On Monday, Mayor Turner and city officials joined Kirksey Architecture for the unveiling of the new City of Houston Traffic Operations LEED Gold building. The facility, designed by Kirksey, is 23% more efficient than a typical code-compliant building. The goal of the new operations facility was to reflect the energy and movement of the traffic it orchestrates, while staying true to the city’s mission of energy-efficient green building. More than 88% of construction waste was diverted from landfills due to smart reuse and recycling of materials by the contractor, Pepper-Lawson Construction.

100% of the stormwater that runs off the site is treated to improve its quality before it is discharged into the local stormwater infrastructure. Like the city’s traffic lights, all light fixtures in the building are LEDs, which have reduced interior lighting use by 45% and exterior lighting use by 75%. Low-flow plumbing fixtures reduced indoor water consumption by 39%, when compared to a typical building.