Scottsdale (Ariz.) Fire Station No. 2 will receive the first LEED Platinum rating for a fire station from the U.S. Green Building Council.

According Chief William McDonald, the city council passed an ordinance before the design phase of the fire station that new city buildings would be LEED Gold, if possible.

“We were able to focus on the LEED standards from the beginning,” McDonald said. “It’s a strong testament that our council has to the environment’s sustainability and the sensibility. We are really proud that our station was built with practices friendly to the environment.”

LEED is an internationally recognized green-building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.


The steps to green that earn LEED credits fall into five categories of performance: sustainable sites, energy and atmosphere, water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and materials and resources. A project also can earn points in the “innovation in design” category by demonstrating exceptional performance above LEED requirements. The Scottsdale station, designed by Larry Enyart, FAIA, LEED AP, and Lance Enyart, AIA, LEED AP, of LEA Architects, fulfilled all the prerequisites required and earned 52 points for the platinum rating.

“Station No. 2 is really a functional design and operational facility that is a well-designed fire station,” McDonald said. “It was our first station as a municipal department and located to be inviting to the downtown area.”