The upcoming renovation with be 34,000 square feet of office space in the Cabarrus County Human Services Center at 1303 South Cannon Blvd, in Kannapolis. YCH is extreamly familiar with this building and its componants after they were the lead architect in a pervious renovation to expand the waiting area and lobby in 2007. “If you can renovate the lobby of DSS, that sees hundreds of people everyday, without disrupting service, you can renovate anything.” Says Principal Bill Hughes, AIA, LEED.

Read the Independent Tribune Article Here.

YCH Architects is proud to announce a new Compressed Natural Gas Station for York County Natural Gas and for use by the public as well.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is an alternative fuel option used now in many fleet vehicles, such as those at York County Natural Gas Authority, as well as a growing number of personal use vehicles all over the world. This CNG filling station will be one of five in the state of South Carolina and only the second to be open for public use. If all goes as planed the only to be open 24 hours a day.

The structure is also LEED Registered and anticipating a LEED Certification. This will make the station the only LEED Certified Compressed Natural Gas Filling Station in the State possibly in the region.

YCH is proud to have such a great long term relationship with York County Natural Gas, who made it possible to be on the forefront of sustainability both in transportation and building.

Read more about York County Natural Gas’ first Compressed Natural Gas Filling Station at:

http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/10/03/3415494/filling-station-fuels-scs-future.html

On Friday York County Natural Gas Authority, surprised, long time friend, Mr. Willie Stephenson with the of dedication their original building in his honor. Willie Stephenson has been a friend to both YCH Architects and York County Natural Gas for many years. In 1986 Willie, the Manager at York County Natural Gas Authority in Rock Hill, South Carolina, purchased a piece of property to become the new headquarters for YCNG. The property was the former Pepsi Cola Bottling plant, and the building was in desperate need of repairs. Willie contacted many architects, who all told him he would be better off to tear it down and start from scratch. He was then introduced by a mutual friend to a young architect who had just recently started his own firm. Dennis Yates, looked though the building and although it was in rough shape, he too could see Willie’s vision. With much hard work and dedication on the part of Dennis Yates and the consulting engineers the now named Stephenson Administration Building became the icon that York County knows it today.

YCH Architects was proud to be at the dedication of the Stephenson Administration Building and happy to call Willie our friend.

Principals Mike Chreitzberg, Dennis Yates and Bill Hughes at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for The Old Creamery

Tuesday September 13, 2011

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony officially marked the transition of  The Cabarrus County Board of Elections in to their new home in The Old Creamery located at 363 N Church Street. YCH Architects had the honor od designing the space for The Board of Elections and Cabarrus County. The historic structure stands as a reminder of an important part of Cabarrus County and Concord’s history. YCH Architects is proud to have had the honor of being chosen to revitalize the building for future generations.

The Old Creamery development is actually two separate buildings connected by a courtyard; One the former Cabarrus Creamery and the other the former Coca-Cola Bottling Plant. Both businesses played an important role in the history of Concord, North Carolina. The Burrage family who began with a small cooperative dairy in downtown Concord built the building after the success of  Cabarrus Ideal, the Cabarrus Creamery’s brand of ice cream, in the 1940′s. When Coca-Cola moved out adjacent space in the 1970′s the business expanded into the rest of the space, where it made local ice cream, condensed milk, butter, milk powder and other dairy products for another 30 years, until closing the doors in 2001.

The Cabarrus County Board of Elections new space in The Old Creamery is a much-needed upgrade from their old cramped space. The new space offers individual workstations for each employee/volunteer, offices for board members, conference/meeting rooms, voter waiting, a training room, a precinct room, and plenty of storage space for machines, ballots, and archives. This approximately 10,000 square foot upfit by YCH was just another example of local firms working together to create something great in enhance their hometown for future generations.

While the building is not LEED registered, YCH Architects, committed to sustainable building, used many sustainable practices during the design and construction of the space. The interior upfit utilized: low VOC paints, sealants, and adhesives; low flow plumbing; and recycled/regional materials.

For an inside look at the new Board of Elections Office check out this broadcast from Cabarrus County channel 22, from within the Board of Elections.

Yates.Chreitzberg.Hughes Architects and Wingate University are proud to announce the opening of The Levine College of Health Sciences building. In anticipation of achieving LEED Silver from the U.S. Green Building Council, WIngates’s new home to the College of Health Sciences is a 70,000 square foot  state-of-the-art facility that will be the highest LEED certification in Union County, and the only LEED building in Wingate, North Carolina.

YCH is no stranger to sustainable building. In the last few months they have: achieved LEED Gold on RCCC Building 400; opened The Levine College of Health Sciences building, which is seeking LEED silver; and are now working on a LEED Certified Compressed Natural Gas filling station for York County Natural Gas. With the Architectural Field being a difficult place to find work, YCH is very happy to be achieving all this Green success.

LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the USGBC’s voluntary, consensus based, international rating system for Green Buildings. LEED addresses all building types and emphasizes advanced design and construction strategies in six categories.

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy & Atmosphere
• Materials & Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovation & The Design Process

LEED is an overall points system. Each category is broken down into specific criteria. Each criterion has a specified number of points associated with it. When one is met, the points are added to the overall score. The final score places you into one of four different categories for the award: Certified, the lowest; Silver; Gold; or Platinum, the highest. YCH was diligent in in all steps of the design process in order to achieve the highest LEED certification possible for this project, LEED Silver.

YCH selected the site due to its connectivity with the surrounding campus and community. The building was designed to maximize open space on the site, thus leaving over  much of the site natural. Materials for the building consist of over 30% recycled content and 44% regional materials, coming from within a 500 mile radius. More than 20% of waste in a typical US landfill is construction material. This project managed to recycle 83% of construction waste, saving 269 tons from taking up space at the local landfill. 83% of all wood included in the project is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures that the wood is cut from responsibly managed and harvested forests. All plumbing fixtures within the COHS are low flow which saves, inside the building alone, 141,665 gallons of water per year. Outside the building, YCH again carefully picked the plant material as well as how these plants were going to receive water. The design team chose drought resistant vegetation and also elected to use only a drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation systems are much more efficient than traditional spraying systems because they deliver water underground straight to the roots, preventing loss into streets and storm drains. This small change in how plants are receiving water saves Wingate University 200,736 gallons of water annually.

Inside the building steps were taken to protect the indoor environmental quality, not only for the end users of the building but also during construction. The HVAC system includes C02 sensors that adjust the amount of fresh air being pumped into the building to control indoor pollution levels. This system was also completely sealed off during construction, so as not to collect construction dust and debris, which would later be released onto the users. All paints, sealants, caulking, carpet, and plywood are 100% free of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds). This means the typical odors associated with fresh paint, new carpet and glue were nonexistent in this project, not during construction or after opening, therefore creating a more pleasant indoor space.

YCH is excited to reveal this shining achievment in Sustainable Building for Wingate University, and would like to thank Wingate for the opportunity to work on their new home for the College of Health Sciences. The firm is continuing to work on other sustainable projects and is always looking for more opportunities to show off their their technological, sustainable, and creative skill set.

For More Information on these buildings or about the firm, YCH Architects please contact:

• Bill Hughes, AIA, LEED – billh@ycharch.com
• Dennis Yates, AIA – dennisy@ycharch.com

Yates Chreitzberg Hughes Architects is proud to announce their newest achievements in Green Building. Building 400 on the Rowan Cabarrus Community College North Campus, located  in Salisbury, North Carolina has been awarded a LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building council. This prestigious rating is the second highest rating obtainable and Building 400 is one of only three new construction projects in our area to achieve this status.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and environmental Design, is the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) rating system, created in 2001 to standardize sustainable building. LEED has 7 different categories in which to gain points:

• Sustainable Site Design
• Water Efficiency
• Energy & Atmosphere
• Materials & Resources
• Indoor environmental Quality
• Innovation in Design Process

There are 4 different certifications that a building can receive based on the amount of points it receives.

• Certified    26 – 32 points
• Silver         33 – 38 points
• Gold           39 – 51 points
• platinum   52 to 69 points

YCH’s Building 400 met the qualifications to achieve a staggering 39 points and was recently awarded all of them.  On June 22, 2011 the USGBC finally announced that this state of the art facility for RCCC’s North Campus had been awarded the LEED Gold seal.

This 39,000 square foot building will house the medical science programs as well as police training for RCCC. Some of the specialty areas include general purpose classrooms, training areas for Fire and EMS, Nursing aide classrooms, as well as a phlebotomy training room. The police officer training facility includes a state of the art aerobics studio and weight training area for public training, and a mock jail cell for police training.

YCH is extremely pleased that their local firm was able to provide their community with such a great resource, both for today and for the future generations of graduates from the RCCC programs, and is always looking to move forward using this building as a stepping stone to better sustainable building practices.

RCCC Building 400 Sustainable Statistics:

• 61,352 gallons of water saved each year
• 876,348 gallons of irrigation water saved during the first year
• 2,581 million BTU or $14,123 of energy savings which is 21% over code requirements
• 100% of all land clearing debris was recycled
• 74% or 217 tons of all waste from construction was also recycled
• 33% of all materials were manufactured within a 500 mile radius
• 76% of all wood is Forest Stewardship Certified
• 100% of all sealants, adhesives, paints, and coatings are low to no VOC’s
• 100% of all plywood and particle board contain no added area urea-formaldehyde

Bill Hughes, AIA, LEED, has been promoted to a Principal within the firm.

Bill has been associated with the firm for 14 years.

Eric Bollenbecker has been promoted to Associate within the firm.

Responsible for clients providing retail goods to consumers, Eric has been a member of our firm since it was established in 1984.

The 2-story, 75,000 square foot Rehabilitation Center will include:

• Urgent Care Clinic
• Orthopedics Clinic
• Occupational Medicine
• Cardiac Rehabilitation Therapy
• Physical & Occupational Rehabilitation
• Speech Therapy & Audiology
• Common Areas & Space for Future Tenant(s)