Vaughan city hall strikes gold

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 18, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Vaughan’s city hall has been a lightning rod for controversy during the past few years, but now there’s some good news report.

Last month, the building finally received its gold level certification - although just barely - under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Canada green building rating system.

That means it achieved the second highest level - platinum is the highest - under the widely recognized, environmental sustainability rating system.

To attain the gold level a building must score between 39 and 51 points in a range of categories.

City hall - officially called the Vaughan Civic Centre - squeaked in by scoring the minimum number.

Points are awarded in six categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality as well as innovation and design process.

The building’s best results were in the latter category where it scored a five out of five.

It also did fairly well in indoor environmental quality netting 12 out of a possible 15 points.

But city hall, heavily criticized for running millions of dollars over budget, didn't fare as well in the other categories - especially energy and atmosphere, where it garnered just five out of a possible 17 points.

As for the sustainable sites category - which includes such things as alternative transportation, light pollution reduction and stormwater management - it scored eight out of 14 possible points.

In the remaining two categories, materials and resources and water efficiency, city hall scored seven out of 14 and two out of five, respectively.