HMC Blog

CSU San Bernardino Health Science Facility Achieves LEED Gold Certification

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Cal State San Bernardino’s Health Science Facility, designed by HMC Architects, has officially achieved LEED Gold Certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Originally targeting LEED Silver, HMC exceeded CSUSB’s expectations and was able to push the project to LEED Gold in support of CSUSB’s sustainability goals.

The Health Science Facility incorporates several sustainable strategies such as onsite drainage basins to recharge the aquifer, controllable daylighting and automated lighting controls, evaporative modules that take advantage of the desert climate to precool HVAC air, cool roofs and reflective paving, heat reflecting glass assemblies, and an interactive kiosk that displays the building’s sustainable features. The building also features recycled content in more than 15 percent of the total construction materials, regional materials in more than 20 percent of the total construction materials, and a 90 percent water reduction for landscape irrigation. Without any on-site renewable energy, the building exceeds the code required energy baseline by more than 35 percent.

The new Health Science Facility is a state-of-the-art instructional building devoted to the education of health care professionals for the 21st century. Located on CSUSB’s Palm Desert campus, the Health Science Facility contains classrooms, chemistry and biology laboratories, nursing instructional labs, distance learning classrooms, computer labs, specialized lab for human patient simulation manikins, campus health center, and library.