Designed before the advent of the LEED Green Building Rating System, the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities Office and Training Facility is a pioneering building that helped define and embody high performance sustainable design on a speculative office building budget. The Weidt Group, in collaboration with RDG in Des Moines, developed this project, which was selected by the AIA National Committee on the Environment as one of its Top Ten Green Projects in the United States in 2002.

For this 12,500 sf facility, effective interior daylighting became a main organizing element for the architectural concept. Sited along an east/west axis, the building uses primarily north and south window exposures with careful control of direct sunlight to provide a highly productive and comfortable workspace. Systematic evaluation of building massing, orientations and window design options using daylighting and thermal simulation models led to a final design solution that uses 50% less energy than a code compliant office building.