Fire Station No. 33 LEEDs the Way

TECHNOLOGY 1

Fire Station No. 33 LEEDs the Way
By Herschel J. Grangent, Jr.

The United States Green Building Council recently bestowed a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification on Hartsfield-Jackson’s Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Station (ARFF) No. 33.

Bathroom fixtures that reduce water consumption by 46 percent are among the environmentally friendly features that earned the building this distinction.

The 21,000-square-foot facility is located on 4.25 acres near the fifth runway and contains 8,000 square feet of space used to house rescue and firefighting equipment. It can accommodate 14 firefighters and administrative personnel and contains an area for firefighters to practice training drills and simulate real-life emergency situations.

ARFF Station No. 33 is the newest firefighting facility at Hartsfield-Jackson. It is the first Atlanta fire station to incorporate environmentally friendly development principles using the LEED Rating System. It is also the first facility to ever apply these principles at a Hartsfield-Jackson building.

“We are proud to have our first LEED-certified facility at Hartsfield-Jackson,” said ARFF Station No. 33 Project Manager Terry Bass. “We have quite a few more projects on the horizon as part of our Capital Improvement Program. Our ultimate goal is for every building we build from now on to be LEED compliant.”

The United States Green Building Council is the nation’s leading coalition of corporations, builders, universities, federal and local agencies and not-for-profit organizations that work together to promote buildings that are environmentally friendly.

The LEED Rating System awards credits for satisfying specified “green” building criteria, such as water efficiency and indoor environmental quality. Buildings meeting the criteria may be labeled Certified, Silver, Gold or Platinum depending on how many design principles are incorporated. Fire station No. 33 received the Certified designation.

Commissioning and Green Building Solutions, an Atlanta-based green building consulting firm, provided LEED certification and energy modeling services for the facility.