The new Lake Forest City Hall Administration Building and site were designed to support and enhance outdoor activities, to serve as the City’s 100 year home, with facilities addressing community’s needs. The 53,265 SF City Hall project achieved Silver certification under the LEED v2009 BD+C New Construction rating system. Incorporating into the design and construction the many LEED pre-requisites and credits make this building beautiful and a remarkable project. The Green Building Education program educates occupants and visitors about the sustainable strategies achieved on this project.
The project met 10 out of 10 available Water Efficiency credits plus 2 Exemplary Performance credits, plus 2 Regional Priority credits. Lake Forest, like most of Southern California, is an arid region where the need to reduce water demand is essential. Water efficiency landscaping, innovative wastewater technology and water use reduction strategies were applied to reduce the burden on municipal water supply and wastewater systems.
Innovative Wastewater Technology
The municipal plant generates 155,727.25 gal of treated non-potable water, equal to the captured site water. It fulfills the demand for the flush water. The flush water demands equals the water generated with 100% of demand of flush fixtures is through municipal treated wastewater.
Water Efficient Landscaping
The project selected drought tolerant and native species where possible and 75% of the plant species are rated as either low or very low by WUCOLS standards including California’s official state grass “Purple Needlegrass” and the critically endangered species “Torrey Pine.” Irrigation drip and bubbler systems are only operated between 9:00pm and 6:00am to prevent water evaporation loss. The irrigation schedule operates on a weather-based controller automatically adjusting based on local weather conditions. 100% of water used for landscaping is non-potable treated recycled water from the municipality.