Sustainable Building

The museum’s sustainable building is a work of art and tells a modern Western story! Both indoor and outdoor spaces are LEED® Gold certified in 2016 for conserving precious natural resources, while raising public awareness of their vital importance to the Western region.

The building’s sustainability features include:

• Optimal energy efficiency with a 38 percent reduction in energy use over the baseline energy code requirement
• Water saving features, such as the “weeping wall” in the sculpture garden that collects rainwater from the roof and 100 percent of the condensation from the building’s HVAC system to water the plants on the museum campus
• Materials selection with more than 75 percent of nonhazardous debris from the building’s construction recycled or salvaged.