State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Northeast Regional Headquarters and Service Center

Taking the Leed

DNR project hits milestone for state

By Holly Johnson

Neil Diamond would be proud.

It might seem unusual, but the project team for the state Department of Natural Resources Northeast Regional Headquarters and Service Center took the famous singer at his word when designing the project in Howard. It truly will be forever in blue jeans.

Recycled blue jeans, as it turns out, make for good sound insulation. And that’s just the sort of unexpected material Oscar J. Boldt Construction’s team used in achieving silver level certification for the project from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

“It’s the first state building with the LEED certification,” said Dave Shoemaker, Boldt’s project manager on the job.

The job included two buildings — a cold storage/service facility and the DNR office headquarters. At more than 34,000 square feet, the three-story office building provides space for 156 employees and lets the DNR combine staff from four different locations in the Green Bay area.

It’s on the side of a natural slope in the middle of a 16-acre lot dominated by a marsh, a creek and other wetlands. That location actually helped the project team reach its green-building and LEED goals, Shoemaker said.


	Project Name: State of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Northeast Regional Headquarters and Service Center Location: Howard Submitting Company: The Boldt Company, Appleton General Contractor: Oscar J. Boldt Construction, Appleton Architect: Berners-Schober Associates Inc., Green Bay Owner: State of Wisconsin Project Cost: $5.2 million Project Size: 48,395 square feet Start Date: October 2003 Completion Date: April 2005

Part of the LEED process calls for as much interior sunlight as possible, and constructing on a slope let the team expose the building’s lower half on the north side. That side of the building is covered with windows, allowing the DNR to use the basement for office space.

“It doesn’t hurt that, in my opinion, they have a pretty nice view,” Shoemaker said. “But the main purpose is to bring natural light into the work space. Ninety-eight percent of the work spaces have natural daylight.”

The project also achieved some nice percentages when it came to recycling. The team recycled 86 percent of the material from the job and easily outpaced the minimum requirements for LEED certification.

“It’s a credit to the people on the site,” Shoemaker said. “Certainly, training had to be done. Once that was done, things fell into place pretty favorably.”

And the green approach continued all the way down to the selection of materials with low levels of volatile organic compounds. VOCs in materials such as carpet, glues and other adhesives have a tendency to release gasses as they cure, and that can lead to sick employees, Shoemaker said.

“It’s not just a nice thing to do,” he said. “You’re creating an environment where employees are happier, more productive and healthier. All those things play into a successful building.”

But a successful LEED-certified building requires even more. The project team paid close attention to documentation, which turned out to be a daunting task.

“The biggest challenge was to coordinate with all the suppliers and subcontractors,” Shoemaker said. “Everyone had to communicate and document a lot. It’s a very collaborative effort between architects and engineers, and the owner has to be willing also.”

The documentation process also included a third-party monitor to make sure the project team used the right materials for LEED certification and installed everything correctly.

“The state hired an independent commissioning agent and had a very stringent commissioning plan that had to be followed,” Shoemaker said. “Typically, at the end of the project, somebody does the testing. But by getting on board early, they were able to monitor the entire construction process.”

And if the requirements for LEED certification weren’t enough, the team also had to overcome the challenges presented by Wisconsin’s weather, Shoemaker said.

“We started in December 2003 — a very difficult winter,” he said. “It’s always tough to start building in December in Wisconsin.”