Dockser Hall Earns Gold LEED Honor

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) of the US Green Building Council recently announced the extensive renovation of the School of Law’s Dockser Hall has earned a coveted “gold star” honor for water and energy efficiency, air-quality standards and materials use.

10.20.09 — Frank Mahoney, director of special projects for facilities, explained that innovations like low-flow lavatories and a new irrigation were incorporated into the project, which ran from July 2008 to August 2009. He noted that 96 percent of the waste generated by the project was sent to recycling plants.

The university spent almost $20 million to transform Dockser Hall, adjacent to the law school’s Knowles Center, into a state-of-the-art showpiece that includes a moot courtroom, classrooms, seminar rooms, offices and lounge areas and ample space for the law school’s clinical program.

“The University has been committed to sustainable construction on previous projects,” Mahoney said. Northeastern has furthered this effort with a commitment to pursue LEED certification on all new capital projects, he added. The university’s newest building, International Village, is in the midst of the LEED certification process.

Northeastern’s commitment to becoming a greener institution was recognized in 2007 by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which tracks environmentally friendly policies and practices on US and Canadian campuses. The organization lauded Northeastern as one of five schools showing the most improvement in environmental practices and polices over a year.