Developed as a pilot sustainable facility for the state of Maryland, the $84-million operations center was originally targeted for LEED Silver certification, but the team was able to design-construct it to achieve LEED Gold status.
One of Montgomery County's Smart Growth Initiative projects, the center is a collection of 13 buildings serving several county agencies. The project accommodates operations and maintenance activities for a fleet of 200 county buses and maintenance for 590 heavy-equipment vehicles; it also houses operations of two highway services depots.
The 38.7-acre campus includes administration and operations facilities, a parking structure, salt barn, fuel and wash building, day laborer and fueling facilities and vehicle maintenance building.
The design includes more than four acres of vegetated "living" roofs visible from multiple vantage points within the nearby communities. The available roof surfaces retain stormwater and reduce heat-island effect. Photovoltaic panels produce energy, and energy-conserving building systems reduce the carbon footprint and costs. There is a water-reclaim system for the bus wash, while a rainwater harvesting system with a capacity of 40,000 gallons collects rain from the vegetated roofs into underground storage tanks. Non-potable water is used for toilets and urinals as well as for the bus chassis wash bay in the main building and in other bus fueling and washing facilities.
The center spans three different sites and more than 480,000 sq ft of building area for three user groups. Significant portions of the sites were required to be used as setbacks, wetlands and buffers. That reduced the buildable area on site, challenging the team to provide a functional operational layout sensitive to the surrounding areas.
Airports/Transit: Award of Merit - David F. Bone Equipment Maintenance And Transit Operations Center, Rockville, Md.
Key Players
Owner Montgomery County, Md., Dept. of General Services
Lead Design Firm Baker and Associates
General Contractor Coakley & Williams Construction
Civil/Structural Engineer Adtek Engineers
Mechanical/Plumbing/Fire Protection Engineer S3E/Klingemann
Geotechnical Engineer Kim Engineering
Electrical Communications Engineer EPCM
Life Safety Hughes Fire Projection
Fuel Systems Design Fuel Solutions
Surveying AULtece
