Special Recognition: Durrant Group Headquarters, Dubuque, Iowa
sustainability technologies and is also a reused existing building.
Architecture firm Durrant Group used the redesign of its $3.7 million headquarters building as a way to showcase the firm's creativity, design talent, and technical expertise as well as to create a laboratory for experimentation and education.
The Dubuque, Iowa, firm's stated desire was to set a high sustainability standard for both itself and its clients by recycling a 22,890-sf downtown building. Ninety-five percent of the construction materials removed from the original building by general contractor Epic Construction of Dubuque, were diverted from landfills and reused on the headquarters or in other Durrant projects. The building's systems, including the computers used by the firm, received the latest in sustainability technology. The firm is applying for LEED Platinum certification.
“Chilled water storage, photovoltaic (solar power) converters, geothermal heat exchangers—this project has some of the best sustainable technology,” said David Callan, PE, CEM, LEED AP, SVP of Environmental Systems Design, Chicago. “This is walking the walk.” —Jeffrey Yoders, Senior Associate Editor