Sustainability Leader
Overland is recognized as an authority in sustainable design with 65% of our staff registered as LEED Accredited Professionals, and is among the top five companies in the world with the most Living Future Accredited Professionals. Since 1987, Overland was integral to the green movement and has been at the forefront of high performing, sustainable design. Beginning with our work for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (AIA National COTE Top Ten Green Building Award Winner) in 1995, we have continued to set progressively higher benchmarks for sustainable performance. With Phase 1 of their new master plan currently under construction, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida is our latest record setting endeavor. Featuring the world’s first Net Positive Energy restaurant, it will be the first built “Living Community” project in the project in the world.
Featured Project – Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens – Sarasota, FL
What is slated to become the nation’s first Net Positive Botanical Garden Community, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Selby) has begun a $42 million, three-phase master planned garden complex that is expanding its mission of botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment on its current 15-acre site. Phase I of the Master Plan is innovating for a greener future, one where architecture blends into the landscape, creates its own energy, and respects and is informed by its ecological context to inspire others and serve as a model of truly sustainable, resilient design.
As the most biodiverse botanical garden in the world per acre, Selby’s structures will strive for net-positive energy, be free of toxic chemicals, and lower the energy footprint many times below the generic commercial structure.
Phase I of the of the three-phase Master Plan includes:
- The Living Energy Access Facility (LEAF)—a new 27,700 sq. ft. building that will house parking, a gift shop and a garden-level restaurant featuring organic produce and herbs grown on the building’s rooftop garden.
- An advanced, one-acre solar field array will provide more than 105 percent of the power needs of the new buildings, with the excess power feeding the existing historic structures on campus and reducing their carbon footprint, and helping the organization become net-positive.
- The LEAF also includes a stormwater filtration system that will collect and cleanse stormwater onsite to help protect the Sarasota Bay ecosystem, which will clean and reuse more than a million gallons of water a year.
- A new Plant Research Center will house an herbarium, laboratory, and spirits collection, as well as a research library that will preserve the collection of irreplaceable rare books and botanical illustrations, some dating from the 1700s.
- It is the third Emerging Living Community to seek certification by the International Living Future Institute.
Sustainability News and Blogs
7 Questions for a Sustainability Professional, Sandra Montalbo — Overland Partners
LEED Certified Projects
In our work over the past decades and continuing to today, Overland has remained on the forefront of sustainable and resilient designs. We serve as an industry leader in conservation best practices, with dozens of LEED Certifications over the years and current projects pursuing leading-edge certifications including Living Building, Living Community, WELL, and SITES to include:
LEED Platinum
Austin Community College Rio Grande Campus Austin, Texas
University of Pennsylvania – Morris Arboretum Horticulture Center – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bracken Bat Cave and Nature Reserve – Comal County, Texas
Environmental Education Center – Upper St.Clair, Pennsylvania
Grand Canyon Transit Station and Visitor Center – Tusayan, Arizona
Skywater Sales Pavilion – Austin Texas
LEED Gold
The University of Texas at Austin Student Activity Center – Austin, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin Liberal Arts Building – Austin, Texas
The University of Texas at Dallas Founders Hall – Dallas, Texas
Hermann Park Lake Plaza – Houston, Texas
Penn State School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture – State College, Pennsylvania
The Autry National Center – Los Angeles, California
Champion Place Office Development – Austin, Texas
Tucson Origins Center – Tucson, Arizona
University Health System – Robert B. Green Downtown Clinic – San Antonio, TX
LEED Silver
The Bridge Homeless Assistance Center – Dallas, Texas
Lower Colorado River Authority Redbud Center Interpretive Design – Austin, Texas
1155 Barton Springs – Austin, Texas
Ballet West – Salt Lake City, Utah
Bozeman Public Library – Bozeman, Montana
Bridger Bowl Base Lodge Facilities – Bozeman, Montana
Chickasaw National Recreation Area – Sulphur, Oklahoma
College of Santa Fe Student Center – Santa Fe, New Mexico
Penn State University Arboretum Overlook Pavilion – State College, Pennsylvania
Rice University Anderson – Clarke Center – Houston, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin Geological Sciences Building – Austin, Texas
LEED Certified
Xanterra Parks & resorts Concessioner Housing – Gardiner, Montana
University of Montana School of Journalism – Missoula, Montana