Ground broken for new green building
CALIFORNIA – Ground was broken Thursday at California Technology Park for new “green” building that will serve as the district mining offices for the state Department of Environmental Protection. In this instance, green has nothing to do with the color of the building, but with the environmentally friendly construction materials being used for the 20,000 square foot structure. Construction materials will include recycled structural steel and roofing shingles, and fly-ash-content concrete.
“The finish on the partitions inside the building will be from recycled soda bottles and the carpet will be from all recycled material,” said William Carr, the chief of DEP’s Division of Office Planning Services.
The design is also environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
“There’s a feature called day lighting. The lights probably won’t need to be on because there’s that much daylight coming in the property,” said Jim Miller of Miller Brothers Construction, the firm building the new facility.
Carr said the air conditioning requirements for the building will be about a third less than cooling needed for a conventional building.
“Green buildings not only make sense for the environment, but they save taxpayers real dollars in operating expenses and improved employee productivity,” said David Hess, DEP Secretary.
The California Technology Park building will be the third green building constructed by the DEP. The building will be patterned after the DEP’s Cambria Office Building. The Cambria County facility uses 65 percent less energy than a conventional office building.
The California building will house about 75 DEP employees who currently work in the District Mining Office in McMurray.
“We’ve outgrown it, and with the access to Interstate 70 and the (Mon Valley-Fayette) Expressway right here, we have access to all the coal fields,” said Bill Plassio, the DEP’s District Mining manager.
“Route 43 will eventually tie this area in to the entire Pittsburgh metropolitan area,” said Washington County Commissioner John Bevec. “You picked a great location and I think you’ll find it a good place to do business.”
Commissioner J. Bracken Burns said he was pleased that it would be a green building.
“We all have a responsibility to the environment. The saying is we don’t inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children,” Burns said.
Bob Umstead, the director of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, said the new office building will enhance the technology park.
“We have a variety of businesses here – high technology, manufacturing and financial, and this will be a nice addition.”
Hess said the new building should be ready for occupancy early in 2003.