L.A Community College Building Project is First in the U.S. to Receive BREEAM Certification
Source: GreenBiz.com
LOS ANGELES,
Dec. 6, 2005 - The Los Angeles Community College District has announced that
its historic Van de Kamp Bakery Building has become the first construction
conversion project in the U.S. to achieve a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method
(BREEAM) rating. The building will become the Northeast Center of Los Angeles
City College.
BREEAM seeks to minimize the adverse effects of new
buildings on the environment while promoting healthy indoor conditions for the
occupants. The environmental impacts of a new building, such as energy use,
waste disposal transportation concerns and water usage, are assessed at the
design stage
Two U.K.-based BREEAM assessors, Amy Garrod and Lionel Delorme, attended the
2005 LACCD Sustainability Conference on Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 to present the
award to LACCD.
"This is the first building in the U.S. to be assessed under the BREEAM system," said Delorme. "It recognizes
LACCD's forward-thinking policies and its efforts to create a community centric
building with reduced environmental impacts and increased comfort for its
students."
"LACCD has done an excellent job of engaging the local community to shape
the college's design, integrating renewables, and using of sustainable
materials," said Garrod, who assessed the building. "The adaptive
reuse of the existing bakery building retains the historical value of the site.
The building's design includes photovoltaic panels, high energy efficiency, and
green building education stations, all of which contributes to the building's
BREEAM rating."
The Van de Kamp building will also be built to Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) certified standards. LEED Green Building Rating
System, similar to the U.K.'s BREEAM, is the U.S. standard for
developing high-performance sustainable buildings.
"By being the first in the world to seek both BREEAM and LEED credentials,
LACCD continues to be a leader in the field of sustainable development,"
said Larry H. Eisenberg, LACCD’s executive director of Facilities Planning and
Development. “Our colleges serve one of the most diverse populations in the
world and it is our commitment to teach them that to think sustainable, we must
think global.”
The Los Angeles Community College District is undertaking one of the largest
sustainable building programs in the
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