Lead architect Robert A.M. Stern takes time during the Oct. 4 press tour to discuss the Center’s environmentally friendly LEED certification. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)

The George W. Bush Presidential Center will soon be joining the Embrey Building, Caruth Hall and Simmons Hall as the latest LEED-certified building on campus.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a nationally recognized certification system that promotes green building design, construction and operations.

The Bush Center has applied for the LEED Platinum rating, the highest level of certification. This means that the building was designed and built using strategies to improve energy savings, water efficiency, environmental quality and an effective use of resources.

According to chief architect Robert A.M. Stern, the Bush Center has been designed to be the most urban and environmentally friendly presidential library to date, but LEED certification depends on more than just the design of the building.

It is dependent on how the Bush Center is being built from the ground up. The bricks, which match the rest of the SMU campus, are made from local stone. Most of the products used in construction of the building were manufactured within a 500-mile radius of campus. Primarily using local materials is a big factor in the certification process.

One area of the park will serve as a reservoir for rainwater. Around 50 percent of the watering for the Bush Center will be from reused water.

“It’s a really holistic view of the future of the building,” Stern said.

The landscapers will also use all local products to create a Texas prairie in the park.

“This will be a prototype for how you apply sustainable development in the Dallas region,” Mark Langdale said.

But beyond the sustainable building, the Bush Center will also be home to a lot of useful and interesting resources for students.

The museum will also hold over 42,000 artifacts from the Bush era and will have an archive of over 190 million emails. This is the first presidential library to integrate electronic aid.

“This is an important venue, not just for tourists, but for locals and SMU students,” Alan Lowe, the director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library, said.

Stern also designed the center to have a unique view of the Dallas skyline from several vantage points around the building.

“We wanted to lock this building in, not just to SMU, but to Dallas,” Stern said.

Video shot and edited by Bridget Bennett, [email protected]