A three-year renovation of the 90-year-old Baton Rouge Junior High School building culminated Tuesday when the new Public Works and Planning Center, a one-stop-shop for Baton Rouge’s permitting and development, was unveiled.
“Today is an important day, and it’s important for a variety of reasons,” said Mayor-President Kip Holden. “To me, it all boils down to one word — efficiency. In today’s world, it is becoming increasingly important to do things in an efficient manner.”
The new building will house more than 150 city-parish employees from the Planning Commission and various divisions of the Department of Public Works, making it a place where developers can get answers quickly so their projects and the city can move forward, Holden said.
The 50,000-square-foot facility cost $9 million, which was partly paid by $3.4 million in federal grants, including $1.7 million for efficiency upgrades from an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant obtained by the mayor’s office through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The building is now 42 percent more efficient than other buildings of its size, which will provide a return on investment of $2.1 million over the lifespan of the new efficiency materials. These efficiency materials will also increase the building’s life span and cut operating and maintenance costs in half, said William Daniel, chief administrative officer for the mayor’s office.
Some of the renovation’s efficiency upgrades include daylight harvesting, lighting control, LED light fixtures, “low-E” insulated windows, tankless hot water heaters, an advanced energy management system, an enhanced plumbing system that controls excessive water consumption and rooftop solar panels that can power the building in the case of a power outage, said David Guillory, director of the Department of Public Works.
Additionally, the center is the first LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certified municipal building in East Baton Rouge Parish, Holden said. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is a “voluntary, consensus-based, market-driven program that provides third-party verification of green buildings.
The certification means sustainability, overall and energy efficiency and savings, said Daniel.
“This is no small achievement, and I want to commend our entire team for working to make it happen,” Holden said. “Moving forward, we will continue to identify candidates for projects like this one that take advantage of federal funding opportunities to upgrade our facilities with the latest in energy efficiency measures and set an example for all throughout this parish and other cities.”
