ASU’s College Avenue Commons Earns LEED Gold

TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State University’s College Avenue Commons (CAVC) building, completed in summer 2014, recently achieved LEED Gold certification. The project was a joint collaboration between locally based Gensler and Architekton designers and architects and was built by locally based Okland Construction.

The five-story, 137,000-square-foot structure is primarily used by the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering as a home for the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, which includes the Del E. Webb School of Construction. The building also houses the Sun Devil Marketplace and the Future Sun Devil Welcome Center, which runs the ASU Experience campus visitor and student tour program.

The project scored high in several green building categories, including energy use and performance, use of materials and resources, site selection and community connectivity, design innovation, indoor environmental quality, water-use efficiency and reducing the impacts of regional climate factors such as the heat-island effect.

One of the project’s key highlights is the monitoring systems that use sensors installed inside and out to provide data on the environmental performance of the building and its sustainable features. The building was also situated to have an east-west orientation to help minimize the western exposure and allow for an abundance of glass to be used on the north and south faces of the building, where direct solar exposure can be controlled. The south face uses a double skin to shade both the glass and the pedestrian sidewalk below.

The exterior surface and an attached metal shade structure along the south side help protect the window glass from the heat and glare of the sun while preserving the view and letting natural light into the building. Advanced LED lighting that can be adjusted according to users’ needs is used in large public spaces.

CAVC was also built with its carbon footprint in mind, using materials with low embodied energy — materials that use less energy and fewer resources to make, transport and build — and more than 90 percent of waste materials from the construction process were recycled. There are also spaces suitable for installation of solar-energy technology in the future.

A major goal of the project was to provide a facility that works as a tool for engineering and construction education. The design allows for students to observe part of the building’s infrastructure and operating facilities systems so they can learn about building dynamics. It also helps foster collaborative classroom and laboratory learning environments.

“The designation of LEED Gold for CAVC is indicative of our school’s focus on sustainable design and construction techniques,” said G. Edward Gibson Jr., director of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, in a statement. “It helps us showcase what’s required for future sustainable building to become a reality, and it provides our students insight into the practicalities of what it takes to plan, design, construct and operate these types of facilities.”

Engineering and construction students were involved in early planning meetings, and offered ideas to the design team for sustainability features, Gibson said. Their top concerns included energy and water use as well as flexibility for future uses of the building itself. College Avenue Commons earned well over the amount of rating points needed to achieve LEED Gold, and it was only a few points short of a LEED Platinum certification.