Congratulations are in order for the City of Chandler and Tucson Unified School District! Each was recognized at the U.S. Green Building Council’s “Heavy Medals” event in Phoenix last week for their commitment to sustainability. The annual event, now in its third year, celebrates projects throughout the state that earned LEED certification during the previous year. Chandler City Hall and TUSD’s Mary Belle McCorkle K-8 Academy, both constructed by Sundt, recently received LEED Gold certification.
Sundt was a Silver sponsor for the event, which included approximately three hundred building owners, contractors, architects, and community members. The event’s keynote speaker was the Honorable Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army Installations, Energy and Environment. Several seventh grade students from Mary Belle McCorkle Academy attended the event and shared the results of their recent sustainability research projects.
“It was an honor to help the City of Chandler and TUSD achieve their sustainability goals, in collaboration with our design partners SmithGroup JJR and Swaim Associates, and celebrate their projects with them at Heavy Medals,” said Dan Osterman, Sundt’s Sustainability Committee Chair. “It was also great to see how the students embraced sustainability so enthusiastically with their projects. This is what the green building industry needs to do to keep the fires burning for future generations.”
The 131,683-square-foot Chandler City Hall complex is located in the heart of Chandler’s busy, downtown historic and commercial district. It includes a six-story office tower to house administrative offices, and adjacent buildings to serve as the City Council Chambers, a production and recording studio for the city-run television station, gallery space, the Department of Neighborhood Resources, and a three-story parking structure.
Mary Belle McCorkle Academy was designed and constructed around the tenets of “21st Century Learning.” The state-of-the-art campus accommodates 950 students in learning communities organized around a central courtyard space.