New Hotel Becomes First in Texas to Receive LEED Gold Certification

By Camelia Bulea, Associate Editor

A 112-room Residence Inn by Marriott is currently under construction at the Mueller site, a redevelopment project at Austin’s former airport. Plans call for a four-story hotel building with 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

A recent news release by the company states that the intention is to build the first LEED Gold-certified hotel in Texas. Currently, the project has eight LEED-certified buildings and is the first in Texas to achieve LEED-ND certification.

The developer of the project is Catellus Development Corp., which is also the developer of the Mueller master plan. The general contractor is Frisco-based Benchmark Development Corporation, according to Austin Business Journal. Tulsa, Okla.-based GH2 Architects will serve as the building’s designer.

In a similar story, the Austin Convention Center recently became the first convention center in Texas to be awarded the LEED Gold Certification for Existing Buildings, according to Austin Business Journal.

In order to be certified, the 881,400-square-foot facility suffered a four-year rehabilitation process to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s requirements. Among its new features are:

•    66% of all waste diverted from landfill
•    Composted 250,000 lbs. of organic waste in 2011
•    Reduced carbon footprint by 93% since 2007
•    Facility powered by wind energy
•    Reduced electric consumption by 20%
•    Installed LED lighting in all meeting rooms

As such, the Austin Convention Center is not only the first of its kind in Texas to receive LEED Gold Certification, but also one of just two convention centers in the United States to have achieved this standard. The Austin Convention Center’s official LEED® Gold Ceremony was held on January 26, 2012.

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Photo credits: www.austinconventioncenter.com