The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's William X. Wall Experiment Station achieves LEED Platinum designation

Lawrence Ma The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) William X. Wall Experiment Station has been transformed in a state of the art green building. The building has achieved a LEED Platinum designation. Worldwide, there are 52,152 LEED certified projects, but only 1,029 (or 1.97%) are certified at the Platinum level and only 29 in the world are LEED Platinum Laboratories. The building not only achieved LEED Platinum certification as part of a renovation , it did so when the existing building was designated as a Brownfields site. The old facility, constructed in 1954, was inadequate to handle the complex protocols required by today's environmental science. The station is the states principle drinking water laboratory and the facility also performs over 15,000 analyses of environmental samples. The states ambient air monitoring efforts are housed in the facility, as well as, the Massachusetts Occupational Safety laboratories. The project added 13,000 s/f of laboratory space and renovated the 22,000 s/f existing lab/building. During the construction period the lab had to continue to operate at full capacity, all samples were analyzed and all EPA Quality benchmarks were met. MassDEP, Massachusetts DCAM and the design team of Perkins + Will and RDK Engineers planned the project. O'Connor Constructors, Inc. was the project's construction manager. The green upgrades include: a 52.5 kW photo-voltaic system; a Brownfield redevelopment, maximized open space; rain gardens and storm water basins; water efficient landscaping; high performance roof; green roofs; rain water harvesting; efficient plumbing; optimized energy performance; day lighting; plug in charging for 2 electric vehicles; lighting controls; ventilation air monitoring; low emitting, regional, and recycled materials; and many other strategies. A measurement and verification plan, as well as, enhanced commissioning has been incorporated to insure that the building continues to meet its certification. The Lawrence Experiment Station was founded in 1887 and it was one of the first laboratories in the world dedicated to environmental research. In 2013, the newly renovated laboratory became one of the few LEED platinum labs in the world and is poised to be on the vanguard of environmental science for years to come.