O'Reilly Center: LEED hopeful
Drury aims to create sustainable solutions
Jonathan Thomas
Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: News
Drury's commitment to sustainability and controlling climate change is one of the issues surrounding the construction of the O'Reilly Family Event Center, a building that President Todd Parnell is promising to be LEED Silver but hopes will have a Gold rating.
"We are definitely committed to making it at least a Silver and we are evaluating the potential to go to a Gold LEED certification," Parnell said.
The $13.5 million project is completely funded from private donors, with $6 million from the O'Reilly family. However, the project is short about $750,000, Parnell said.
With word of a potential unnamed donor to give the last leg of money for the project by putting naming rights on the basketball court, the question of Silver or Gold is up in the air. The unnamed potential donor has not pledged any money yet.
"If we can convince them that it's a good thing to do, then we'll try to step it up to Gold."
A year after the original plans for building the O'Reilly Center, construction crews are lining up on Hutchens field preparing to break ground.
The issue over Silver or Gold is not related to time and the delay in construction was due to construction costs, Parnell said. "There's no fast track that's impacting anything that we're doing right now."
Director of campus sustainability and associate professor of biology Dr. Wendy Anderson thinks that it is important for the O'Reilly Center to be LEED Gold.
One of the problems with upgrading to the Gold rating is funding, Anderson said. But after speaking with energy consultants, Anderson believes that Gold can be accomplished while still remaining within the budget.
"We have to do our part," Anderson said. "We think we can pull off Gold."
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and includes four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each level is based on a list of things that the building must include; the more requirements that the building meets, the higher the LEED rating.
"We are definitely committed to making it at least a Silver and we are evaluating the potential to go to a Gold LEED certification," Parnell said.
The $13.5 million project is completely funded from private donors, with $6 million from the O'Reilly family. However, the project is short about $750,000, Parnell said.
With word of a potential unnamed donor to give the last leg of money for the project by putting naming rights on the basketball court, the question of Silver or Gold is up in the air. The unnamed potential donor has not pledged any money yet.
"If we can convince them that it's a good thing to do, then we'll try to step it up to Gold."
A year after the original plans for building the O'Reilly Center, construction crews are lining up on Hutchens field preparing to break ground.
The issue over Silver or Gold is not related to time and the delay in construction was due to construction costs, Parnell said. "There's no fast track that's impacting anything that we're doing right now."
Director of campus sustainability and associate professor of biology Dr. Wendy Anderson thinks that it is important for the O'Reilly Center to be LEED Gold.
One of the problems with upgrading to the Gold rating is funding, Anderson said. But after speaking with energy consultants, Anderson believes that Gold can be accomplished while still remaining within the budget.
"We have to do our part," Anderson said. "We think we can pull off Gold."
LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and includes four levels of certification: Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each level is based on a list of things that the building must include; the more requirements that the building meets, the higher the LEED rating.
Article last update: 5/5/09 at 7:30 PM CST
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
household movers
posted 5/20/09 @ 5:07 PM CST
I think that if they're going for Silver they might as well go for Gold. The whole point of the LEED program is to encourage environmentally responsible building practices. (Continued…)
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