Clemson University Project Wins Silver LEED Certification

Clemson University's Advanced Materials Research Facility in Anderson, South Carolina has received Sliver LEED certification

Dave Groseclose (GSP) of IDC Architects sends word that Clemson University's Advanced Materials Research Facility in Anderson, South Carolina has been recognized by the LEED Green Building Rating System™ as a Silver Certified Project.

IDC performed design, client representation and services during construction for the facility.

LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design." The LEED system was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of building industry leaders working to promote environmentally responsible buildings.

Dave comments:

"This is significant for several reasons; first it is IDC's first LEED Certified building, it is Clemson's first LEED Certified Building, and I believe it is the first state-funded LEED Certified Building in South Carolina. It represents a tremendous effort by all team members.

"I want to thank everyone who helped me during the certification process for all of their help in making this happen. It has taken a while and we have learned a great deal about the process. This building is a wonderful example of Clemson's, IDC's, and CH2M HILL's commitment to sustainably designed high-performance buildings.
"Thanks for the opportunity to be the LEED Champion on this one. I couldn't have done it without the great support of the associated organizations and our project team members. CONGRATULATIONS to all involved!"

The building’s design included a variety of sustainable features including specialized systems for water conservation, mechanical systems and heat recovery strategies.

The project was a complex one involving a great deal of high-tech design.

One wing of the 3-story, 111,000-square-foot structure is a combination of office space and the university’s Electron Microscopy facility. The other wing houses much of the university’s photonics and nanosciences research.

The electron microscopy lab required careful technical analysis to provide vibration-free walls and floors, extensive soundproofing and clean electrical sources. The other wing is a combination of wet labs and instrument rooms including chemical preparative facilities for organic polymers, nanomaterials and organic devices.

The lab design includes more than 80 exhaust hoods. The instrument rooms are designed to house a large laser facility for spectroscopy of nanomaterials, as well as advanced optical fibers and crystals. The facility also contains various levels of cleanrooms, a high bay for an optical fiber draw tower, and a crystal growth facility.

IDC Architects won the project in the summer of 2002 in an intense competition with 22 other firms.

By the fall of that year IDC’s scope of work for the project had expanded to include architectural and engineering, client representation and services during construction.

The following January, Lee Chapman of IDC Greenville joined Allen Duncan of CH2M HILL Atlanta and Tom Norris of CH2M HILL Gainesville to make a presentation to Clemson. Their audience was the University’s campus master planner and 3 other university project managers.

As a result CH2M HILL was selected as the lead company to provide LEED commissioning services for the Clemson campus.

Joseph W. Kolis, Clemson’s Liaison to the Vice President for Research, has previously commented on our project performance:

One thing that truly impressed me about IDC’s performance was the ability to obtain one stop shopping in terms of the engineering and technical design. Having an integrated design team with outstanding engineering expertise to couple with the architectural design team was crucial to the success of this project, and IDC is one of the few companies that we know capable of providing this degree of integration.

I think that if we were forced to shop around for an engineering firm to couple with an architectural firm, the project would not have been nearly so smooth.

They were able to provide excellent in-house service for all civil, structural, mechanical and electrical, as well as IT and cleanroom engineering. This seamless team working on the technical design was very important to us on this project.

IDC was also able to provide excellent service in terms of the LEED certification and health and safety compliance. All the various health and safety, environmental and waste handling officers are extremely pleased with the design of this facility.

I think we were very fortunate to have IDC as designer of our project. Their broad technical competence and ability to get things done right and on time are unprecedented here at Clemson, and it was clear that both our bureaucracy and the state engineer’s office were greatly impressed by IDC’s absolute professionalism.

The Clemson project is the latest example of the CH2M HILL commitment to sustainable design. That commitment is reflected in the buildings that we occupy as well. When the South Building on the CH2M HILL Denver Campus became LEED-certified in June of 2003, there were only 53 LEED certified projects in the entire U.S.

Today all the buildings on the CH2M HILL campus are LEED-certified, as our resume of LEED certified buildings for clients continues to grow.