Spring Break
Leading on green
Alexia Lang
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: News
|
Scheduled to open August 2009, the 80,000 square foot, four-story residence hall will be able to house 328 students.
The LEED certification, which is offered through the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), is awarded once the project is completed and found to have complied to the stipulations.
Designers have to keep the LEED point system in mind throughout the planning and construction process in order to ensure the certification level is reached, according to Mike Stauss, LEED Accredited Professional from Clayco, the company building the residence hall.
The levels of LEED are Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Clayco and UMKC are aiming to reach the Certified level for the new dorm.
"It's a little bit tougher than regular construction, but the environmental impact is a lot less," Stauss said. "Over time it will begin to pay itself back as far as energy efficiency and recycling."
He added that because of the materials used and Clayco's experience with green design, building LEED should cost less than half a percent more than standard construction and will pay for itself within four years due to the energy efficiency of the building.
"This is Clayco's 30th or 40th LEED project, so we have been able to reduce the cost."
Each of the four floors will have a recycling center and commons room.
The site will have only 15 parking spaces with one spot designated to a low-emitting or fuel-efficient vehicle and a number of others to handicapped parking. Students will have the option of parking in the Oak Street Parking Structure or finding other means of transportation, according to Stauss.
"Another thing with the LEED credits is to reduce parking capacity and to provide other means of transportation such as your UMKC campus shuttles, garage parking and we also promote bicycle usage on campus."
The project will also receive Innovation in Design credits for posting maps of area bike trails and making a sidewalk that connects to the green trail that runs behind the building.
To reach LEED status, 50 percent of construction waste including steel, wood, plastic and paper are being recycled.
Also, low-flow water fixtures will be used throughout, landscaping will require 50 percent less water than standard and the building was designed allowing for 50 percent green space outdoors.
Next semester, Clayco plans to offer green building education classes to students, staff and faculty at UMKC.
Clayco, a national design firm named the 16th largest in the nation for clean building and awarded the Heroes of the Planet Award this year, has a camera on-site which sends updated pictures of the construction process to the their Web site every five minutes. Construction progress can be viewed at www.claycorp.com by clicking on Web Cams and selecting UMKC.
alang@unews.com
Be the first to comment on this story