The building progress of the Rod Shippey Education Facility & Field Lab at the UC Hopland Research & Extension Center has been fast and furious over the last couple of months. We are extremely excited with anticipation towards the completion and educational use of this new facility.
From the building's inception, our goal was to design a facility with low energy requirements that made "maximum use of on-site renewable energy and climate-responsive design strategies". In terms of "green" architect standards, architect Paul Roberts notes, "The Shippey building, as designed, could easily meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum benchmark, especially if money could be raised for the addition of a solar array. Even without an active solar collection system, the building is designed to be "Beyond LEED" in design and execution.
Under the leadership of REWEST Construction, the site pad was prepared, all under-slab plumbing, electrical and utilities were installed, and the stem walls were poured. An enormous length of radiant heating tubing is now in place in preparation for the concrete slab pour. However, due the the cold temperatures over the last week, the floor-slab pouring is in a waiting game with Mother-Nature ... waiting for the on-site temperatures to warm up a bit.
