MILWAUKEE, Wis. - The U.S. Green Building Council has officially awarded Ray and Kay Eckstein Hall, the new Law School facility at Marquette University, with LEED® – Silver Certification. LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
Eckstein Hall is a 205,000-square-foot law school that includes two model courtrooms, 11 classrooms, 85 faculty and staff offices grouped into suites, library space with a two-story reading room, a conference center and a cafe. Housed within the structure is a two-story parking garage with 171 spaces, providing convenience and safety for staff and students. The Milwaukee office of Opus Development Corporation served as the design builder on the project. Opus teamed up with Shepley Bulfinch, Boston, who was the design architect and Opus AE Group who was the architect of record.
Marquette University and Opus, along with the many subcontractors that worked on the project, were committed to constructing an energy efficient building and receiving LEED® certification. “As we began the process of designing Eckstein Hall, our first priority was to build a facility that would enable us to provide an exceptional legal education,” Joseph D. Kearney, dean of the Law School, said. “But as we began talking to alumni, students and others, it was quickly apparent that this magnificent building would also be an important opportunity to signal Marquette’s commitment to the environment and sustainable building practices. This LEED® certification is another point of pride for the Marquette Law School community.”
Eckstein received points toward LEED® certification through various initiatives, including:
Eckstein Hall is a 205,000-square-foot law school that includes two model courtrooms, 11 classrooms, 85 faculty and staff offices grouped into suites, library space with a two-story reading room, a conference center and a cafe. Housed within the structure is a two-story parking garage with 171 spaces, providing convenience and safety for staff and students. The Milwaukee office of Opus Development Corporation served as the design builder on the project. Opus teamed up with Shepley Bulfinch, Boston, who was the design architect and Opus AE Group who was the architect of record.
Marquette University and Opus, along with the many subcontractors that worked on the project, were committed to constructing an energy efficient building and receiving LEED® certification. “As we began the process of designing Eckstein Hall, our first priority was to build a facility that would enable us to provide an exceptional legal education,” Joseph D. Kearney, dean of the Law School, said. “But as we began talking to alumni, students and others, it was quickly apparent that this magnificent building would also be an important opportunity to signal Marquette’s commitment to the environment and sustainable building practices. This LEED® certification is another point of pride for the Marquette Law School community.”
Eckstein received points toward LEED® certification through various initiatives, including:
- Achieving 41 percent water-usage reduction through the installation of dual-flush toilets and low-flush urinals, lavatories, showers and kitchen sinks.
- Recycling more than 1,354 tons of on-site generated construction waste rather than dumping it in landfills.
- Utilizing recycled materials for more than 31 percent of the total building materials.
- Using local materials that were extracted, harvested, recovered and/or manufactured within 500 miles of downtown Milwaukee for 41.7 percent of the building materials.
Spanning a nearly 40-year partnership with Marquette University, Eckstein Hall is the 12th University building Opus has built on campus since 1972. Opus recently completed Marquette’s Zilber Hall, the University’s 130,000-sqaure-foot, $27 million dollar student services/administration building and is currently under construction on the Discovery Learning Complex, future home of the Marquette College of Engineering.
Opus Development Corporation is one of the leading full-service design build and development firms in Wisconsin, having developed hundreds of projects and tens of millions of square feet of space, since operations began in the state in 1972.
About The Opus Group
The Opus Group™ is a family of national commercial real estate companies headquartered in Minneapolis, with expertise in development, project management and construction, architecture and engineering, finance, sales and leasing. The Opus Group includes Opus Holding, L.L.C. and Opus Holding, Inc. and their operating subsidiaries, Opus Development Corporation, Opus Design Build, L.L.C. and Opus AE Group, Inc. Specializing in office, industrial, retail, residential living, institutional and government projects, The Opus Group has broad capabilities, deep experience and a proven design-build model that delivers solutions for customers on time and on budget. For more information, visit www.opus-group.com.