Environmentally-friendly features that enable the new research building at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to be certified as a green structure were key design and construction elements. The Colket Translational Research Building (CTRB), a $496 million project currently rising on the Hospital’s South Campus, has been certified as a LEED building by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

“CHOP is working to attract and retain some of the best researchers in the world,” said Jim Hanson, senior project manager, in Facilities Services and Construction Management at Children’s Hospital. Hanson, who is coordinating LEED certification, added, “Part of doing that is having the best building. We believe that today, the best building is a green building.”

Designed by Ballinger Architects, the building’s three lower levels were certified Silver in July. Final application for certification for the second phase of the project, which consists of 11 above-ground floors, will be submitted for USGBC review after the building is completed in 2010.

Green features of the project include:

· Seventy-five percent of floor space will have daylight and views to the exterior. Perimeter offices have glass partitions so the light and views extend into adjacent office and lab space;

· A significant portion of the windows are edged with a ceramic frit, a pattern of highly reflective white dots that reduce the amount of solar radiation through the glass and help keep the building cooler;

· Windows are constructed with insulating glass;

The three lower levels of the CTRB have been occupied since early 2009.