Kwame Plays Key Role in St. Louis Community College Wildwood Campus LEED Certification
February 20, 2008
ST. LOUIS, MO – Kwame Building Group (KWAME), a pure program management firm based in St. Louis, was a key player in helping St. Louis
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Community College (SLCC) achieve LEED Gold certification this month for its new campus in Wildwood, Missouri.
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.
“Without question, KWAME was a key player in our LEED Gold accomplishment,” said Carla Chance, vice chancellor of business and administration services at St. Louis Community College. “Having a 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.”
The LEED green building rating system is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. The Gold rating is the second highest ranking obtainable under the LEED system. The Wildwood campus construction earned 46 of the 47 points they submitted for LEED certification. A minimum of 39 points are needed reach LEED Gold certification.
KWAME LEED specialist and project manager Scott Kolath provided up-front guidance prior to actual construction, to assist the college with pre-construction planning. He continually evaluated the project from a LEED standpoint throughout the construction process.
“KWAME treated this project as if it were their own personal endeavor,” said Lori Thompson, director of physical facilities, St. Louis Community College. “Scott led the LEED meetings and was an integral player on the LEED submittal committee.”
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.
Other features include ceiling fans to promote energy efficiency; artificial lighting that balances automatically to accommodate natural light fluctuations; an east-west solar orientation to utilize sunlight efficiently for heating and cooling; and a flared roofline that allows light into the building’s central atrium.
KWAME oversaw construction of the campus using “healthy building” elements such as low emissive building materials. A quarter-acre retention pond landscaped with drought resistant native plants and four cisterns capture up to 80,000 gallons of rainwater to be used for irrigation, waterless urinals and drought-resistant landscaping.
“Recycling of construction materials was another important aspect of this LEED project,” said Scott Kolath of KWAME. “A full 97.5 percent of construction waste was recycled and diverted from landfills.”
Design partners on the project are William B. Ittner Inc., architect; William Tao and Associates Inc., engineer; David Mason and Associates, civil engineer and L.A. Schaefer Construction Inc., contractor.
Kwame Building Group is a pure program and construction management firm providing estimating, scheduling, project planning, value engineering and other project management services as an independent advocate for owners and developers. Public and private sector projects include educational facilities, major airports nationwide, light-rail systems, hospitals and government facilities. For more information, visit www.kwamebuildinggroup.com or call 314.862.5344.
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