The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone expects to double its enrollment with a new environmentally oriented, state-of-the-art dormitory.

Given that the Pratt Avenue building will be the first in St. Helena to be made of metal, it is indeed environmentally healthy — unless, of course, you are a termite.

Being termite-proof is one of the pluses of the new structure, which is expected to be a pacesettern green construction.

“We want the highest green certification possible,” said Charles Henning, CIA’s managing director. “It was a mandate from the very beginning that we have the least impact possible on the environment and be a little bit of a model of what can be done.”

Henning estimates construction will cost around $4 million. Napa-based Healthy Buildings Construction Group will build the structure.

He said he hopes the dorm will enable the CIA to register an additional 100 students a year, beginning with its first group of resident-students this September. CIA annually matriculates 104 students through its culinary program, he said.

The two-story structure will have 31 dorm rooms, a kitchen, an activity room, an outside deck and two manager’s rooms.

“Mr. Henning wanted a green building and to that end we tried to incorporate as many things as we could into it,” and Rob Anglin of Valley Architects in St. Helena. “It is a good building system. Solar panels will take care of some of the electrical needs. The building is oriented so that it faces due south. It is a strange kind of orientation, but when you are using solar panels on the roof you want to get the best solar orientation possible.”

Board and batten siding, which Anglin says has a significantly longer life than wood, will form the outside walls. A membrane system will treat the facility’s wastewater.

“We explored geothermal heating and cooling and unfortunately the price was such that we couldn’t afford it,” Henning said. “But we do have a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system.”

Healthy Building’s demolition of the existing 1,750-square-foot old laundry and facilities building cleared the way for CIA construction, and even that was a green-oriented process.

“Our ultimate goal on the St. Helena project was 75 percent landfill diversion,” Toni Renee Vierra, the company’s manager of sustainable practices, said in a document. “Using sound green demolition practices, we achieved 99.22 percent landfill diversion. That means that 382,220 pounds, or 191 tons, of debris was recycled or will be used as part of the new construction.”

About a ton and a half went to landfill, she added.

Healthy Buildings Project Manager Doug Eikenbary said that the CIA dorm is his first metal construction project. He likes the idea that the building will never be termite- or mold-infested and is fire-proof.

“But when steel gets to be a hot commodity it will be tougher to get supplies,” he said. 쇓