Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture 14 (2020) 68-73 doi: 10.17265/1934-7359/2020.02.002 A Civil Engineering Capstone Research Project on the Design of a Green Building Robert Sukiasian, Joshua Portillo, Julio Lopez, Miganoush Soltavi, Sulwan Almarzouq, Ali Alsaffar, George Hanna, Tadeh Zirakian and David Boyajian Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management, California State University, Northridge, CA, USA Abstract: Using the knowledge obtained from previous courses such as: soil mechanics, structural analysis, steel design, etc., a team of seven students at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) designed a two-story residential steel house for their senior design course. The home was chosen to be located in the city of Pacific Palisades, California. The following paper outlines the design of the home ranging from the architectural plans to the beam, column, and foundation design. California is known to be seismically active, therefore, seismic loading played a large factor into the design of the house. Once the design of the house was completed, a cost estimate of the house was prepared using the estimating platform RSMeans. Additionally, a second estimate of the home was also completed with the addition of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) features such as solar panels, LED lighting, and energy star appliances that make the home environmentally friendly and will give the owner a greater return on their investment in the future. Key words: Structural design, environmental friendly, clean energy, economical, engineering education. 1. Introduction In this research project, the major foci were design and selection of steel structural system and LEED features for a two-story residential building. The main tasks of the team included architectural design, alternative designs of steel structural frame, design of the LEED system and determining the cost-value for both normal building design and green building design. By comparing the cost and design, the team is able to select the most beneficial design to the client. The building design was developed in compliance with the AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) Steel Construction Manual Code, 15th Edition; and Design of Reinforced Concrete, 9th Edition. In the design phase, the team investigated alternative structural scenarios with different combinations of steel structural member such as member types, member sizes, member spacing, etc. to Corresponding author: Tadeh Zirakian, Ph.D., P.E., assistant professor, research fields: civil engineering, and engineering education. compare the strength and also the cost of the construction Koken [1]. LEED features were designed in a way to provide a more sustainable structure and self-sufficiency to the building [2]. Some of the energy saving features presented in Refs. [3, 4] were implemented into the design of the residential home such as: photovoltaic systems, LED lighting, and insulation. As a result, the steel residential home was able to achieve a gold certification in LEED. By comparing all the details, it was set forth to select and design a scheme which was determined to offer a beneficial construction, increase integrity, strength, and rigidness of a structure. This paper presents the design of a two-story residential green building using Refs. [5, 6]. It was designed to meet strength and required serviceability to both gravity loads and lateral loads. For strength design, the Load Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) criteria were used for analysis and to ensure life safety. 2. Architectural Features The project specifications were to design a two-story, D DAVID PUBLISHING