Wilkes County Rest Area

Wilkes County Rest Area

This project consisted of construction of a new LEED Gold Certified 10,030 sf “Green” Rest Area facility and Visitor Center for NCDOT on a 22-acre site in Wilkes County, NC. A “Golden Rectangle” architecture featuring exposed beams and an FSC certified suspended wood ceiling was used for the Visitor Center portion. The construction of the building incorporated several energy saving concepts including daylighting, solar water heating, photovoltaics, a geothermal heat pump system, rainwater harvesting and real-time monitoring of all energy and water usage. In addition to the LEED Gold Certification the project also won the 2011 Federal Highway Administration Award for Excellence in Recycling and Reuse for reducing construction waste by 91.3% as well as the incorporation of recycled materials into a number of site amenities. The site work on the project also included approximately 3,000 lf of interpretive walking trails with educational signage, a wet bio-retention pond and extensive native plantings throughout the site as well as downcast site lighting across the site to eliminate light pollution.