LEED Certified: It's an Inside Job at Clark-Nexsen in Roanoke

General Contractor Bob Fetzer (right) of Building Specialists and Al Williamson of Sign Design, which did the Clark-Nexsen signs

The Roanoke office of architecture and engineering firm Clark Nexsen showed off its new look last night at a crowded open house in downtown Roanoke. The firm, founded in Lynchburg some years ago and based in Norfolk now, has grown from 12 employees to 20 in less than nine months in Roanoke, with one more coming in June.

The office has been expanded from roughly 4,400 square feet to more than 6,000 square feet, the renovation being accomplished in less than 16 weeks. The general contractor was Bob Fetzer’s Building Specialists. The goal was to create an environment showcasing creativity and using “green” design practices used in LEED Certification.

“Designing our new space to qualify for LEED Certification [within an existing building] was important to us,” according to Lora Katz, director of architecture. “Although we are in a facility that has shared HVAC, which limits one of the main components of certification, there are many other choices a business can make that can really affect their energy efficiency and impact on the environment.”

Materials designed and specified on this project for LEED certified qualification were, Teragren Bamboo Wood Flooring, Armstrong natural linoleum, and InterfaceFLOR which is comprised of 35 percent pre-consumer recycled content and 33 percent post-consumer recycled content. All cabinetry was produced from green board. No urea formaldehyde was added during the manufacturing process of the cabinetry. It was finished with low VOC paints.

Building Specialists filtered out construction dust and debris by installing a MERV 8 filter on the existing HVAC system return during the construction phase. “In our industry we are seeing fewer businesses expanding, much less focusing their budgets on meeting environmental standards,” said Fetzer.