California's best (and
only) steel mill in Ranch Cucamonga. There are approximately 300 tons of recycled rebar in
the building made up of:
- 2,400 pounds of confiscated firearms from 27
Southern California law enforcement agencies
- 362,400 pounds of used oil filters (Tamco
typically recycles more than seven million oil filters each year)
- 228,000 pounds of steel-belted tire cords
- 7,200 pounds of steel drums and containers.
DOORS AND WINDOWS
All of the wood for the doors and windows are
laminated from scraps of leftover mahogany that would normally be thrown away. Carl
Hoelscher of SW Sash & Door in Fountain Valley has been saving pieces of wood for the
past two years for this project. Most of his materials are obtained from "managed
forests." The interior door panels are constructed with an annually renewable
resource of wheat straw.
CERAMIC TILE
Almost every building project has leftover tile.
Leftovers along with factory seconds and discontinued stock were collected by Ron and his
studio staff for the restrooms. The lavatory counter tops are made from recycled ground up
glass manufactured by STC.
CARPET
The carpets are manufactured by
"Envirelon" from 100% post-consumer plastic containers. It is estimated that
Americans are discarding plastic containers at the rate of two to three million per hour.
There is only a small amount of carpet in the offices and library, but they are made up of
approximately 7,000 recycled bottles.
BUILDING FEATURES
The 10,000 square foot building is dedicated
primarily to exhibit space. A portion of this space is used for multi-purpose events, with
1,400-square feet devoted to a creative studio that can be divided into two areas for
either hands-on learning activities or additional meeting/lecture space. In addition to
the 700-square foot library/conference room, there are staff and volunteer offices and a
large storage, work and preparation room. The Outdoor Plaza represents an additional
12,000-square feet of space, and includes the Birds Nest Amphitheater – the ultimate
in outdoor lecture space.
Penny Elia/Ron Yeo |
