Great Glazing: Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence

Photo credit © 2012 Lincoln Barbour

The basics: Okanagan College's Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Building Technologies and Renewable Energy Conservation in Penticton, British Columbia, is a net-zero building designed to meet the needs of trades people, site managers and construction workers who are skilled in the practices of sustainable building. It includes classrooms, workshops, administrative offices, commercial offices, a fitness center, computer and demonstration labs, study spaces and gathering spaces, according to a Guardian Industries release.

The project, a 2012 Canadian Green Building award winner, was designed to the standards of the Living Building Challenge, a program that promotes the most advanced measurement of sustainability in the built environment possible today. It includes net-zero energy and water consumption and several other environmental considerations, according to the release. In addition to meeting the Living Building Challenge, the architects and operators are pursuing platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

The players: Architect, CEI Architecture; glass fabricator, a Guardian Select Fabricator, Garibaldi Glass; contract glazier, Flynn Canada Ltd; glass manufacturer, Guardian Industries.

The glass: 20,000 square feet of triple-glazed insulating glass units with low-emissivity glass. According to the architect, Guardian SunGuard SuperNeutral 68 low-E glass was specified because of its balance of daylight penetration and solar heat gain control.