The Moss Arts Center, one of the most distinctive buildings on campus, is now one of the greenest. 

The U.S. Green Building Council gave the center a gold certification in its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability. It promotes design and construction practices that reduce the negative environmental impacts of buildings and improve occupant health and well-being.  

“The Moss Arts Center is the fourth Virginia Tech building to receive gold certification," said Sherwood Wilson, vice president of administration. "The center is one of the most important new buildings on campus and it was paramount for us to make it one of the greenest as well."

Some of the highlights of the sustainable design and construction of the center include:

  • Recycling 6,175 tons or 96 percent of all construction waste
  • Use of construction materials contained recycled content
  • Use of regionally manufactured building materials
  • Water use reduction both inside and outside
  • 60 percent of all wood products in the building came from Forest Stewardship Council certified forests

“During the design and construction of the Moss Arts Center, we kept an eye on several key priorities including the scale and quality of the performance hall, especially in terms of acoustics, and technology infrastructure throughout the building,” said Ruth Waalkes, associate provost for the arts and executive director of the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. “The LEED certification was another important consideration; it is rare to have a facility of this size and nature achieve gold certification. “ 

Construction of the $100 million center began in fall 2010. It was designed by the award-winning architectural firm Snøhetta based in Oslo, Norway and New York City. Holder Construction Co. from Herndon, Virginia, was the construction manager.

The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech and the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology are headquartered in the Moss Arts Center. The 150,000-square-foot facility opened in October 2013 and includes a 1,274-seat performance hall, visual arts galleries, amphitheatre, four-story experimental Cube, and multiple studios for interdisciplinary research. 

The center also offers a television studio, production control room, newsroom, and associated classroom in support of the Department of Communication.

The Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment, which was reaffirmed in 2013, commits the university to achieving a minimum LEED rating of silver for all new construction. The Moss Arts Center is the ninth building on campus to receive LEED certification.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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