Take me out to the Green Ballpark
WASHINGTON — The new Washington Nationals professional baseball franchise may finish the 2007 season in last place but come next 
spring they will lead the league when they swing for the fences in the first environmentally sustainable sports stadium in the United States.
The $611 million, 41,000-capacity ballpark — aesthetically defined by its use of glass and steel in a joint-venture design by the Kansas City-based sport division of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum and Washington architectural firm Devrouax-Purnell — will leverage its brownfield-redevelopment status in an attempt to become the first LEED-certified major league baseball stadium.
“Regardless of whether or not the ballpark achieves LEED certification, the number of sustainable elements that were incorporated make this project kind of unique,” says Susan Klumpp, AIA, project manager and LEED coordinator for HOK/Devrouax-Purnell.
Earlier this year, Washington became the first major U.S. city to pass legislation requiring all new commercial building developments greater than 50,000 square feet to conform to the same sustainable design standards adopted by public projects. The city’s Green Building Act mandates LEED standards for major commercial construction beginning in 2012 and for all publicly financed buildings starting in 2008.
“It was a goal of the former mayor, and the city council and sports commission envisioned a sustainable ballpark from day one,” Klumpp says. “The difficulty came in figuring out a strategy to get there on time and within budget.”
During the past several years, LEED standards and guidelines have been progressively tailored and refined for specific types of buildings, such as schools or commercial developments.
The District of Columbia Sports and Entertainment Commission, which oversaw the ballpark’s development, emphasized a set of sustainability objectives from energy- and water-efficiency to urban renewal and public transportation.
However, because there are no established guidelines specifically for sports venues, the Nationals project provided an interesting learning process for all involved, from the owner/developer group to the architects to the USGBC itself.
“We’re cutting into a completely new area,” Klumpp says. “A ballpark isn’t like an office building where you’re trying to do things, such as increase daylighting and indoor air quality.”
“It really became about what happens when 41,000 people descend on the venue 81 days a year,” she says. “Those 41,000 fans are eating peanuts and spilling beer and flushing toilets all at the same time.”
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The project’s size, complexity and innovative aspects presented significant challenges in terms of the decision-making process, where achieving timely consensus among stakeholders and project principals was essential for success.
“When you have this many people involved, from the roofing guy to the owners to the developers, it’s a real challenge to get everyone rowing in the same direction,” Klumpp says. “It takes a whole lot of massaging to get where you need to go.”
A major element of the commission’s efforts to achieve LEED certification centered on the stadium’s proximity to the Anacostia River and the desire to manage water runoff from the facility, officials say.
“We didn’t want to add to the woes of the Anacostia River, which is in the middle of a massive clean up project,” Klumpp says.
A comprehensive three-phase filtration system was custom-designed to separate and treat both storm and facility water. Composed of six three-chamber sand filters that are 40 feet long, 20 feet wide and four stories deep, the filtration system is designed to eliminate general debris, stadium-specific organic matter — such as peanut shells — and fertilizers before the water is released.
The water management system was the most expensive individual component incorporated into the stadium and given the project’s budgetary constraints, the design team had to develop an understanding of the vision and objectives of stakeholders to determine essential and nonessential sustainable components.
“Trying to stay within budget, while doing all the things that needed to be done to go green, and making it happen in a very limited time frame was perhaps the biggest challenge,” Klumpp says.
Due to budgetary constraints, the design team was unable to incorporate several sustainable elements into the project. Solar arrays that would also act as canopies over the parking lots were ruled out because the design team couldn’t get the costs down to a point that would make it feasible.
“Almost every aspect of the project had some thought put into it about what we were doing to enhance sustainability,” Klumpp says. “We accomplished most of what we wanted to do.”
Landscaping around the ballpark will feature drought-resistant plant materials to eliminate the need for irrigation and reduce the facility’s overall water consumption. Water-conserving plumbing fixtures, such as flow lavatories and faucets, will be used throughout the facility’s 1,100 public restrooms, officials say. The water conservation measure is projected to yield water savings of 37 percent over Energy Policy Act baseline water-use requirements, which equates to an estimated 3.6 million gallons of water per year.
“People hear that and start to take notice,” Klumpp says.
Energy-efficient lighting systems will also be used throughout the facility, from the stands and concessions to field lighting and scoreboard displays. The National’s lighting system is projected to consume 21 percent less energy compared to traditional field lighting systems, which equates to energy savings of approximately 300 kilowatts of power per year, officials say.
The stadium will incorporate reflective roofing materials to reduce the heat island effect. All construction materials used on the project feature at least 10 percent recycled content and the materials were produced and sourced regionally when possible to reduce the costs and impact associated with long-distance transportation. Interiors of the facility, which include 30,000 square feet of administrative space, feature low-VOC adhesives, sealants, paints and carpeting to enhance air quality.
As part of the commission’s effort to eliminate ground contamination on the 25-acre park site, which sits adjacent to a sprawling Navy shipyard, approximately 300,000 tons of soil, much of it heavily laden with pollutants, was removed during the project’s preconstruction phase.
Developers initiated a comprehensive recycling program for materials and debris used or generated during the construction phase, with an estimated 5,500 tons of construction waste to be recycled. Several waste reduction measures — including environmentally friendly concession packaging — will be implemented when the stadium becomes operational and hosts its first game, officials say. The facility will feature dedicated recycling-collection space for glass, aluminum, plastic and cardboard.
In an effort to further mitigate the environmental impact of thousands of fans descending on the ballpark for 80-plus games per season, the facility is situated in close proximity to the existing public transportation network with nearby metro stations and bus routes. Offering 1,225 car and 30 bus parking spaces, the stadium will provide onsite garaged parking for fuel-efficient vehicles and carpools.
“In the end, it was about providing a better facility all around,” Klumpp says. “The owner should see an appreciable difference in facility performance and the fans should notice a difference too and have a better experience.”
“We’re happy because we’re conserving resources,” she says. “That’s really worth something.”
HOK Sport is one of the world’s leading sports facility design firms, with London’s $1 billion, 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium — the second largest stadium in Europe — among the company’s recent high-profile projects.
Devrouax-Purnell is among Washington ‘s most respected architectural firms, with projects ranging from the African-American Civil War Memorial to the new Washington Convention Center.