NASA's First
LEED Platinum Project

NASA’s new LEED Platinum office facility is a model for environmentally sound, high-performance buildings across the agency.

Building 20 accommodates up to 520 employees in mostly open office space with access to daylight and outdoor views. It establishes a contemporary, more collaborative workplace paradigm for NASA.

HOK’s integrated architectural and engineering solutions include a highly efficient building envelope, an underfloor air distribution system that allows people to control the flow of air at outlets near their work areas, a total energy recovery wheel and a solar hot water harvesting system on the roof. The energy-efficient building is modeled to perform 57 percent better than a typical facility.

A “less is more” design approach and efficient space planning reduced the building’s total gross square footage by six percent. In addition to reducing perimeter circulation, the team minimized use of applied materials by leaving the concrete columns exposed and concrete ceilings unfinished and by using polished concrete for flooring in public areas.