Such challenges require architects to think about the big picture and the little picture when they design, said Michelle Swatek, executive director of the American Institute of Architects in St. Louis.
A commission to build a gym for Clayton-based Wilson School, for example, required Trivers Associates to think a bit inside the box, literally.
The challenge: Design a gymnasium for the land-locked school that would make everyone happy. Trivers came up with a solution: Build the gym underground.
The 6,000 square-foot gym is a bit of an engineering feat, other developers say. The gym's 22-foot-tall walls barely creep above ground; the foundation sits eight feet below surface, and the slope of the street hides all but one story of the gym from passersby. Inside, street-level skylights at the top of the gym stream light inside the building.
When construction firm Alberici Group decided to move its new headquarters to an old abandoned aluminum factory in Overland, it asked Mackey Mitchell Associates, an architectural firm, to redesign the space.
The challenge: Double the size of the building. And the double dare: Use sustainable design standards to cut energy operating costs.
The solution: Mackey Mitchell added 48,000 square feet of new construction on the south end of the building. A jagged, sawtooth design of the new offices directs more sunlight into the building.
A windmill and 10 solar panels generate renewable energy; the panels provide 90 percent of the energy needed to heat hot water for the building.
An underground 38,000-gallon cistern collects rainwater for the building's potable water use. Excess rain runs off into two rainwater ponds on the 14-acre property.
Alberici estimates the building is 78 percent more efficient than the standard office building. The firm saves about $70,000 a year in energy costs and half a million gallons of water.
For Mackey Mitchell, the LEED standards project was a first for the firm.
