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Precious Art and Book Collection Finds Sanctuary in Subterranean Hillside Protected by Green Roof
When it came time to consider how to exhibit Carnegie Mellon University’s Posner Collection of rare art and books in an area more accessible than the campus library’s fifth floor, project planners had an epiphany: why not pick a location that could incorporate many environmentally sustainable features as well?
For more than 30 years, the University displayed Henry Posner, Sr.’s collection, which included one of the four remaining original copies of the Bill of Rights, in the remote library location. A generous gift from Mr. Posner’s son made it possible to construct a building distinct in appearance and better suited to house one of the top five privately held collections in the world.
The University’s desire to integrate green space into the chosen construction site, a high-traffic campus crossroads, led architects to design an 11,400-square-foot, one-story subterranean building carved out of a hillside. The structure would quite literally be buried between two large classroom buildings and feature at surface level a vegetative roof to satisfy the University’s landscape plan.
The Posner family liked the idea of a green roof; the only stipulation they put on the underground building was that the roof never leak. Such stringent design specifications demanded that architects identify a roofing material both impervious to root growth and highly durable.
Construction plans for the Posner Center involved adhering 80-mil, G-476 Sarnafil membrane on top of the building’s concrete roof deck and portions of its vertical side walls. A protection layer, a drainage panel and insulation were then installed over the membrane.
While workers waited for warmer weather to arrive so they could install the rooftop garden, the vinyl membrane was put to the test. It sat exposed to the elements through the winter of 2003, and endured two 100-year rainstorm events. The membrane aced all of these tests.
With ample gallery space, a state-of-the-art conference center and a beautiful rooftop garden, the 1,000-volume Posner Collection has a home that’s worthy of its wares – and one certified by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Program for its sustainable attributes.
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