Overview

Needing to centralize forest operation and staff within the Buchanan State Forrest, we assisted the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (DCNR) architectural and mechanical staff with the electrical and structural design of a new Resource Management Center (RMC) and Maintenance/Storage Building. The two new LEED® Silver Certified buildings total over 16,000 sq.ft. and will help the DCNR conserve the long-term health, viability, and productivity of the Commonwealth’s forest and native plants, as is their mission.

The Buchanan State Forest (BSF) consists of over 70,000 acres of land in south-central Pennsylvania, managed by the DCNR. BSF is comprised of five non-contiguous divisions/tracts spread out within an 800 square mile area. With this large region to cover, DCNR needed a centralized facility to coordinate conservation and operations staff along with equipment, storage, and maintenance. The RMC is a 10,500 sq.ft. building with offices, locker rooms, showers, conference rooms, and a large multi-purpose room, which will serve as the district’s office and support center for forestry programming and operations. The maintenance/storage building is 6,000 sq.ft. featuring: three vehicle/equipment bays, one drive through bay, and three additional storage areas with overhead garage door access.

Structural
A geotechnical survey and analysis returned no soil suitability issues, and the buildings were both designed with cast-in-place concrete walls using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF). The design not only added the structural integrity needed for the buildings, it also provided energy efficiency and noise cancellation from the insulated forms. Additionally, the concrete specified, utilized recycled ground granulated blast furnace slag. Certified wood products were incorporated into the design to achieve LEED credits in their respective areas.

Lighting
Both buildings exclusively feature LED lights and fixtures, providing low maintenance and energy savings to the DCNR. In addition, occupancy sensors in combination with daylight sensors and timers reduce wasted energy while improving safety and security. Lastly, networked lighting controls allow for centralized management and easy modifications to individual fixture and/or room settings. This flexibility in the lighting controls system enables the DCNR to efficiently operate their lighting, as their building operations and utilization changes over time.

Electrical
Both buildings are served by a 50kW emergency back-up generator that provides critical systems power to the buildings in the event of an outage, allowing base operations to continue in an emergency situation.