Kwame Building Group of St. Louis played a key role as program manager in helping St. Louis Community College achieve LEED Gold certification on its new Wildwood campus. The project received the certification this month.

The $18 million 75,000-square-foot St. Louis Community College Wildwood campus is the largest community college facility in the United States to receive U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.

“Having KWAME as our full-time, on-site construction manager on a job of this size and complexity insured that the work progressed as it should and that all prerequisites were met to qualify for LEED,” said Carla Chance, vice chancellor of business and administration services at St. Louis Community College.

“Without question, KWAME was a key player in our LEED Gold accomplishment,” she said.

The new campus construction included high-tech classrooms, a science lab, faculty and administrative offices, an art studio, and a bookstore. The rooftop was planted with 4,000-square-feet of sedum, a drought-tolerant plant that reflects heat in the summer and insulates the building from cold in the winter. The facility will be 30 percent more energy efficient than a typical code-compliant building of the same size.