For immediate release: January 18, 2008
For more information:
DASNY: Marc Violette, 518-257-3382
U-Buffalo: John DellaContrada, 716-645-5000 x1409
Roswell Park: Deborah Pettibone, 716-716-845-8593
Buffalo Life Sciences Buildings Win Leed Silver Certification
Major Green Thumbs-Up for U-Buffalo’s & Roswell Park’s Cutting-Edge Facilities
The Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), the University at Buffalo, and Roswell Park Cancer Institute today announced that UB’S New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences and Roswell Park’s Center for Genetics and Pharmacology have been honored by the nation’s leading evaluator of environmentally sustainable buildings.
The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) recently awarded LEED Silver certification to the $113 million, state-of-the-art buildings which occupy 300,000 square feet in the Buffalo Life Sciences Complex on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The UB and Roswell Park facilities were designed by Francis Cauffman Architects Ltd. and were financed and built by the Dormitory Authority.
Roswell Park Cancer Institute’s Center for Genetics and Pharmacology houses the departments of Cancer Genetics, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Cell Stress Biology, and Immunology, and includes 48 laboratories that support the research of 60 scientific faculty and more than 200 employees. The building was funded in part through a $21 million capital campaign supported by more than 8,400 donors. Research conducted in the center not only advances efforts to understand the causes of cancer and to develop better prevention and treatment approaches but also contributes to building a strong, vital economic future for the region.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences study the processes involved in human disease, with the goal of developing diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions and other disease-management devices and processes to improve human health and well-being. The Center of Excellence also facilitates economic development in upstate New York through partnerships with government, academia and industry.
“It is only fitting that these state-of-the-art facilities should be built to very high standards of sustainability and with smart, environmentally conscious design and construction techniques,” said Dormitory Authority Executive Director David D. Brown IV. “The Buffalo Life Sciences Complex is a great collaboration between partners striving for excellence in their important work and in the buildings in which they do that work.”
Bruce Holm, University at Buffalo senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence said the center’s environmental sustainability is attractive to the world-class scientists recruited to the center. “There is a growing awareness among researchers about the need to reduce the environmental impacts of lab facilities,” Holm said. “The Center of Excellence is helping to set new environmental standards for life sciences research.”
Donald Trump, MD, FACP, President and CEO of Roswell Park Cancer Institute said: “This Center was conceived as a LEED eligible project, thereby having a positive impact on the environment, reducing operating costs, increasing productivity and helping to create an energy-efficient and sustainable community.”
USGBC created the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating program to spur the development of high-performance, sustainable buildings. Buildings are awarded points toward LEED certification on a scale that emphasizes a sustainable site, energy efficiency, water saving and indoor environmental quality. A building is awarded a LEED rating of Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum based on the number of points it accumulates for its site, design and construction.
The UB and Roswell Park buildings qualified for LEED Silver certification in part for the projects’:
- Innovative design;
- Redevelopment of an urban brownfield site;
- Low levels of light pollution;
- Use of regionally produced construction materials;
- Use of recycled materials in the construction process;
- Use of paints, carpets, and composite building materials with low levels of chemical emissions;
- Recycling of construction debris to keep it out of landfills;
- Energy efficiency; and,
- Providing daylight and views for the vast majority of space inside the building.
Thirty-eight buildings in New York State have been certified by the USGBC of which 24 are rated LEED Silver or higher. The UB and Roswell Park buildings are the only research facilities in the state to win LEED certification.