Rec Center sports LEED silver certification
Johanna Ohm
Issue date: 7/30/10 Section: News
Visions of gold and silver medals swim through the minds of many hardworking athletes, avid sports enthusiasts and Olympic hopefuls zipping through their daily workouts. But aspirations of personal achievement and athletic success aren't the only reasons sports lovers are dwelling on silver at the new Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation and Wellness Center. The Recreation and Wellness Center has recently been recognized by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building certification system as having achieved silver status.
The news of the certification status came in mid-May, making the Recreation and Wellness Center the third building at Rice to achieve certification, following the Rice Children's Campus building and the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. According to Susann Glenn, Rice's manager of communications for Facilities, Engineering and Planning, the Recreation and Wellness Center, like all new buildings at Rice, was designed with the intention of meeting silver qualifications at minimum. Glenn described the building as looking somewhat "lantern-like," with an abundance of large windows and translucent Kalwall, an insulating fiberglass material that allows sunlight to penetrate a room while preventing entrance of excess heat and glare that would come with traditional windows. Materials like Kalwall have allowed the facility to utilize natural daylight instead of artificial lighting, offsetting electricity expenses and reducing environmental impact.
Electricity isn't the only resource the building was designed to conserve. The bathrooms and locker rooms include low-flow showers and sinks and water-saving toilets. In addition to water resources, the impact of the building's construction and design on the land and atmosphere was minimized, since 2 million pounds of construction materials were recycled, rather than thrown away. Approximately 32 percent of the materials used came from within a 500-mile radius of campus, including the brick, concrete and the building's steel frame. Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson said even the palm trees by the pool were chosen with their environmental impact in mind; they are a low-maintenance, frost-hardy species native to the southern United States.
The news of the certification status came in mid-May, making the Recreation and Wellness Center the third building at Rice to achieve certification, following the Rice Children's Campus building and the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. According to Susann Glenn, Rice's manager of communications for Facilities, Engineering and Planning, the Recreation and Wellness Center, like all new buildings at Rice, was designed with the intention of meeting silver qualifications at minimum. Glenn described the building as looking somewhat "lantern-like," with an abundance of large windows and translucent Kalwall, an insulating fiberglass material that allows sunlight to penetrate a room while preventing entrance of excess heat and glare that would come with traditional windows. Materials like Kalwall have allowed the facility to utilize natural daylight instead of artificial lighting, offsetting electricity expenses and reducing environmental impact.
Electricity isn't the only resource the building was designed to conserve. The bathrooms and locker rooms include low-flow showers and sinks and water-saving toilets. In addition to water resources, the impact of the building's construction and design on the land and atmosphere was minimized, since 2 million pounds of construction materials were recycled, rather than thrown away. Approximately 32 percent of the materials used came from within a 500-mile radius of campus, including the brick, concrete and the building's steel frame. Director of Sustainability Richard Johnson said even the palm trees by the pool were chosen with their environmental impact in mind; they are a low-maintenance, frost-hardy species native to the southern United States.
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