WORCESTER — Approaching 499 Plantation St., the initial impression is one of a giant transparent cube built into the hillside.
An open floor plan, sleek minimalist interior design andfloor-to-ceiling windows dominating the front of the office seem more akin to a tech-startup in Silicon Valley, than a government building in Central Massachusetts.
Apond out front surrounded by natural vegetation compounds the idyllic,yet somewhat futuristic,aesthetic that may be the future for other public buildings in the commonwealth.
The newCentral Massachusetts Transportation Center (CMTC) —formerly state Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Highway District 3 headquarters —uses primarily white, silver and light blues in its design.
However, there is one color that dominates the discussion — even if it does not necessarily appear in the building: green. As anet-zero building,it only consumes as much energy as it can produce on-site.
MassDOT Highway District 3 Director Barry Lorion, who was closely involved with the design and construction, said while the building was required to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified, they received a waiver to be net-zero instead.
“MassDOT will likely move away from LEEDcertified and towards net-zero — the highway division certainly feels that net-zero is the way to go,” he said.
Being fully net-zero depends on how much energy is produced and used after a monitoring period that should start in the fall.
“We will know if we’re truly net-zero after about a year to year and a half,"Lorion said.
While the topography of the space is the reason it looks the way it does, itwas also one of the biggest challenges. The extreme gradient — 120 feet of elevation change from back to front of the building — allowed for the distinctivelong, but shallow shape.
“Three of our four floors are brought up against a ledge, which helps buffer temperatures during summer and winter," Lorion said.
As well as reducingsummer and winter energy needs for temperature control, one of the biggest lessons of the design that Lorion pointed to is the power of light harvesting.
“We installed three stories of windows, triple-paned and best/largest you can buy commercially," said Lorion, sothe building cantake advantage of natural daylight from the southern exposure."They are very energy efficient and naturally light a large area."
Sunlight travels through the building from front to back sowiththe exception of only ahandful of rooms,"there is no need to turn a light on during the day,” he said.
Climate change legislation
On March 26,Gov.Charlie Baker signed comprehensive climate change legislation, which includes the goal for state buildings to havenet-zero emissions by2050.
Though CMTC is one of the first steps in that process, construction actually beganin 2017 to replace an older office building on Belmont Street. The old building was given to UMass Medical in exchange forthe undeveloped plot on Plantation Street.
Behind the building, the rear parking lot sits in the shade of massive solar panels that will soon be the building's sole source of power. While not yet completely electrically independent and still drawing some power from the grid, the photovoltaic (PV) system will be fully online by the fall when they begin the monitoring process.
“We have had to place restrictions on the use of personal electronic devices like portable heaters,"Lorion said.
The cost of the PV system is completely offset by the incentives, credits and rebates that they will receive, and after a less than 20-year period, the PV system will pay for itself.
Lorion said the facility's electricbill is a surprising $30,000 for a 70,000-square-foot building. He explained that the hybrid work environment helps with the bills as well, saving energy when most people work from home Fridays.
Its key location in the regionalso meant the building is more thanjust a district office, hence the name change to CMTC.
“Though it is still 85% Highway Division, other statewide employees work here,” said Lorion, “and some who live in Central Massachusettsbut work in the Boston office now have a much shorter commute, which in turn saves energy.”
Lorion explained that net-zero buildings must be built from the ground up as opposed to retrofitting existing ones. Many government buildings are from the 1950s, he said, with very old systems and cannot be upgraded so “retrofitting really isn’t an option in a 1950s cinder-block building.”
They used materials with high-energy efficiency such as the insulation materials in the roof and walls.
“We don’t use natural gas or diesel fuel to heat or cool," he said. "It is all electric heat pumps on the roof.”
Lorion emphasized the aspect of not disturbing the local environment.
The pond in front of the building and local vegetation was kept in place to avoid the traditional manicured lawn that has to be mowed once a week and the space abuts the Green Hill Park trail system.
“We didn’t want to come in with a lot of lawn area that had to be maintained so we paved what we had to for the parking lot and left everything else," he said. "Let the natural flora remain. We have visits by wildlife throughout the day like turkeys, deer, foxes, hawks.”
