Art & Design Building Obtains LEED Gold

Farnsworth Group provided LEED commissioning for all mechanical, electrical, plumbing and building envelope systems for a 32,268 SF addition to the Art and Design Building at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

The new space houses art history, art therapy, drawing, painting and art education classrooms, as well as office and gallery space. The expansion allowed the University to consolidate all of the arts and design programs into one location, as well as provide a flexible gallery space, correct existing studio deficiencies and provide lecture space that is independent of the studios. This project achieved LEED Gold certification. 

Building enclosure commissioning efforts played a prominent role in this project. During the testing phase, many leaks were discovered in the exterior glazing systems. The majority of the leaks were found to be coming through the joint between the exterior wall construction and the glazing system, confirming preliminary results identified during mock-up testing. Initially, there was disagreement regarding the root cause of the leaks, but subsequent tests on units not included in the initial sample showed leaks of similar nature and severity, thus identifying a systemic issue.