Sustainable and Smart

摘要

The team faced multiple challenges in the creation and design of Belmont University's McWhorter Hall. The end goal was to create an innovative, state-of-the-art, experiential learning space within a structure consistent with the century-old architecture prevalent on the university campus. McWhorter Hall includes a four-level, 420-vehicle underground parking garage that reduces the structural footprint to less than an acre. A one-level footprint is 37,411 square feet. McWhorter Hall also boasts the only large, extensive green roof on an educational facility in Nashville, which reduces cooling/heating costs and provides extra insulation. Mimicking a cedar glade, the roof provides a natural habitat for birds and butterflies and includes 85% flowering and colorful plantings. The roof reduces the amount of stormwa-ter that reaches the ground, using it to provide irrigation to the plants and allow some of it to slowly evaporate back into the atmosphere.