The Rhinebeck, New York-based Omega Institute for Holistic Studies announced last week that it has broken ground on its Omega Center for Sustainable Living. The OCSL is aiming for a LEED Platinum rating and was designed by Kansas City-based BNIM Architects, the firm responsible for the new master plan for Greensburg, Kansas. During Greenbuild 2007, Omega won a Living Building Challenge "On the Boards Award" for the OCSL and, once completed, the Center will be the first Living Building on the East Coast. (Note that the Living Building Challenge is sponsored by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council, was introduced during Greenbuild 2006 in Denver, and BNIM has been involved with the program from its inception).
The Center is actually a wastewater treatment facility that will also serve as a classroom and laboratory for staff and visitors. The 4500-square-foot Center will contain what has been dubbed the "Eco Machine," which uses plants, snails, and bacteria to recycle the approximately 5 million gallons of wastewater annually that are produced by the Omega Institute's 195-acre Hudson Valley campus. What's particularly neat about the project is how such a functional component of campus operations will now be turned into a distinguished piece of green architecture.
The Omega Institute itself was founded back in 1977 and is a non-profit organization that provides the public with wellness and personal growth education through various conferences and workshops. Although Omega is still seeking capital contributions to complete the $2.8 million project, it expects to open the Center sometime during the course of 2009.
- Construction Underway on First Living Building (PR)
- Omega Center (BNIM Architects)
- Omega Institute
- Greensburg to Rebuild Public Buildings to LEED Platinum (gbNYC)
ML is short for our weekly Monday LEEDoff™ column, which typically profiles a different LEED project generally in (but not limited to) the New York City area. You can access an archive of profiled projects via this link.
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