SMU’S Harold Clark Simmons Hall Earns LEED Gold Certification
- Aug 1, 2016
Built and dedicated earlier this year, SMU’s Harold Clark Simmons Hall has already achieved a milestone – LEED Gold Certification. The Beck Group served as the LEED Consultant on the project, providing sustainability services that led to the certification.
The three-story, 40,000 SF academic building, which houses classrooms, labs, teaching spaces, faculty and administrative offices and conference rooms for the school’s Department of Teaching and Learning Program, is one of a number of buildings on SMU’s Dallas and SMU-In-Taos Campuses to earn LEED certification. Last year Dallas Hall was the first academic building on a university campus in Texas and only the second 100-year old building in the United States to achieve LEED EB: O&M Gold Certification.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices. To receive LEED certification, building projects satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification.
These sustainable features were key to the project earning certification:
- 42 percent reduced water usage from indoor plumbing
- 68 percent reduced water usage from irrigation
- 23 percent energy use reduction
- 70 percent renewable energy purchase
- 94 percent construction waste diversion
- 25 percent recycled building materials
- 27 percent regional building materials.
Read more about Beck’s Sustainability Services here.