Heritage Aviation and TruexCullins Gang Up to Go Green

This article appeared in yesterday's edition of daily.fix from the editors of Interior Design magazine.

By Nicholas Tamarin

Photos by Susan Teare

Published: Wednesday, May 26, 2010

 

The Green Mountain State has just gotten a bit greener with the new facility at the Burlington International Airport masterminded by hometown architects TruexCullins and client Heritage Aviation.

The eco-friendly general aviation facility for Heritage, a local FBO, or fixed-based operator in airport parlance, is already on track to earn a LEED Silver certification from the United States Green Building Council. TruexCullins, known for Vermont-centric projects like its corporate headquarters for Ben & Jerry’s and Burton Snowboards, collaborated with Heritage to develop a slew of state-of-the-art green features for the 79,000-square-foot space that boasts a hangar, flight-planning room, conference room, lounge, media room, gym, game room, and a much-appreciated snooze room for the well-traveled pilots, aircraft owners, and passengers to which the company caters.

Heritage’s headquarters features one of the largest green roofs in all of New England and a parking lot that was made with pervious pavement, a porous asphalt-like substitute for the real thing that allows water to be absorbed into the ground rather than sent to waste in storm drains. The facility also can lay claim to the nation’s first community-scale wind turbine in a general aviation facility and the entire space is partially powered by renewable resources including solar and wind energy.

“Using building systems that eliminate resource and energy waste–while enhancing employee awareness of energy and resource use–reduces our environmental and carbon emissions footprint,” says Heritage president, Chris Hill. "Climate Change is occurring worldwide and the effects are readily observable here in Vermont. Transforming systems of energy supply, delivery and consumption to be more sustainable and renewable–while also being more conscious of energy value and use–is where the world is heading.”

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