The Greenest Hotel in America: The LEED Platinum Certified Proximity Hotel

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Built to use 36% less energy and 30% less water than a comparable hotel, the LEED Platinum certified Proximity Hotel offers a glimpse of the future while celebrating the past. Sustainable practices, custom-designed furnishings, locally commissioned art and innovative design await guests in every corner of the 147-room luxury hotel and its adjacent restaurant.

Proximity Hotel features ultra efficient materials and the latest in building technology, such as North America’s first installation of the regenerative drive for Otis’ Gen2 elevator, which reduces net energy usage by capturing the system’s energy and feeds it back into the building’s internal electrical grid. In addition, 100 solar panels on the roof generate energy to heat water.

While many of the 70+ energy and health enhancements will not be outwardly visible to guests, folks are sure to notice the oversized windows providing abundant natural light and great amounts of fresh air. “How can you tell if the hot water for your shower was heated by yesterday’s sunlight or with natural gas?” says Dennis Quaintance, Chief Design Officer and President of Quaintance-Weaver, the local owner of Proximity. “We made sure none of our sustainable practices caused one iota of sacrifice in comfort for our guests.”

Guests also enjoy flavorful food, custom-designed furniture and original artwork in each room. As guests enter the hotel, they encounter interesting architecture and décor including a “floating” front desk made of a striking 12-foot steel cantilever sculpture, a 28-foot long mohair sofa, an interior balcony overlooking the Social Lobby and 22-foot high windows overlooking the Bluebell Garden.

The hotel features 7,000 square feet of private event space, a spacious fitness studio, outdoor swimming pool and a “guest living room” on each floor. Proximity’s oversized guest rooms and suites have 50 square-foot windows, custom furnishings, high definition television, Magi beds and signature bathrooms.

Proximity’s restaurant, Print Works Bistro, uses fresh, local food in creating both traditional and modern versions of classic European bistro dishes. With three walls of windows overlooking the gardens in the dining room, no seat is far from any one of the 52 seven-foot tall operable windows. In addition to an extensive wine list, Print Works offers a smoke-free bar and plenty of outdoor terrace dining by the restored stream. Sustainable practices there include sensor-controlled ventilation for the kitchen, geothermal energy for the restaurant’s refrigeration equipment and tabletops made of reclaimed walnut.

A sampling of the 70+ sustainable practices at Proximity Hotel:

• Uses 36.5% less energy than a conventional hotel by using ultra efficient materials and the latest construction technology.

• Utilizes the sun’s energy to heat hot water with 100 solar panels covering the 4,000 square feet of rooftop (enough hot water for a hundred homes). This heats around 60% of the water for both the hotel and restaurant.

• Restored 700 linear feet of stream by reducing erosion, planting local, adaptable plant species and rebuilding the buffers and banks. Approximately 700 cubic yards of soil was removed to create a floodplain bench. And 376 tons of boulders and 18 logs were used to maintain grade control, dissipate energy and assist in the creation and maintenance of riffles and pools.

• Installed North America’s first Regenerative Drive model of the Otis’ Gen2 elevator, which reduces net energy usage by capturing the system’s energy and feeds it back into the building’s internal electrical grid.

• Takes advantage of abundant natural lighting with large energy-efficient “operable” windows (7’4” square windows in guest rooms).

• Connects guests to the outdoors by achieving a direct line of sight to the outdoor environment for more than 90% of all regularly occupied spaces.

• Uses building materials with recycled content. For example, reinforced steel contains 90% post consumer recycled content, National Gypsum Wallboard 100%, asphalt 25% and staircase steel 50%. Concrete contains 4% fly ash, the mineral residue left after the combustion of coal that is diverted from landfills.

• Recycled 75% of construction waste, diverting it from landfills.

• Reduces water usage by 30% by installing high-efficiency Kohler plumbing fixtures.

• Improves air quality by circulating large amounts of outside air into guestrooms (60 cubic feet per minute) and doing so in an energy efficient way by employing “energy recovery” technology where the outside air is tempered by the air being exhausted from the hotel.

• Uses regional vendors and artists for materials to reduce transportation and packaging.

• Utilizes low-emitting volatile organic compound (VOC ) paints, adhesives, carpets, etc to reduce indoor air contamination.

• Uses guest-room shelving made of walnut SkyBlend, particleboard made from 100% post-industrial recycled wood pulp with no added formaldehyde.

• Offers bicycles for guests to ride on the nearby five-mile greenway.

• Uses tabletops in the Bistro made of salvaged, solid walnut trees that came down through sickness or storm and room service trays made of Plyboo (bamboo plywood).

• Installed newly-engineered variable speed hoods in the restaurant that use a series of sensors to set the power according to the kitchen’s needs and adjusts to a lower level of operation (typically 25% of their full capacity). The sensors also detect heat, smoke or other effluents and increase the fan speed to keep the air fresh.

• Uses geothermal energy for the restaurant’s refrigeration equipment, instead of a standard water-cooled system, saving significant amounts of water.

• Will plant a green, vegetated rooftop on the restaurant to reduce the “urban heat island effect.” In other words, the green roof reflects the heat, thus reducing the amount of energy needed for refrigeration and/or air conditioning. It also slows the rain runoff and insulates the rooftop, keeping the building cooler overall.

• Becomes an “Education Center” for sustainable practices with tours for guests and outreach programs for students of all ages.

Source: Proximity Hotel

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May 27th, 2010 by signaltree
Posted in Architectual |
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