Content area
Full text
When the city of Driggs put out a bid package for construction of a new Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified community center and city hall in early 2006, none of the bidding contractors had ever done a LEED project.
None of them had taken significant training in the green building method, either.
And the project's architect was just finishing up LEED certification classes as the project broke ground.
"It was a training process for the contractor that got the job, and then it was, of course, a training process for us," said Driggs Mayor Louis Christensen.
The center was awarded its certification last month, achieving 28 points for everything from site selection to recycling to buying local materials.
It missed its goal of qualifying for silver-level recognition by two points. Christensen said the team could have contested the points shortage, but that would have cost the city another $500 per point.
Project architect Garett Chadwick of Plan One/Architects in Driggs said two examples of where the project fell short of its goals were in optimized energy performance and parking capacity (too many parking spaces translates to less encouragement of alternative transportation).
But Chadwick said...