I just read an article in our local newspaper, Orlando Sentinel that made my day. The City of Orlando is building a new headquarters for the fire department. New facilities for our hard-working firefighters are great, but what tickled me is that they are building it using eco-friendly designs.
(Oh yeah, that's a green roof!)I'll let the writer, Mark Schlueb, explain:
"Like four smaller fire stations opened since last year in distant parts of the city, the new downtown station has been designed according to environmentally friendly building standards.I love that last quote. What a practical view to building more effectively and efficiently. The building was designed to achieve the "silver" certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The concrete torn up from the old downtown bus station will be crushed and reused for the new station. Extra insulation, including traditional insulation in the walls and a roof partially covered with grass, will reduce heating and cooling costs. To cut operational costs further, architects included high-efficiency air-conditioning systems, low-flow plumbing fixtures and sensors that turn off a room's lights when no one is present.
'We get more bang for our buck when we build in that fashion,' Mayor Buddy Dyer said."
And the best part? I can watch the building rise up from my own office window:
Happy Days,
Spoon
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