Officials broke ground on a new Armed Forces Reserve Center in Kingsport today. The ceremony took place at the current facility, but the new building will actually be in Mount Carmel, across the highway from the old Food City building.
The new Armed Forces Reserve Center will be a first for this area in that it is designed to meet the LEED Silver rating. LEED, which means “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” is the standard for determining “green” rating of construction projects.
Innovations that contribute to the building’s LEED rating include a green (vegetated) roof, which incorporates low-growing plants in moveable trays placed over half the roof. This reduces heat gain in the summer, and releases oxygen – off-setting the building’s carbon footprint. Skylights and mini-skylights are incorporated to bring natural light into the building, reducing the need for artificial lighting.
The building will also be heated and cooled using geo-thermal energy – which uses the earth’s natural constant temperature to heat and cool the building. On-demand and point-of-use water heathers, water-heated concrete slabs and roof-mounted solar energy panels are a few of the other environmentally-friendly advances the new AFRC will employ.
The Tennessee Department of Military hopes to have the building completed and open by December, 2010.
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