The new fraternity house will be a three-story structure situated on a hill near the campus of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The new facility, an 8,830 square- foot building with 16 bedrooms, an apartment for the parents of fraternity members, and a library, is tracking LEED® Gold certification. The new structure will utilize a combination of innovative and conventional construction materials such as insulated concrete forms, conventional stud framing, structural steel frames, and structural insulated panels. The lower floor will be partially buried and face a small parking lot. Permeable pavers will be installed in much of the parking lot to promote filtration of stormwater and allow infiltration into subgrade soil, to the degree practicable. Also proposed is a small retention basin. Geothermal heat pumps are also being considered as a part of the project.
Earth Systems has been retained by RRM Design Group to provide geoprofessional services related to the project. The geotechnical LEED® aspects of the project included the permeable pavers and proposed retention basin. The site is underlain by relatively low permeability sandy clay and shallow bedrock which are not anticipated to allow significant infiltration of storm water. The storm water also could flow along the bedrock/soil contact and migrate to a nearby property. We concluded in our analysis that the paver areas should be lined with a HDPE liner and outlet drainage pipes installed to allow the “filtered” storm water to flow to an appropriate drainage outlet.