Vertegy LLC, an award-winning sustainability consulting firm based in St. Louis, was recently notified that a LEED Platinum, world-class student housing complex the company helped create has earned global recognition. The project, which sits on the 2,500-acre Education City Campus on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar, was recognized with this year’s Cityscape Award for Emerging Markets in the Residential (Built) project category. The award was presented to the developer, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Project team members Vertegy, Treanor Architects and engineering firm Burns & McDonnell all played a major role in this project’s creation and were also recognized at the CityScape awards ceremony in Dubai earlier this month.
The 775,000-square-foot student housing project integrates a highly functional and durable design. Totaling 12 buildings, the complex features two separate housing units for 600 male and 600 female students, with each unit containing a community center and five residential buildings. State-of-the art sustainable technology and energy-efficient systems can be found throughout the complex. The students living in the units benefit from wireless computer systems and smart-room technology that allow residents to control temperature, lighting and music simply by entering the room. The building design also incorporates solar-paneled roofs, wind turbines that generate energy, recycled materials, and innovative stormwater and wastewater technologies.
Vertegy served as the sustainability manager for the entire project, coordinating multiple design and construction aspects to ensure that the Qatar Foundation‘s sustainability goals were met. The housing complex is currently the only LEED Platinum certified student housing complex in the world. It also boasts the highest concentration of buildings to be independently certified LEED Platinum by the US Green Building Council.
The prestigious Cityscape awards, which are awarded annually to projects that are located in global emerging markets, celebrate excellence and innovation in real estate development and architecture, while giving the world’s leading innovators a platform to share their creative and visionary ideas for the future. The Qatar Foundation’s student housing complex was selected from a large number of entries from many different regions, including the Middle East, Turkey, Russia, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Each year, projects chosen demonstrate the highest level of excellence across six specified categories, including design, planning, construction, fulfilling the brief, management and sustainability.
“We are thrilled to have been involved in the sustainable design and construction of this large-scale, state-of-the-art residential complex and are happy to see its environmental achievements recognized on a global level,” said Thomas Taylor, principal of Vertegy, LLC. “Qatar has been committed to constructing developments and making improvements to its infrastructure with sustainability in mind over the past several years, and the recognition received for the student housing project demonstrates how developers around the world are continuing to see the value of sustainable design in projects of all types.”
For more information, please visit www.vertegyconsultants.com or call (314) 399-9990.
