LEED Certified Building

View of the roof of the Education and Human Services building showing the solar panels and rooftop vegetation. — View of the rooftop solar panels and vegetation.

View of a student working on a laptop in the Education and Human Services building. Photo was taken from the floor above looking down. — View of a student study area from above.

View of the Northwest side on the Education and Human Services building, the garden area and French Auditorium. — View of the north west side of the Education and Human Services building.

View of the corridor on the third floor of the EHS building showing students moving and the opening to the floors above and below. — Interior photo on the third floor of the corridor showing floors above and below.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified

With an interest in promoting sustainability on campus, Central Michigan University completed its first LEED-certified building in August 2009, following U.S. Green Building Council requirements. To accommodate the need for additional parking spaces adjacent to the building, CMU decided to remove four residential buildings and construct a new, 300-space parking lot. To further its sustainability goals, CMU requested the parking lot to include environmentally sustainable concepts. Learn more about being a LEED-certified building.

Sustainable Concepts

TC&H designed the parking lot with multiple sustainable concepts to meet the client's expectations. The parking lot design included a porous asphalt surface to allow stormwater to drain through it. The pavement section consists of 3 inches of porous asphalt, on a 2-inch choker course and a 12-inch stone reservoir. Due to the clay soils on the campus, an underdrain system was included to capture and route any additional runoff to a series of rain gardens.

Working with the existing typography, FTC&H designed a terraced parking system with rain gardens between parking bays for treating the runoff and encouraging plant uptake of the stormwater. The green space within the lot helps to reduce the heat island effect and was designed to complement the new education building's landscape design. Learn about sustainability at CMU.