02/22/2024

The O’Loughlin Family Champions Center has been recognized as a green building. 

Saint Louis University’s newest building has earned LEED Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the world’s most widely used green building program. 

The program was created by the U.S. Green Building Council to serve as a leadership standard defining best practices for healthy, high-performing green buildings. LEED certification provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings, which offer environmental, social and governance benefits.

“It’s important we design/construct with sustainability in mind,” said Dustin Montgomery, Assistant Director of Construction Services. “LEED is important, especially within higher education, by keeping the students healthy and educating them on the importance of Environmental Stewardship.”

The Champions Center joins the Edward A. Doisy Research Center, Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, and Jesuit Center as LEED Certified buildings on campus. 
 
LEED rating system has seven areas of concentration: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation in the design process, and regional priority. Projects obtain credits in these areas to achieve certification. 

“In our case, we needed between 50-59 points to obtain LEED Silver certification,” Montgomery said. “Some of the points included using low emitting materials, optimizing energy performance, enhanced commissioning, indoor water use reduction, and rainwater management.”

In October, SLU hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of the new 25,000-square-foot center adjacent to Chaifetz Arena. The center will provide support services for the University's 400-plus Billiken student-athletes under one roof. 

Construction of the center began in May 2022 with the goal of providing a best-in-class facility designed to deliver programming related to academic advising, spiritual development, sports performance, nutrition, wellness and sports psychology, among a host of other related services. The general contractor of the facility was St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Companies, Hastings+Chivetta served as the project's architect and Perkins&Will completed the interior design.