New County Building
Receives Environmental Award
For Further Information:
Abe Thomas 602.372.0564
Janet Palacino 602.506.8227
Phoenix -- As the world recently celebrated Earth Day and other “green” events, the Maricopa County Facilities Management Department received a special environmental recognition for Maricopa County’s new Downtown Justice Center.
Board of Supervisor Chair Andrew Kunasek announced the new facility has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) project.
The certification identifies the center as a “Pioneering example of sustainable design and demonstrates (Maricopa County’s) leadership in transforming the building industry.” There are only 18 facilities in the metropolitan Phoenix area with this designation, and the Justice Center is the largest of the government buildings.
“This action by our Facilities Management Department is going to provide some long term cost savings to Maricopa County,” said Kunasek. “We did this entirely on our own initiative. There was no official mandate to do this, it was just the right thing to do, so we did it.”
Leading work for the new center was Abe Thomas, Senior Project Manager of the County’s Facilities Management Department.
Some of the things included in the Center that made it worthy of recognition included reusing an existing site and parking, separating construction waste for special disposal, using recycled carpeting in office areas, and providing bicycle parking in the nearby garage.
The recognition also noted energy saving efforts such as designing the building with no windows on the west side, double pane high energy efficient glazing utilized on windows, and motion sensors on some conference room lighting to turn off the lights when the rooms are not occupied.
One method of reducing water usage was the installation of waterless urinals.
These building systems were all tested by a third party to ensure that all criteria were met.
Kunasek also pointed out that Thomas wasn’t just celebrating the recognition, but he’s making plans for future building projects which might include such things as providing a desert roof top garden that would use recycled gray water. The garden would absorb the sun that would otherwise heat up the building. Thomas observed this being done while working in China.