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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (May 11, 2010) – A commitment to going green has proven golden for Milligan College.
The college recently learned that its new Gilliam Wellness Center is the first building in the region to earn the prestigious LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification. The facility was designed by Reedy and Sykes Architecture in Elizabethton, who has one LEED accredited professional on staff, and was built by Johnson City-based Burleson Construction, which has four LEED accredited professionals on staff.
“From the beginning of the project, we knew the Gilliam Wellness Center was going to be LEED-certified,” said Chad Brown, of Burleson Construction. “But throughout the design and construction process, we tried to go beyond the basic requirements wherever we saw an opportunity. This effort has put the Gilliam Wellness Center in one of the top tiers of LEED-certified buildings in the nation.”
Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED provides a framework for identifying and implementing measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
To earn a Gold-level rating, the Gilliam Wellness Center earned exemplary performance credits in all five of the required categories including: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resource, and indoor environmental quality. The project earned five exemplary performance points by exceeding the LEED standards in three categories — sustainable sites, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality — for a combined total of 42 points.
More than half of the materials used to construct the Gilliam Wellness Center were extracted, manufactured and assembled locally. During construction, the project diverted 82 percent of its waste from the landfill.
Contractors used Low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and non-toxic materials. They also took extensive weekly indoor air samples to monitor the indoor air quality.
The facility, which was designed so that 100 percent of the building receives daylight, achieved a 34 percent energy savings and a 29 percent water savings. A rain garden located outside the building includes a storage tank, which can collect up to 4,400 gallons of storm water for irrigation use for the native landscaping and surrounding areas on campus.
The 7,100-square-foot Gilliam Wellness Center opened earlier this year and was dedicated April 23, 2010. It was funded by the Richard B. Gilliam family of Virginia.
“Milligan is proud of the Gilliam Wellness Center and proud to be a leader in green building in our region,” said Milligan President Don Jeanes. “The Gold certification is an affirmation of our ongoing sustainability efforts on campus.”