The University of Idaho's renovated College of Education building on the Moscow campus has received LEED Gold certification for its sustainable design and building elements.
The facility, built in 1969, underwent a two-year, $17 million remodeling that was completed in August 2016, the university says in a news release
“The College of Education project was able to leverage credits for using large portion of the existing building — the foundations, floor structure, stair wells, roof structure and more, which were saved and reused in Phase II of the renovation,” says Ray Pankopf, the university’s director of Architectural and Engineering Services. “The re-use of existing structure greatly reduces the amount of new construction required, so the carbon footprint is significantly less.”
The renovation sought to be environmentally friendly and use design elements to create community and improve the student experience.
“Now that we’ve been in the building for 10 months, we can already see the intellectual community that these architectural features are enabling,” says College of Education Dean Alison Carr-Chellman. “There are important architectural features that facilitate collaboration, sustainability, research and teamwork that are really exciting.”
Building features include glass walls that create for brightly lighted space across all five floors; team rooms and classrooms with comfortable, movable furniture; interactive audiovisual technology; and large corridor spaces with comfortable furnishings to encourage study and gathering spaces for students and faculty interaction.
The Education Building is the second project at the University of Idaho to receive LEED Gold certification in the last month. The Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) also has earned that designation.
The university has adopted a policy that calls for all new construction and major remodel projects to achieve LEED Silver or equivalent.
