Green Discovery Center gains national attention

While the project has drawn much notice from the local construction and design fields, it is now getting noticed on a larger scale.

The project, completed in late 2006, was featured in the March issue of Architectural Products, the June issue of Metal Architecture and the August edition of Metal Mag.

The Discovery Center project, designed by architecture firm H Design Group LLC with engineering by Mettemeyer Engineering LLC and Malone Finkle Eckhardt & Collins Inc., garnered a 2007 Design Award from Metal Architecture Magazine for the use of smooth metal wall panels on the exterior façade. The Discovery Center also received the Choose Environmental Excellence in Business Award from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce for its efforts as a model of environmental stewardship for business and industry.

All the attention has helped push green building to new heights in southwest Missouri.

“I think people have realized that it can be done,” said Brent Stevens, architect and partner with H Design Group. “It’s not something that’s just a word; it’s something that people can actually do and it will help enhance their building.”

In April, the Discovery Center was awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification for the renovation/addition project.

LEED certification is awarded to construction projects that attempt to minimize environmental impact.

LEED-certified buildings must score well in five areas: sustainability; water efficiency; energy and atmosphere; materials and resources; and indoor environmental quality. The Discovery Center project also scored well in added categories for innovation in design, green-building education and green housekeeping, center Marketing Director Charlotte McCoy told Springfield Business Journal in April.

Many other developments throughout Springfield have embraced environmentally friendly construction, including Matt O’Reilly’s Green Circle Shopping Center at National Avenue and Republic Road, the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks’ Lakeside Learning Station, Ashley Burchfield’s Cycles Unlimited on East Republic Road and the planned Botanical Center in Nathanael Greene-Close Memorial Park.

Stevens is confident the green building trend will last. “I think it’s the new wave,” he said. “People are recognizing the value of it.”

Stevens said H Design Group has four current projects, including the Botanical Center, that are being designed to achieve LEED certification.

Stevens declined to name the other three projects, because contracts are not yet completed, but he said they will be in the health care, office and church sectors.