Blog 11

Parkhill Smith & Cooper is a design firm based in Lubbock, Texas. They provide engineering, architectural, interior design, and landscape design services. They are a part of every stage of the built environment. They currently have around 170 employees in their home office in Lubbock and approximately 270 counting their offices in Amarillo, El Paso, Midland/Odessa and Las Cruses.

            Parkhill Smith & Cooper is an extremely distinguished firm that has received many awards. They are ranked among the top 500 design firms in the United States, along with many other awards received on both a local and national scale. Among their most recognizable accomplishments, Parkhill Smith & Cooper built the first LEED certified building in west Texas. After receiving a tour of the LEED certified building, it became quite obvious that a lot of time, knowledge, money, and resources are required to build a building of such a high standard.

            Parkhill Smith & Cooper has many unique features that contribute to its LEED certification. Exterior views are available to 90% of the occupants in the certified building. This provides a significant amount of outdoor light streaming in, reducing the reliance on electricity. All of the interior finishes within the building are low in VOC, saving employees from the poisonous gases found in many products. Outside there is a green parking lot. To cut down on the use of concrete, some of the parking spaces outside the building are grass with only a concrete grid framing each space. The grass also acts as an absorber of the harmful oils and other chemicals that leak off of automobiles. Possibly the most interesting feature at Parkhill Smith & Cooper is the green roof. The roof of the LEED certified building is home to many low-irrigation plants. There is even a camera feed from the roof that can be observed from the building. All of the plants landscaping found at PSC is watered from an underground cistern that collects water runoff from both the ground and the roof. Each of these unique features required great planning ahead of time and while the upfront cost was quite expensive, in three years the savings at PSC with outweigh the initial costs.

            Parkhill Smith & Cooper is to be commended for their efforts in becoming LEED certified. It is clearly not an easily accomplished task, but they have worked very hard to become the first LEED certified building in West Texas. They have made a great point that interior designers and architects need to always take into consideration- thinking of both the future and the environment.  The results speak for themselves with 10% less sick days in employees that inhabit the LEED certified building as compared to PSC’s previously built building next door. Our environment has more power than most people give it credit for- it can affect us in almost every way. That is why it is important, as designers, to never forget how simple choices such as furnishings and wall-coverings affect the population in a very big way.