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A conservation program reduces up to 43% of building water use through low-flow, pressurized fixtures. Drought-tolerant plants and trees cut outdoor landscaping watering by 60%. Slot-machine bases serve as under floor air-conditioning units, while construction recycling reused more than 260,000 tons of waste.
CityCenter isn’t alone. The 300,000-sq-ft Smith Center for the Performing Arts, which broke ground in May, is pursuing LEED silver. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Baltimore, is the general contractor. The two-building complex, on 4.75 acres, is located at Grand Central Parkway and Bonneville Avenue, across from the World Market Center.
Designed by David M. Schwarz, Washington, D.C., the facility is anchored by a 2,050-seat proscenium theater with a 300-seat cabaret theater and stage facing a two-acre park. The project will use low-VOC glues, carpets and paints; energy-efficient windows; and natural lighting and materials. Construction waste will be recycled, and the building will contain high-efficiency mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
“There are no performing arts theaters [of this size] that are LEED certified, so we don’t have any reference materials,” says Matt Edwards, a project manager with the Projects Group of Fort Worth, which is serving as the owner’s representative. “But LEED was always in our mindset from day one.”
The Smith Center, which is scheduled to finish in 2012, is situated within the 61-acre master-planned Symphony Park, abrownfield, city-owned site that formerly served as a Union Pacific Railroad yard. All developments within the park must be LEED certified as per a city-mandated requirement.
Southern Nevada is also a hotbed for solar power development. Las Vegas-based Tradewinds Construction, for example, earlier this year finished a $3.1-million addition to ACCIONA’s 2-year-old, 64-MW Nevada Solar One photovoltaic power plant in Boulder City, 25 mi southeast of Las Vegas.
Assembly Bill 431 in 2003 and AB3 in 2005 require up to 20% of Nevada’s power to come from a renewable resource by 2015, with roughly 5% coming from solar power.
The 400-acre facility generates enough power for 48,000 homes, while reducing the carbon-dioxide emission equivalent of 20,000 cars annually. The power plant uses 190,000 curved parabolic mirrors that concentrate desert sunlight to 750° Fahrenheit to heat synthetic oil inside tubes that, in turn, create stream and drive turbines to produce electricity.
The 3.5-MW expansion, on 38 acres, installed 480 parabolic troughs supported by 25-ft-long, 14-ft-tall, 800-lb space frames anchored by 25-ft-deep, 3-ft-diameter drilled piers. There are 20 mirrored troughs per frame, with a 3/4-hp motor every 12 frames that rotate to track sunlight.
“Nevada is poised to become a green building and renewable energy leader,” says Jeff Vilkin, Tradewinds president. “This is the lowest-cost, cleanest solar energy that can be produced today.”
Key Players
Aria and Vdara at CityCenterOwner: MGM Mirage; Infinity World Development
Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli (Aria); RV Architecture LLC (Vdara)
General Contractor: Perini Building Co.
Smith Center for the Performing Arts
Owner: Las Vegas Performing Arts Center Foundation
Architects: David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services Inc.; HKS Architects
General Contractor: Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
Project Manager: The Projects Group
Nevada Solar One
Owner: Acciona
General Contractor: Tradewinds Construction
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