Page 121 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

98 THE BUSINESS CASE FOR GREEN BUILDINGS

Figure 6.1 Designed by ECI/Hyer Architecture & Interiors, with abundant day-
lighting and use of local materials, the 17,200-square-feet Homer Public Library in
Alaska is LEED-NC Silver certified. Even in one of the smaller towns of Alaska, lit-
erally at the end of the paved road from Anchorage, there is a LEED-certified
library. It shows that green buildings are viable anywhere. ECI/Hyer, Inc. and Chris
Arend Photography.

Despite these obstacles, owners and building teams continue to develop LEED
Platinum projects, so there must be overriding factors such as strong internal commit-
ments to sustainability.
Paul Meyer is the F. Otto Haas Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University
of Pennsylvania. Of his commitment to attaining a LEED Platinum rating for the new
arboretum facility, he says:*

Attaining a LEED Platinum certification is very important to the Arboretum. We want
this to really be an exhibit of best sustainable practices. At this point, we’re pretty
confident that we can attain Platinum. It was something that we were concerned about
and planning for since day one. You can’t just design a project and then in the end
decide that you want it to be LEED certified. LEED goals have to, from the very
beginning, be part of the design discussion and process. Early on we did an inventory
of [LEED credit] points, so we knew that we could achieve Gold pretty easily. We

*Interview with Paul Meyer, February 2008.