HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-05-PBC-min RECEIVE
S177s � TOWN OF LEXINGTON
2022 '12 1�18 pm
Permanent Building Committee p'r,
Permanent Members
< APR"l"T" Jon Himmel, Co-Chairman, Charles Fa�azzo, Co-Chairman,
{TTO�IN CLERK
Peter Johnson,Philip Coleman, Cells Brisbin, Elizabeth Giersbach, Frederick Merril
Police Station Members: Semoon Oh, Wendy Krum
Associate Members: Curt Barrentine, Henrietta Mei LEXINGTON
PBC Minutes for the meeting held on: 12-16-21
Meeting was held remotely via Zoom
Members Present:
Jon Himmel, Charles Favazzo, Peter Johnson, Celis Brisbin, Elizabeth Giersbach, Frederick Merrill
Semoon Oh, Wendy Krum, Curt Barrentine
The Meeting was called to order at 5:00pm
Lexington High School
Jon Himmel opened the meeting with a status request on the High School Project. Mark
Sandeen was present and stated that the MSBA had notified everyone that a decision would not
be made until March of 2022, with regard to the Town's Statement of Interest submittal.
Jon pointed out that if the Town does not get invited in to the MSBA process, then the town will
experience another year of delay, which could translate into as much as $13,000,000 in
escalation costs, using rough numbers. Jon raised the issue of conducting an early site
assessment of the main and adjacent properties involving recreational use without the study
involving any educational issues, program issues or any part of existing high school building.
There was discussion about the timing of any article that could be offered at Town Meeting to
support such a study. The deadline for a citizen petition was said to be 12/29/21. Mark
Sandeen suggested that perhaps Jon should raise the issue with the Superintendent of Schools
as well. It was asked if this item could be added to the agenda for the next PBC meeting.
Sustainable Site & Landscape
Nancy Sofen made a presentation to the Committee on Sustainable site Development and
Landscaping. The goal being to adopt Sustainable Landscape Guidelines for Town Building
Projects and consider adding these standards to the Sustainable Building Policy.
The goal of the standards is to improve the climate and biodiversity of our landscapes.
The benefits of an appropriate landscape have great effects on the climate and local
ecosystems. The landscape contributes to co2 absorption, erosion control, reduction of heat
island effect, and increased oxygen production. Maintaining healthy ecosystems in our
landscape support insects, birds and provide habitats for small creatures. The presentation also
included a reference to Light Pollution and the need for fully "cut-off" site lighting.
The presentation also focused on the ability of a landscape to create and define outdoor spaces
and contribute to physical and psychological health.
There is a Sustainable Sites Initiative /Sites v2 that has been created as well as a Lexington
specific landscaping standards checklist.
It is the goal of this presentation to have future Town Building projects demonstrate the ability
to be certified at the gold level of Green Business Certification Sites checklist and demonstrate a
minimum of 25 points on the Lexington specific standards checklist.
Several people spoke in favor of the issues and Jon suggested that the two standards be shared
with DPF for circulation and that perhaps the Sustainable Lexington Committee might also wish
to review this material at one of their meetings.
Police Station
Tecton Architects made a presentation on the status of the Police Station Project.
Red List Update
Tecton reminded everyone that there were 4 specification divisions that were highlighted for
RED List compliance on the Police Station'. Div 3 Concrete, Div 7 Thermal, Div 9 Finishes and
Div 12 Furnishings.
Division 3: Only 1 product thus far was found to be non-compliant and this is a crystalline
waterproofing admixture that was proposed for a second floor slab in the Mechanical rooms.
Tecton was proposing this as "belts and suspenders" in addition to measures also being taken to
protect the floor below for experiencing water issues if there was a leak in the mechanical room
above. Several people weighed in on this issue and after discussing the other precautions being
taken, raised curbs, raised sleeves, leak detection to name a few it was felt that the crystalline
admixture was an unnecessary precaution.
Division 7: The team is only part way thru the division as a whole thus far but to date they are
finding red list compatible products. Products having been reviewed so far include different
sheathing materials, vapor barriers, different insulation types, and metal framing. Sealants
have not been investigated yet and may provide some Red List difficulty.
Division 9: The team is having success with paint, carpet, millwork, floor tile, and wall tile. The
two exceptions in this division thus far is the epoxy flooring in the cell block area and the
terrazzo flooring in the lobby. There is no substitute found yet for the epoxy flooring but the
team will keep searching. For the terrazzo flooring the issue is the binding agent that is used.
It was noted by a meeting participant that they understood terrazzo to be an environmentally
friendly product because so much of the material used is made from parts of the stone and
chips that would otherwise be wasted. This combined with the lifespan of the product suggest
that the use of the resin might be forgiven. The design team pointed out that there was some
work being done with a Terrazzo product that uses vegetable oil polymer to replace the epoxy
resin and it was agreed to try and get more info on this and any success or failures of its use. A
member also suggested that the team could use cement based terrazzo. The differences
between the two applications was discussed and the team agreed that they would look at all the
options and report back.
Division 12: Products (furniture) will be investigated later since it is not part of the construction
bid.
LEED / Lex Checklist
Since the Design Development phase is not complete yet, not all items on the checklist could be
re-evaluated, however the team has reviewed the checklist and remains confident in the 62
points listed in the affirmative for Gold Status with another 17 as maybe points. All Lexington
specific credits also still track affirmatively.
It was confirmed that the HVAC system is designed for mery 13 filtration.
It was asked why the heat island effect points were in the maybe and the team replied that they
simply had not finished those calculations yet. It was also asked if having a solar canopy over
Since the Police Station is the firscification sections were targeted.
Future �roiects might focus on additional specification sections.
the parking area would impact those calculations and the team needed to review that further.
The team touched on the Energy Analysis to summarize that the original model had a project
load of 355 Kwh with projected 30% energy savings and 19% cost savings over the baseline,
however with the increased square footage the expected load is +/- 386 Kwh with 36% and
27% savings. It is important to note however that the energy model is not yet fully updated.
An important question was raised as there is a line in the model that is called Misc. Equipment
and accounts for 42% of the load. The design Team was asked to investigate this line and better
break out what "Misc. Equipment" represents.
It was discussed that a good deal of this may be all the dispatch and radio equipment, however
if it was found to be due to the towns IT Infrastructure that too should be flagged.
Also requested were the 87/60 values, which the design team stated they would not have until
the Energy Analysis was complete at the end of the DD phase.
Once all DD phase documents are complete (1/10/22) it will take approx. three weeks to get the
completed energy model.
Needs for DD Completion
The items that will make up the end of DD phase were discussed and will be available in two
phases.
After 1/10/22 Deadline
Red List Database DD status report
LEED/Lex Checklist updated thru Design Development
100% Design Development Drawings
+/- 3 weeks thereafter:
Completed / Updated Energy Model
Updated 87/60 values
DD Phase Cost estimate
It was discussed that information be shared with the Sustainable Lexington Committee so that
they could review these current issues at their next meeting as well.
The next PBC meeting is to be scheduled for 1/13/22.
Once the DD estimate is available and the tentative Select Board Meeting is determined for
February, we will schedule a PBC meeting for review of the estimate and a recommendation for
the Select Board.
PV Canopies
Tecton began to look at the design of PV canopies over the parking area with a goal to make the
canopies light, airy and less obtrusive then what PV canopies look like in other areas of town.
Several renderings were shown along with some precedent images of built examples.
Among the noted characteristics, the design is flat, has a small edge profile and is a touch
higher than usual (24ft). The canopies were also shown with only about 75% coverage, thus
allowing some light and weather to pass through.
The height was discussed and the concept was to try and keep these a little higher and less in
view, other canopies in town are approx. 14 feet at the low point and approximately 17 ft at the
high end.
It was noted that Fire Department garage doors are 14 feet.
Part of the height logic was tying it to a part of the police station building visually.
It was asked if the pitch made a difference and it was stated that flat versus 3 or 5 degrees
does not seem to have a big impact on production, although flat and near flat panels do not
shed snow particularly well.
Tecton confirmed that the canopy design would call for concealed wiring.
There was discussion about the steel spans and how the steel would ultimately be sized, about
the cost of the steel framework versus production with only 75% panel coverage and about
what size this canopy might need to be to increase production toward net zero.
The design Team stressed that this was a very preliminary design concept and that the next
step probably needs to be having some informal discussions with HDC members to get some
feedback from them.
There was also discussion about whether the funds to build and incorporate the PV canopy was
included in the police Station project. Mike Cronin reminded everyone that prior projects
provided little more than empty conduits for on building PV and that PV funding was a sought
separately with a Town Meeting Article request.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:45pm