The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was kind enough to send us an invite to their media day for the super fresh Church History Library. This cutting-edge building is the embodiment of a mammoth effort spanning several years — 15 years of planning, 4 years of construction, and countless hours tagging, archiving, and moving millions of artifacts and records to the new location. With several temperature controlled and sub-zero vaults, a building like this would generally use a lot of energy, but the design prioritized energy-efficiency and LEED certification.
The Church History Library features a green roof, super-efficient HVAC system, drought-tolerant landscaping, efficient windows, air filtering system, efficient plumbing, abundant interior natural light, and everything else that goes with obtaining LEED certification.
The LDS Church just submitted LEED 2.2 paperwork for anticipated LEED Silver certification. Church buildings tend to include sustainable elements anyway (e.g., durable materials, large overhangs, etc.), but pursuing LEED certification in this instance is an example of the organization's overall commitment to the community, church members, and the environment. I even heard plans of net zero energy church buildings in development, which is quite intriguing, so we'll keep you posted …
[+] Green Church History Library Set on Flickr.
Kudos to LDS. It would be great to see more government funded buildings follow their leed (lead).
Hi, My name is Jonathan Elliott and I would like to use your photo of the LDS Church History Library on my website sites.google.com/site/ldschurchin3d. This website features 3D models of temples, meetinghouses, and other buildings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I would like to use your photo as a thumbnail in the “LDS Historic Sites and Visitors’ Centers Google Earth Virtual Tour”. Go to http://sites.google.com/site/ldschurchin3d/historic to see the tour. Click on the Salt Lake Temple or Nauvoo Illinois Temple Placemarks to see how your photo will be used. If you grant me permission to use your photo, I will resize it to a lower resolution, load it to the website, and use it with the appropriate Placemark. Please email me at [email protected] and let me know if I may use your photo. Please include your name, so I can give you credit, and the the URL link to the page of this photo (I am asking many people for different photos, so please include the link so that I don’t post the wrong one). Thank you!