Moseley Architects Announces the First LEED Gold Justice Facility in the Eastern U.S.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Moseley Architects, a leader in the design of justice facilities, is proud to announce that the new Judicial Center in Rockingham County has earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Gold certification with the Green Building Certification Institute.  Located in Wentworth, North Carolina, the facility is the first LEED Gold justice facility in the Eastern United States.

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The 175,400-square-foot facility offers state-of-the-art court facilities as well as new accommodations for the county's law enforcement departments.  The facility also features a 300-bed detention facility, which houses both minimum and maximum security detainees. 

Rockingham County was eager to integrate high performance design principles to create a more energy- and water-efficient facility, which will positively impact the facility's operational costs. 

Lance Metzler, Rockingham's County Manager, expressed his enthusiasm with the project and the county's leaders.  "I've worked on a LEED Silver project before, so I understand how hard this team worked to successfully target LEED Gold for our center.  Not only will this facility save the county operational costs in the long run, but we are leading by example."

Dan Mace, a vice president with Moseley Architects and the managing principal on the project, indicated that Rockingham County's leadership viewed LEED certification as a measured risk worth taking for one of the county's largest capital projects.  "I think the further along we got the more we could see how the project would benefit from high performance design strategies and how pursuing certification was a good investment of taxpayer dollars."

Moseley Architects incorporated green building strategies in the design in order to earn LEED Gold certification.  Working closely with the project's general contractor, Branch & Associates, Inc. the team included the following noteworthy features: energy-efficient HVAC systems, lighting, and building envelope strategies to reduce energy expenditures by 28 percent ($94,000/year); rainwater cisterns to annually save 600,000 gallons of water; Energy Star® compliant roof membrane to lessen local heat island effects and keep the building cooler; and local and regionally manufactured building materials to support the state economy and reduce transportation impacts on the environment.

John Nichols, Moseley Architects' sustainability coordinator on the project, summed up the facility's accomplishment.  "Our approach to LEED certification relied upon a wide array of team members in order to improve the design, construction, and operations of the facility in a cost-effective manner.  The whole team should be proud of the collaboration, which carried the project from an initial goal of LEED Certified to the actual achievement of LEED Gold."

About Moseley Architects
Moseley Architects is a full service architectural, engineering, planning, and interior design firm with six offices in the Southeast.  The firm specializes in public sector facility design and offers clients extensive experience in high performance and sustainable design. To date, the firm has 36 LEED certified projects (ranging from basic to platinum certification) and 48 LEED registered projects.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Lisa Demmel
804.794.7555
[email protected]

SOURCE Moseley Architects