The $92-million Franklin County Common Pleas Courthouse in Columbus, Ohio, makes a sound case for sustainable design by incorporating elements that reduce the facility's annual energy consumption by 25% and annual water consumption by 1 million gallons, relative to the performance of more traditional courthouse buildings.
As such, the seven-story, 325,000-sq-ft structure is currently a candidate for LEED-Gold certification, a designation that would make it the greenest facility of its kind in Ohio. The building also promotes resource conservation in surrounding Columbus. Its climate-control equipment, for instance, is designed to share the burden for heating and cooling with systems in neighboring facilities.Low-flow and dual-flush plumbing fixtures minimize the facility's environmental impact.