At Newcomb & Boyd, we believe in highly functional, high performance buildings. Through integrated design and commissioning, we seek to provide the best value to our clients through conceptualization and implementation of the principles of sustainable design and operations. Our portfolio of more than 60 LEED certified projects represent a wide array of building types – laboratories, higher education, military, commercial, residential, government – and bear testimony to Newcomb & Boyd’s commitment and drive to be a leader in sustainable design.

Georgia Institute of Technology Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons

Georgia Tech’s Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons (CULC) is an education building allowing for the integration of new and existing initiatives in an enriched and supportive environment. The mission of CULC is to create a nexus for experiential learning, technology, and information resources. Toward that end, Georgia Tech communicated a desire for the CULC to both educate and inspire its occupants and push the envelope of environmental sustainability. Through an integrated design process beginning with months of early design phase collaborations with Georgia Tech, the architect, and the engineering team, a design that ultimately achieved LEED Platinum Certification was realized.

Design features incorporated into the CULC included:

• 1.4 million gallon, underground cistern that harvests stormwater and condensate from the building and site. (Cistern is one of the largest in the United States)
• Graywater system for toilet flushing and landscape irrigation.
• High performance envelope incorporating an array of external shading devices
• 18,000 square foot green roof garden which includes 39 species of native plants for landscaping
• Daylight harvesting design and controls
• High efficiency lighting and lighting control systems
• Dual-wheel (enthalpy wheels and passive desiccant dehumidification) energy recovery units
• Localized chilled beams and radiant floor heating systems
• Enhanced demand control ventilation
• Solar thermal domestic hot water providing approximately fifty percent of the buildings hot water demand
• 86 kW solar photovoltaic array consisting of 360 solar panels that generates approximately 118,000 kWh of electricity per year
• Comprehensive sub-metering, measurement and verification system enabling a monitoring-based commissioning program
• Interactive sustainability dashboard

LEED Facts

Mechanical Room

Green Roof

Roof Solar Panels

Sustainability at Clough Commons