Chandler City Hall & Museum, Arizona
Save energy, reduce waste, cut costs. The Chandler City Hall & Museum 125,000 square-foot project seeks LEED Gold certification thanks to SmithGroup, who designed all its public and private restrooms with Electric Mirror's EnergyLite™ and maintenance-free Integrity™ lighted mirrors.
Government design turns to Electric Mirror for eco-friendly products to bolster LEED certification
By Laura Kimball
Chandler, Arizona is a city on the forefront of change. It was once an agricultural town and has recently transformed into a high-tech industrial city. This change is apparent in the new city hall that opened its doors in fall of 2010. Chandler City Hall is a 125,000 square foot, low-to-mid-rise complex featuring private offices, City Council chambers, the Mayor’s office, and city administrative staff offices.
“This is an iconic building that is a landmark of Chandler,” says Kai Ekbundit, senior interior designer of the SmithGroup, the architecture firm of the project. Ekbundit along with colleague Linda Salzmann, senior interior designer, worked with Mark Roddy, lead architectural designer, on the design concept for Chandler City Hall.
The cornerstone of this project is the city’s commitment to sustainability that was incorporated in all of the details – from the re-use of an existing urban site to innovative use of wastewater technologies and even the public and private restrooms that feature 56 Integrity lighted mirrors manufactured by Electric Mirror. All of these measures count towards the LEED Gold Certification, which the design team and city are currently seeking for the building.
The Integrity mirrors are maintenance-free and have a service life of around 10 years, which is 3 to 5 times longer than a standard product and features the same luminous effect that you would expect from Electric Mirror. The light comes from low-mercury fluorescent lamps that help protect our environment. The Integrity mirror also features EnergyLite™ technology that offers greater light output with half the energy and carbon emissions, contributing to LEED points and certification.
“Having a green product is really important in this day and age. Not only something that’s green and environmentally friendly, but also something made in the USA,” says Travis Boyd, project manager at Electric Mirror who worked with Ekbundit on this project. “It was a privilege to be a part of the Chandler City Hall project especially with the way SmithGroup designed it to be as environmentally conscious as it is.”
The mirrors are installed in every restroom in Chandler City Hall, including the Mayor’s private bathroom, the greenroom where the Mayor and City Council prepare before making television appearances, and in the public restrooms. Electric Mirror products are the top-choice for hotels and are becoming a more frequent choice in large municipal projects.
The mirrors are programmed to be on during regular business hours. After that, motion sensors activate the mirrors to save energy. True to its intended purpose, the city hall is used around the clock for training, city gatherings, classrooms, and group meetings. The Chandler City Hall has truly become the center of the city.
In Ekbundit’s words, “the design was inspired by the idea of respecting the past and acknowledging the future.” The buildings, their materials, and the products used in this project represent the history of Chandler and the region, while acknowledging the community’s innovative technology-driven industry.