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Dept. of Defense Targets LEED Silver


Images Courtesy of Lord, Aeck & Sargent.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Department of Defense recently broke ground on a $12.5 million Hazardous Material Response Facility that is planned to meet LEED Silver certification.
 
The two-story facility is being constructed under a design-build contract with Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architecture of Atlanta and the Christman Company based in Lansing, Mich. The facility will be operated by members of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency,  a Department of Defense Agency responsible for protecting the Pentagon and other facilities located in the National Capital Region.

The building, scheduled for completion by summer 2011, will house a lab, storage area, training facility and administrative units to be shared by Pentagon Force Protection Agency officials.

 
Green features of the HMRF include high-efficiency sunshades to control solar-heat exposure and glare, an air-handling unit equipped with a heat recovery wheel and building management system, and low-flow toilets and faucets. The facility is being built with regionally sourced and recycled content, including a steel frame made of 95 percent recycled material.

The HMRF will complement the look of other buildings located in the area largely because of the facility’s exterior facing of concrete masonry, smooth and corrugated aluminum panels, and Low-E glass curtainwalls, according to officials.

“The building’s architectural style can be described as contemporary industrial,” says Dan Nemec, project designer and architect at Lord, Aeck & Sargent Architects. “Although the exterior uses industrial materials such as corrugated metal panels, they’re scaled and fastened in such a way as to soften the hardness of the material."

 
“Furthermore, the smooth machined metal panels are sleek and refined, and large areas of glass allow light to spill into the occupied areas to give the building a contemporary look appropriate to its office and administrative functions,” he says.