BBS Architects & Engineers designs 22,000 s/f green welcoming and information center

BBS Architects & Engineers (BBS), a Greater New York area designer of green institutional and educational facilities, is serving as architect for the 22,000 s/f million St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery Welcoming and Information Center, currently under construction. BBS designed the building to fulfill LEED Silver certification requirements. The client, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, presented the architects with a set of varied functions to be incorporated into the new building, recalls BBS principal and the project's lead designer Roger Smith, AIA, LEED AP. "The new structure was to house administrative offices, sales and customer service personnel, family meeting rooms, a chapel, and support facilities such as conference and function areas and storage rooms." The local building code presented the project team with an additional challenge. "The Town of Babylon, which includes Farmingdale, requires all new, public use buildings of more than 5,000 s/f to comply with LEED requirements," said Smith. The BBS team set out to develop a design that would accommodate the functional and sustainability requirements while taking into consideration the surrounding landscape and visually expressing the cemetery and religious functions of the building. According to BBS project manager James Weydig, AIA, LEED AP, "The structure's architecture reflects the flat, open, horizontal plain of the surrounding area." The one-story building features a shallow pitch roof and horizontal bands of clapboard siding and stone veneer. Two architectural elements interrupt and balance the façade's predominant horizontality - a visually pronounced portico that identifies the entrance and a carillon bell tower with a mounted crucifix that articulates the facility's religious and cemetery character. The exterior materials increase the building's perceived mass and grounding and also reflect the surrounding landscape. The façade features cultured limestone and granite with rusticated appearance that echoes the materials prevalent in mausoleums and memorials. The interiors include the 13,800 s/f ground floor that houses a central lobby, management and administrative offices, sales and visitor information staff, customer service and interment coordination departments, and a chapel that provides daily mass services. The 8,060 s/f below grade colonnade level houses records storage, group function areas, offices, and utility rooms. In addition to BBS, which serves as architect, interior designer, and MEP engineer, the design team includes structural engineer Ysrael A. Seinuk, P.C. and site and landscape designer Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. The designers have incorporated numerous material, equipment, and engineering solutions that fulfill the LEED requirements and are not commonly utilized in the cemetery environment. Development of the surrounding five-acre site that encompasses parking, circulation roads, and utility connections provided the team with the opportunity to introduce sustainable landscaping and water management techniques. These include creating large, naturally landscaped rain gardens that collect the rainwater runoff for drainage purposes and planting low-maintenance grass species native to the region. Sustainable exterior and base building materials include cementitious siding with a high recycled content and low-E, high-efficiency windows. The LEED-certified MEP equipment and fixtures include an energy-saving HVAC system; electronically-controlled, low-flow faucets and toilets; and waterless urinals. The lighting design achieved the required light levels with a reduced wattage per square foot through extensive daylighting and use of low-energy fixtures.