At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, an Army and Air Force base located about one hour south of Seattle, there is a 35,000-square-foot maintenance facility with training and administration areas that deserves some notice. This prototype building, called the Tactical Equipment Maintenance Facility (TEMF), is the highest LEED Gold-rated project at the base, as well as the highest Gold-rated building of its type in the country. It achieved LEED Gold with 45 points, which is quite the achievement for a building that most would probably just pass by.
Belay Architecture was teamed with Bristol Design Build Services LLC from Anchorage, Alaska, on this design-build venture, contracted by the Army Corps of Engineers. One sustainable system that helped achieve LEED Gold is InSpire by ATAS International Inc. from Allentown, Pa. InSpire is a transpired solar collector that preheats air before it enters a building, lowering energy consumption and decreasing utility bills. This was the first time anyone from the team had worked with InSpire, and they say they learned of the product from the government specifications. It was one of the accepted products that could be used to create an energy-efficient structure.