The building created to house the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Opened in December 2010, the 13-story NRI facility was designed and constructed to incorporate the key principles of LEED and using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health. In particular, the NRI building incorporates several sustainable laboratory design strategies, a noteworthy feature given that research laboratories are high energy users.
Many sustainable features of the building have provided a healthful, comfortable working environment and deliver significant energy and maintenance cost savings. The building achieves a remarkable 35% energy reduction off the baseline for lab buildings with the use of innovative demand-controlled ventilation. Creative planning and a comprehensive daylight harvesting system provide 98.5% daylight to all regularly occupied spaces. BD+C
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