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| NASA Strikes Gold  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) debuts its new Flight Projects Center Monday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. JPL is a Federally-funded research and development facility managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The original ribbon cutting was postponed due to last month's Station Fire which threatened the Lab's northern edge. The ceremony will honor JPL's LEED Gold Flight Projects Center, the greenest completed facility in the NASA family.Since 2000, GSA has mandated all new federal construction and major modernization projects to attain, at minimum, a LEED Certified rating while striving for LEED Silver. Thanks to the sustainable architects at California-based LPA Inc., JPL's Flight Projects Center surpasses this mandate to achieve Gold Certification on a Silver budget. From high efficiency chillers to fan wall technology, energy efficiency was a key driver at JPL. The Flight Projects Center is a Savings by Design participant and Energy Star Challenge for Architects award recipient (2007). According to LPA President Dan Heinfeld, these types of acknowledgments are needed because we cannot afford the luxury of buildings that don't make real reductions in water and energy use. The six-story center will house missions in the busy design and development phases, when engineers and scientists from around the world must work together closely. The 190,000-square-foot building includes a 400-seat auditorium, basement, conference rooms and private, yet flexible work stations. The building is designed to exceed California's stringent Title 24 requirements by 25 percent. The General Contractor for the project was Swinerton Builders Inc. with Vanir Construction Management Inc. providing construction management services. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |