The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO’s) new Mammel Hall has the distinction of being the university’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building, and the first LEED Gold-certified building in the University of Nebraska system.

The new Mammel Hall at UNO is LEED-Certified. Photo Courtesey of Holland Basham Architects.

Louis Pol, Dean of the College of Business Administration (CBA), said its previous facility–Roskens Hall on UNO’s Dodge Street campus–had served the college well for many years, but its programs had evolved beyond the space. Students needed a more contemporary building in which they could learn and collaborate.

Mammel Hall, the CBA’s new home, is located on the former infield of the Aksarben racetrack at 67th and Pine Streets. The $34 million, 120,000-square-foot facility opened in August 2010. It was designed by Omaha’s Holland Basham Architects, with Gensler architects as a design partner.

The building received LEED certification based on the following features:

• Development Density and Community Connectivity
• Alternative Transportation: Public Transportation Access
• Daylight and Views, Daylighting 75 Percent of Spaces
• Water Use Reduction
• Construction Waste Management
• Low Mercury and Energy Efficient Lamps
• Optimize Energy Performance
• Stormwater Management

Decision makers set the goal of LEED certification for Mammel Hall because they recognized that sustainability is becoming an important issue for all organizations, whether educational institutions, businesses or nonprofits. The CBA has worked with a number of organizations over the years to help them address issues of sustainability.

“We have also added a sustainability concentration to our Master of Business Administration program,” Pol said. “Our students are not only learning about sustainability in the classroom, but they understand that this college made a choice that Mammel Hall would be LEED certified. We have been commited to sustainability for a long time, as evidenced by our work with small businesses with support from the Environmental Protection Agency.”

David Nielsen, the Director of Information Technology for the CBA, said a feature he particularly likes at Mammel Hall is the sustainability of the technology. The move to Mammel Hall meant the addition of 224 new computer workstations. At Roskens Hall, workstations in laboratories and for faculty and staff were refurbished or recycled every three years. At Mammel Hall, the CBA could not sustain the three-year replacement cycle. The solution: thin clients. Rather than individual stations that function independently of all other workstations, thin clients depend on a server to fulfill their traditional computational roles. This translates into much more efficient and affordable units.

“If you walk into a lab, the first thing that you notice is that it’s incredibly quiet, because thin clients make no noise,” Pol said. “There is a lot less heat being emitted and a lot less electricity used. We can power 50 of our thin client workstations for one hour on the same amount of electricity it took to power two workstations for one hour in Roskens Hall. Thin clients also cost less than $300 each to purchase. That’s about a third of what it would cost us to purchase traditional towers. We believe that the thin client’s life expectancy is around seven to 10 years.”

The building has been warmly received by its users.

“Students are overwhelmed because now they have so many more spaces to work in, with new access to labs, breakout areas and open seating,” Pol said. “Every time I give a tour, our guests do not look at me. There is no eye contact, but they aren’t being rude. They’re simply looking at this amazing building.”

Roskens Hall is currently being renovated, and the College of Education will move into the facility later this year, Pol said.

–Contributed by Wendy Harrison