UI Visual Arts Building Awarded LEED Gold

USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification can take months to years to complete. Particularly when the design you are talking about is the Western Hemisphere’s first voided active slab heating and cooling system. Described by Architectural Record as:

“The efficient system places plastic bubble-­shaped forms, arranged in a grid, at the center of the slab’s depth—where concrete is least effective—to span farther with the same thickness. “In this building, we were able to use 25 percent less concrete,” says Kelley Gipple of Structural Engineering Associates. Reduction in concrete could, however, be as high as a third.”

Congrats to the entire Visual Arts Building team, including Steven Holl Architects, BNIM, TransSolar, Buro Happold, Structural Engineering Associates, L’Observatoire International, WJ Higgens, The Sextant Group, and Shive-Hattery.