Three buildings surrounding the stadium at the University of Notre Dame have received LEED Gold certification for their environmentally friendly design, construction and operation.
The university says that the three buildings — Duncan Student Center, Corbett Family Hall and O’Neill Hall — bring together the departments of Anthropology, Music and Psychology as well as Athletics and Student Life with custom classroom, performance, research, media, recreation, event and hospitality space.
The buildings comprise Notre Dame's Campus Crossroads Project, the largest construction initiative in the university's history. They are adjacent and attached to the west, east and south sides of Notre Dame Stadium and have a total of 830,000 square feet of space.
Throughout construction, more than 20 percent of the building materials consisted of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content, and more than 20 percent of materials were manufactured or harvested regionally.
Because of water-efficient plumbing fixtures in bathrooms, showers and kitchens, the amount of water used is 35 percent less than in standard new construction. In total, the three buildings are 18 percent more energy efficient than standards.
High-efficiency, thermal envelope insulation in the walls and roofs, a high-efficiency central fan system and high-performance window glass glazing reduces the energy consumption.
Living roofs cover nearly all of the flat roof surfaces of the three buildings and serve to mitigate stormwater runoff, improve air quality, reduce noise, provide additional insulation and reduce heating and cooling energy loads.
LED lighting reduces energy consumption by up to 50 percent compared with conventional lighting, and room lighting controls combined with occupancy sensors enable occupants to control the amount of lighting used. All paints and coatings comply with the Green Seal standard, and all carpets meet Green Label Plus standards.
During construction, more than 75 percent of the waste was recycled including concrete, metals, wood, cardboard, drywall and other materials.
Since 2011, Notre Dame has been committed to following LEED standards for all new construction. It has received 10 LEED Gold certifications including this one and five LEED Silver certifications.
