Richard Meier and Partners Architects

Designed by Richard Meier and Partners Architects, the $65 million Weill Hall at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York recently earned just the sixth LEED Gold certification for a university laboratory building in the country. Energy consumption is obviously a huge consideration for science buildings, and Weill Hall is projected to use 30 percent less energy than a comparable building. This allowed the design team to push for LEED Gold during the construction phase rather than the original goal of Silver.

The building includes a green roof and graywater reclamation system that should reduce stormwater runoff by 41 percent, and 60 percent of all timber used on the project was sourced from sustainable forests. In addition, during the construction phase, 65 percent of construction debris was recycled. Other green features include reflective sidewalks; Weill Hall is also part of Cornell's Lake Source Cooling Project, which eliminates the need for campus refrigeration systems by drawing upon the cold waters of nearby Cayuga Lake.