This new facility provides 24,000 sf of general office space for 156 DNR employees and includes a modest lobby/reception area, meeting room and small conference room. The building incorporates materials and systems that simplify general operations and minimize regular maintenance. The Weidt Group provided sustainable design and daylighting consulting as well as detailed energy modeling for this project, which received LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2006.

Prominent Strategies for Sustainability

• Domestic water use has been reduced by over 30%
• Building energy systems were optimized to achieve all 10 points under Energy & Atmosphere Credit 1: Optimize Energy Performance, for which the criteria is an energy cost savings of 60%
• A sophisticated monitoring system allows the users and operators to track the building energy by end-use
• More than 50% of the building’s energy is provided as green power
• More than 75% of the occupied spaces have a minimum 2% daylight factor and over 90% have direct access to exterior views
• Indoor air quality is enhanced by the use of low VOC materials throughout the building
• Nearly 11% of the building materials were salvaged materials; The total recycled content of the building materials is over 10%, and more than 65% of the building materials were manufactured within a 500 mile radius
• Over 86% of the construction waste was salvaged and diverted from landfill