Botanical Research Institute (1st Platinum LEED building in Tarrant County)
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| brit.org |
Botanical Research Institute walks the walk and talks the talk about sustainability. Their brochure is ALL about how to be sustainable and how they are demonstrating it. They are taking this opportunity to teach people about "being sustainable." The new BRIT building at 70,000 square feet was ready for "move in" February 2011. It is a public organization but privately funded. BRIT was founded in 1987 after SMU Library was going to disperse their collection after financial difficulty. A group of leaders acquired the collection and started BRIT and it went public in 1991. They collect plants from all over the world and trade with other BRITs like kids trade baseball cards. They have a rare book room with the oldest book dated 1549. Thats old.
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| This guy LOVES his job! |
This is the Herbarium.They have over 135,000 plants collected and kept in these climate controlled files at 65 degrees and under 30% humidity. (all photos by Amari Roskelly unless other wise listed) |
| brit.org |
This building breathes: with the bamboo ceiling (a rapid renewable resource) carpet is wool or floor in children's library is made from recycled rubber and tennis shoes, linen wall paper, sunken cypress trees for lumber in the foyer etc. To top it off (no pun intended), is the living roof, not green roof because many of the plants go dormant during the winter months. They placed 5700 square coconut fiber baskets on the roof with 40 different species of plants.
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| brit.org |
First Platinum building in Tarrant County and second in DFW area. They list the following categories in their brochure: Green to the Core.
- Water Efficiency
- Indoor Environmental Quality
- Materials and Resources - on site recycling
- Wood finish materials - recovered cypress
- Wool carpet and bamboo ceilings
- Recycled-content materials
- Indoor air quality
- Lighting
Those are INSIDE the building.
Then they have a whole list for outside to really make it a "sustainable site."
- Rain Garden
- Low-emissions vehicle parking
- Restored prairie habitat
- Living roof (pitched at 19 degrees)
- LEDs
- Indigenous plant material
- Retention pond
- Cistern that collects runoff from living roof
- Geothermal well (166 wells) has cut energy in half
- Solar panels (cylinders) produces 65,000 kWh a year
BRIT was definitely one of my favorites. You got to see first hand how when you look at the whole footprint and site holistically, how important it is to have all the pieces in place. I'm also excited about their educational feature. Takes some of the pressure of me and my fellow classmates. :) I'm thrilled it is in Fort Worth and hope to see many more.
My real question is do the plants tell the scientists a story by where they ended up and where they were originally? Does global warming or climate change affect these plants as they have adapted to increased temperatures?
My real question is do the plants tell the scientists a story by where they ended up and where they were originally? Does global warming or climate change affect these plants as they have adapted to increased temperatures?
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