Green Centers: Trinity River Audubon Center
What was once an illegal landfill in south Dallas became the sustainably-designed, 21,000-square foot Trinity River Audubon Center, achieving a LEED Gold Certification. LEED stands for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™.
Completed in 2008, the Trinity River Audubon Center included these important sustainable features:
- Concrete mixed with fly ash (a by-product of coal burning in electric power plants), reducing the amount of cement needed by about 40 percent
- A green, vegetative roof that will reduce the heating and cooling demands on the building
- Recycled and locally manufactured structural steel beams
- An on-site wastewater treatment and rainwater collection system
- A permeable parking lot, which reduces runoff and allows underground aquifers to recharge
- Daylighting, which reduces energy use by taking advantage of natural light
- "Night sky" light pollution reduction
Trinity River Audubon Center also features many natural elements in its design, such as sloped curtain walls, cantilevered canopies, and natural textures cast into exterior wall panels and soffits by custom rough-sawn board and EPDM rubber roofing cut in the shape of feathers.
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