This week, the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach, Va., earned Living Building Challenge certification from the International Living Future Institute. The certification means the building produced more energy than it used for 12 consecutive months while meeting other sustainable criteria.
One feature that defines the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s education building for the is rainwater filtration system that makes the rain drinkable. According to the building’s architect, SmithGroupJJR, the Brock Center is the first commercial building in the continental U.S. to be permitted to treat, to federal standards, harvested rainwater for potable uses. Rainwater is collected from the roof and stored in tanks below an elevated first floor. A filtration system renders the water suitable for drinking and hand washing.
The Brock Center also has waterless, composting toilets, and grey water from sinks and showers is filtered for use in an attached garden of native plants. Water is then naturally cleaned and returned to an underground aquifier.
SmithGroupJJR says the Brock Center generated 83% more energy than it used over the past year. Two 70-foot 10-kilowatt wind turbines and 168 solar panels were used to generate all of the building’s energy.
The 10,500-sf building also has sustainable features like natural daylighting and sunshading, natural ventilation, and geo-thermal heating and cooling.
The Brock Center was completed in November 2014 for $8 million.
(Click photos to enlarge. Photos: Prakash Patel, courtesy SmithGroupJJR.)
Related Stories
| May 17, 2013
LEED v4 has provision to reduce water use in cooling towers
The next version of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system will expand water-savings targets to appliances, cooling towers, commercial kitchen equipment, and other areas.
| May 14, 2013
Paints and coatings: The latest trends in sustainability
When it comes to durability, a 50-year building design ideally should include 50-year coatings. Many building products consume substantial amounts of energy, water, and petrochemicals during manufacture, but they can make up for it in the operations phase. The same should be expected from architectural coatings.
| May 9, 2013
10 high-efficiency plumbing fixtures
From a "no sweat" toilet to a deep-well lavatory, here's a round up of the latest high-efficiency plumbing fixtures.
| May 9, 2013
Post-tornado Greensburg, Kan., leads world in LEED-certified buildings per capita
Six years after a tornado virtually wiped out the town, Greensburg, Kan., is the world's leading community in LEED-certified buildings per capita.
| May 3, 2013
'LEED for all GSA buildings,' says GSA Green Building Advisory Committee
The Green Building Advisory Committee established by the General Services Administration, officially recommended to GSA that the LEED green building certification system be used for all GSA buildings as the best measure of building efficiency.
| Apr 25, 2013
Colorado State University, DLR Group team to study 12 high-performance schools
DLR Group and the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University have collaborated on a research project to evaluate the effect of green school design on occupants and long-term building performance.
| Apr 24, 2013
North Carolina bill would ban green rating systems that put state lumber industry at disadvantage
North Carolina lawmakers have introduced state legislation that would restrict the use of national green building rating programs, including LEED, on public projects.
| Apr 22, 2013
Top 10 green building projects for 2013 [slideshow]
The AIA's Committee on the Environment selected its top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.
| Apr 16, 2013
5 projects that profited from insulated metal panels
From an orchid-shaped visitor center to California’s largest public works project, each of these projects benefited from IMP technology.
