Post Occupancy Evaluations of DNR Area Office Headquarters at Tower & Windom, Minnesota
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources construct and remodel a number of facilities every year including area offices and parks facilities. Since 1997 the MnDNR Facility Services Department has set itself on a course of a conscious review of its area office facilities to learn from the agencies past experience and provide high performance buildings that represent the best investment of state money over the life cycle of each project.
The proposed MnDNR Post Occupancy Evaluations (POEs), developed and conducted by the Center for Sustainable Building Research at the University Minnesota, are a continuation of a constantly evolving knowledge base for building projects and a feedback loop from actual project experience back to decision makers, owners, designers, researchers, and the public connected to the MnDNR. The two facilities to be researched are the consolidated Area Office Headquarters in Windom and Tower Minnesota.
A POE consists of gathering information in several forms including energy use data, occupant satisfaction data, and interviews with key design, construction and operation personnel. The goals of this study defined by the agency include:
- To document and measure the impact of the newly designed and built DNR Consolidated Area Headquarters facilities at Tower & Windom on organizational performance.
- To document and measure environmental performance with respect to sustainability efforts with a special emphasis on energy.
Within the above goal framework the study will attempt to document building successes, document building failures, document process, answer specific questions, identify maintenance/operation issues, set the baseline for improvement of new MnDNR area office buildings with POE information.
Research methodology will consisted of developing a matrix of attributes and systems. Surveys will be developed and given to building occupants (staff) and users (visitors and local community). Interviews will be conducted with the architect, lead occupants, occupants performing the role of facilities manager(s), mechanical engineer and contractor. An energy consultant will conduct energy analysis and lighting measurements will be taken where possible. Team members will conduct observational walkthroughs and the raw data will be analyzed by topic and attribute.
| Project: | Post Occupancy Evaluations of DNR Area Office Headquarters at Tower & Windom, Minnesota |
| Principal Investigator: | John Carmody |
| Research Team: | Virajita Singh, Kathleen Harder, Peter Herzog, Jim Wise |
| Sponsor: | Department of Natural Resources |
| Status: | In Progress (July 2002 - Oct 2002) |
