What are the Iconic Green Buildings at uOttawa
Another pretty iconic building is SITE. Built in 2002 as uOttawa's response to the massive tech craze of the early 2000's, there aren't many buildings with as many unique architectural characteristics as SITE. Big windows, stainless steel vents, concrete fins, exposed pillars and mechanical duct-work... it is one of a kind (except that Lakehead University built a very similar building a few years later).
But I want to talk about another type of iconic building on campus. You see, an iconic building might have a unique shape, or a distinct style, or it might be really tall, or it might be really colourful. But sometimes an iconic building is memorable not because of how it looks on the outside but what is has on the inside.
In 2010, the University of Ottawa decided to change its building design standards to construct green buildings. The University settled on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, a building standard that incorporates a bunch of social and environmental indicators meant to make the building a better place. Notably, LEED buildings have a strong focus on Energy and Indoor Air quality, but they also look at where your materials come from, what space you chose to build on, and how you manage your water.
LEED is an interesting process because it takes at least a year after your building is constructed in order to see how your building scored. There are four levels of LEED (Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum) that relate to how much you implement in your building. So you can get extra points the more energy you save, or if you use local furniture, or if you are located close to daycare. But even though LEED uses a standard checklist to determine how green your building is, that doesn't mean that every building is a copy of one another.
The Faculty of Social Sciences Building
The first LEED building at the University of Ottawa was the FSS Building. There are a bunch of great features in this building that make it green, including the Living Wall, the various green roofs, the integrated recycling bins, even the selection of Premiere Moisson as the food provider.
The Advanced Research Complex
ARC is a really interesting building with a long story behind it. But even though this building houses an Accelerated Mass Spectrometer (on of North America's largest), the building still finds ways to be green. There are some features that it shares with FSS, like FSC wood, water fountains on every floor, and Green Guard furniture; but there are also unique features like solar panels on the roof and a loading dock made with permeable concrete.
The Learning Crossroads
uOttawa's newest LEED certified building is the CRX building, which was just certified officially in November 2020. There are a bunch of green goodies in this building including big windows to let in the light and provide scenic views, a special waste sorting centre in the Food Court, and a bunch of green roof space. But those are just the that we get LEED points for, there are other features that make this building pretty cool.
For instance, the walls are really bright, colourful, and full of motivational messages (to bring up the spirits of people in the building), the building houses the donation bin and a mobile cart for the Free Store, and of course we installed special signs on the recycling bins to help better recycle the kind of things you can buy in the building.
The CRX building is the latest in a line of green buildings but it is not the last. Already, the STEM Building is undergoing its LEED evaluation process and there are plans in place for certification of future buildings, like the 200 Lees development. It is important to mention that LEED is not the only certification system out there and that it is not perfect by any means. But it demonstrates that uOttawa is serious about doing the right thing for the planet and the people in their buildings.
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