Manifesting Potential

Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center is a visionary nature preserve owned by Goshen College through gifts from individuals in co-operation with the Nature Conservancy. Serving as a beacon for other wildlife sanctuaries, Merry Lea’s mission is to provide public environmental education, support private field-based habitat studies, and to remain sensitive in every respect to Indiana’s undisturbed ecosystems.

As the first Pennsylvania school to achieve LEED certification, As the first Pennsylvania school to achieve LEED certification, Clearview Elementary sets a standard of exemplary sustainable design and performansets a standard of exemplary sustainable design and performance. Te. The pre project team’s gject team’s goaal was to create an educational facility that would protect the health of its 250 students while teaching them how to protect the environment, and the school district has committed to continual engagement with these principles by augmenting its curriculum to include lessons the building teaches. was to create an educational facility that would protect the health of its 250 students while teaching them how to protect the environment, and the school district has committed to continual engagement with these principles by augmenting its curriculum to include lessons the building teaches.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (PA DEP) Southeast Regional Office Building (SROB) in downtown Norristown was intended by PA DEP to be Pennsylvania’s “Greenest Building”. In line with the building’s conception, it received the Environmental Design and Construction Excellence in Design Award Grand Prize in 2005 for government buildings.

The vision of the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) Library to fulfill their role as stewards of the environment, minimizing impacts on the earth and restoring the land as much as possible, is clearly reflected in the Library's design. Encouraging discovery and advancing knowledge in harmony with the environment, the AMBS Library is the first LEED certified library in Indiana, and includes a gallery space and bookstore.

Setting a precedent as the first hotel in the U.S. to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the AAA Four Diamond rated Proximity Hotel and adjacent restaurant, Print Works Bistro, are committed to upholding sustainable practices without sacrificing the comfort of their guests. While sustainability was not initially a project goal, the CEO and Chief Design Officer Dennis Quaintance found making design decisions for long-term value and practicality led the project team toward a decidedly sustainable approach.

As a premier environmental educational center, the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center integrates building design and function with nature. The center is nestled within Wildwood Park in central Pennsylvania, where the Friends of Wildwood, along with the Dauphin County Department of Parks and Recreation, set out to build an educational nature center with minimal environmental footprint. The site previously was a dumping area, but after the discovery of the rare American Lotus on the park grounds in the 1980s, preservation efforts were fully adopted. Though the nature center was built before the inception of LEED, the project team was committed to designing an environmentally sound building that captured the natural beauty of the wetlands area.

The Sabah Al Ahmad Financial Centre in Kuwait City is a 60,000 m2 mixed-use commercial development consisting of a 36-floor office tower, supporting buildings and a 3-level below-grade car park. Floors 16 thru 25 of the tower are earmarked for potential conversion to hotel functions, while two mezzanine floors and the remaining 26 stories of this high-rise building consist of office space. This is the first building in Kuwait to pursue LEED Certification.

The Isaac Ray Treatment Center (IRTC) was Indiana’s first building to become LEED Silver certified, and the first government sector healthcare facility in the U.S. to receive this certification. As one of the most recent additions to the long-standing Logansport State Hospital, IRTC focuses on high-risk patients as the first mental health facility of its kind to specialize in therapeutic healing. Its approximately 20 acre site addresses the safety and security of patients, staff and visitors while encouraging healing through recreation in its carefully designed outdoor environment.

To accommodate a growing community and increasing student body, the Nazareth Area School District set out to develop a new middle school through a decidedly holistic integrative approach. Chosen for optimum community impact, the new facility’s location creates a “campus” relationship with the existing adjacent high school allowing convenient community access to both schools’ resources and reduces bus traffic.