Pima County Sustainability Appendix

In support of Pima County and the City of Tucson’s sustainable building goals, Paladino & Company has created Environmental Design Criteria to assist the project design team in creating a high-performance sustainable project that brings long-term value to the owners. This document outlines the sustainable design priorities for the project, and major strategies to achieve those priorities.

Sustainable Trend in Courthouse Design

As the Federal Government plans to build over 160 new facilities in the next year, they have also committed to Sustainability. "The courthouses we are building today represent many of our city's future landmarks," states Rob Andrukonis, AIA, director of GSA's courthouse program. "They are the means of representing the federal government for probably the next century, if not two centuries. They have to be designed right." (Quotes from “Court's in Session”, by Barbara Horwitz-Bennett, Contributing Editor, April 1, 2004 online issue of Consulting-Specifying Engineer).

Sustainability Priorities

The following priorities have been established for the project in order to meet the client’s program goals and sustainability goals and to create a cost-effective project that delivers savings over the life of the building:

1. Indoor Environmental Quality: Maximize Productivity
2. Energy Efficiency: Design to Deliver Operational Savings
3. Water Efficiency: Protect a Scarce Desert Resource
4. Community: Create Community Connection
5. Resource Efficiency: Create Long Term Value: a 100-yr Building

These priorities are listed in ranked order, with 1 being the highest, with respect to owner cost savings and environmental and social benefit.

As the design team develops the project design in later phases, each system can be optimized and necessary trade-offs will be identified to allow the final design to fit within the project construction cost budget.

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