Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection

Key Project Information Project Title:Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection Southeastern Regional Office
Project Location:Norristown, Pennsylvania
Building Type: Office, 4-stories, 111,700 sq. ft. (10,480 sq. m.)
Total Project Cost: US$12 million
Occupancy: 350 employees
DOE Climate Zone: Zone 3 (5,300 HDD, 900 CDD)

Project Overview

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection Southeastern Regional Office — Norristown, Pennsylvania

The Southeastern Regional Office of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) used integrated design strategies to construct a high-performance government building within a typical government budget. The urban site includes a 6,000-square-foot (560-square-meter) Historic Landmark former train station building, which the project team reused and incorporated into the new building. Areas of focus include:

• Building reuse
• Salvaged materials
• Central atrium for daylighting
• Rainwater harvesting
• High-performance windows, sunshades, and insulation
• Underfloor air distribution
• Construction waste management

Results

“There’s no more tangible bottomline evidence that green is good for the pocket book than green buildings.” —Kathleen McGinty, Secretary Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental ProtectionThe DEP Southeastern Regional facility cost only $108.69 per square foot (US$1170 per square meter), slightly below the Pennsylvania 2002 average for comparable office buildings of US$108.88 per square foot (US$1172 per square meter). In addition, the building is expected to save 41 percent on annual energy costs and 83 percent on total water use. Reuse of the historic train station saved over 900 tons of additional building materials, and materials recycling diverted 83 percent of construction and demolition waste from landfills.