ONONDAGA — Onondaga Community College (OCC) didn’t take the easy way out when building its award-winning, sustainable Academic II building that spans a gorge, says Rick Fedrizzi, the Syracuse native who co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). “Somebody here made a decision that that wasn’t good enough. That they didn’t care who […]
ONONDAGA — Onondaga Community College (OCC) didn’t take the easy way out when building its award-winning, sustainable Academic II building that spans a gorge, says Rick Fedrizzi, the Syracuse native who co-founded the Washington, D.C.–based U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
“Somebody here made a decision that that wasn’t good enough. That they didn’t care who from the outside world saw this. This was something that was going to be meaningful for the students, for the community at large, and ultimately the faculty, to bring this all together here,” he told an audience at OCC during an appearance Oct. 7.
Fedrizzi spoke during a ceremony in which he presented the school with LEED Gold plaques for Academic II and the SRC Arena and Events Center, OCC’s two newest buildings that earned the certification.
LEED an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s a third-party certification system that ensures buildings are designed and constructed using green, or sustainable, building principles.
In his remarks, Fedrizzi also acknowledged the effort from Grand Island, N.Y.–based CannonDesign in designing such a challenging structure.
Sustainable elements
Academic II, which opened for the fall 2013 semester, spans the nearly 60-foot high Furnace Brook gorge on the OCC campus. It’s also home to the school’s music program. The building uses 38 percent less water than a conventional building of this type due to different faucets, toilets, and urinals — saving about 50,000 gallons of water annually.
The building also consumes 25 percent less energy than a conventional building of this type because the lighting and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems use energy-efficient technologies, the school said.
In addition, 38 percent of the building materials involved contained recycled content.
The school’s news release also listed the characteristics that OCC said are the reasons the SRC Arena and Events Center earned the same certification.
The facility, which opened in December 2011, hosts sporting events, such as basketball, volleyball, and tennis, as well as trade shows.
The structure uses 39 percent less water than a conventional building due to “efficient” faucets, toilets, and urinals. The building also consumes 26 percent less energy than a traditional building of this type because the lighting and HVAC systems use “energy-efficient technologies,” according to OCC.
In addition, 33 percent of the building materials contain recycled content, and 93 percent of all waste was either reused or recycled during the construction process, the college said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com