City’s Municipal Building Wins Green Award

WYDAILY
November 11, 2013
James Needham

The Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate recently gave the City of Williamsburg’s Municipal Building a 2013 Award of Merit for Sustainable Design.

The HRACRE is an organization that, according to its website, promotes “the best interests of commercial real estate in the region through key issues confronting our industry.” The Municipal building that won the award from the group is located at 401 Lafayette St. and was designed by local architect group GuernseyTingle.

The building won the award because, according to judges:

• It displayed adaptive reuse of existing buildings
• The design harnessed the existing embodied energy and upgraded systems for more energy-efficient and cost-conscious operations
• It blended in well with neighboring buildings
• The renovation improved the building to meet current needs
• It has geothermal wells
• The building also avoided “green washing” (using sustainable strategies just to earn more points)