Monroe County to Construct LEED Silver Crime Lab in Rochester

The Monroe County Public Safety Lab is certainly one of the more esoteric LEED projects we've stumbled across recently. The four-story, 45,000-square-foot crime lab is will be located in downtown Rochester, rising from what is currently a parking lot. The lab- which is currently cramped into a 19,000-square-foot building that dates from 1963- serves law enforcement agencies in the City of Rochester and eight surrounding counties; 67 percent of its work comes from Rochester itself, which is contributing $1 million to the project. The lab performs DNA analysis of crime scene investigations and stores significant data on computers that are causing the space crunch at the existing lab. Green features at the $30 million facility will add around $700,000 to construction costs and include a white roof, recycled-content and locally sourced structural building materials, a graywater irrigation system, and reserved parking for hybrid vehicles and bicycles. Pike Company has been lined up to perform construction management and LEED consulting services for $139,000. The exterior of the building was designed by Rochester-based DeWolff Partnership Architects with engineering design services from LaBella Associates, also of Rochester. The county will let construction contracts out for bid in May and award them by September, with groundbreaking tentatively scheduled for October. NYSERDA has already provided a $100,000 grant and Governor Paterson's office is considering the project for stimulus dollars. DOJ contributed $4.6 million; DASNY, $10.2 million.

• Crime Lab Has Designs on Green Technologies (DC.com)