A celebration of the U.S. Green Building Council’s award of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold-level certification to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is planned for 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 17.
Official ceremonies celebrating the recognition of the Campus Recreation Center as the first officially designated “green” campus building are scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
Invited speakers include state, university and local leaders as well as representatives of the U.S. Green Building Council. They include:
– CU Regent Kyle Hybl
– UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak, Vice Chancellor Brian Burnett, Director of Sustainability Linda Kogan and UCCS student representatives
– Colorado Springs City Council member Jan Martin
– U.S. Green Building Council representative Dana Kose
– Governor’s Energy Office representative Angie Fyfe
An open house with tours, giveaways, food, activities, refreshments, and games is planned prior to the official ceremonies.
The UCCS Campus Recreation Center at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is the first public building in southern Colorado to earn LEED gold certification status from the U.S. Green Building Council
The building is also believed to be one of two LEED gold-certified recreation centers in the nation.
LEED is the U.S. Green Building Council’s certification system for designing and constructing the greenest, most energy efficient and high-performing buildings.
UCCS officials were notified in January of the certification. The Campus Recreation Center opened in Aug. 2007 and features a swimming pool, basketball courts, exercise rooms and panoramic views of Pikes Peak in addition to numerous innovative features such as solar thermal panels, insulated concrete form walls and low-maintenance landscaping.
The $12 million 54,000-square-foot Campus Recreation Center was constructed using student fees. Additionally, students, particularly the members of the Students for Environmental Awareness and Sustainability group, advocated that the new building should be the first campus building to be officially certified as “green.” Those efforts will have long-term economic and ecologic benefits, according to Kogan.
Kogan said the Campus Recreation Center is designed to be 30 percent more energy efficient and 38 percent more water efficient than comparable buildings that used conventional building techniques.
That efficiency should translate into a $30,000 annual savings in utility bills, she said.
The project received two grants from the Governor’s Energy Office for its pursuit of high performance design. Sink Combs Dethlefs Architects, Denver, designed the building. Adolfson and Peterson Construction served as the general contractor. The Farnsworth Group provided consultation services and ME Engineers designed the mechanical systems.
In certifying buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council reviews dozens of criteria ranging from the use of local materials, energy efficiency, the amount of recycled materials used, use of natural light and the amount of open space. For more about the certification process, visit http://www.usgbc.org/
The Campus Recreation Center is the first building at UCCS to receive LEED certification. An under construction Science and Engineering Building, as well as two UCCS buildings undergoing renovation or expansion, will seek LEED certification. Other public buildings in Colorado Springs to achieve certification include Colorado Springs Utilities Lab which achieved LEED Silver Certification and offices of the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department which is LEED certified. A recreation center at Longwood University, Farmville, Va., is also certified as LEED Gold.
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs, is one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The University offers 30 bachelor’s degrees, 19 master’s and four doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls about 8,000 students annually.