Owen-Ames-Kimball Company earns LEED Silver Certification for Bonita Springs church

FORT MYERS — The Owen-Ames-Kimball Company (O-A-K) construction team has achieved LEED Silver Certification for construction of the St. Leo the Great Catholic Church Parish Life & Education Center located at 28290 Beaumont Road in Bonita Springs.

According to public records, the project is the first LEED certified project in Bonita Springs and the first LEED certified church facility in Florida. The project involved the utilization of best practices in green building technologies to construct a 14,500-square-foot Life Center and 18,000-square-foot Education Center.

Following the project completion in January 2011, O-A-K submitted the project for LEED certification through the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

LEED, short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. To achieve LEED certification, the design team and the construction manager work together to accomplish design and construction practices and guidelines provided by the USGBC. Certain criteria must be met and points are assigned in the following categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation and Design Process.

The O-A-K project team included Rick Gutknecht, job site superintendent; Abel Natali, LEED AP as the LEED coordinator; Abrie Spies, project manager; Patrick Conran, vice president of operations/general superintendent; Steve Richards, chief estimator and Dave Dale, principal in charge. Lou Ann Kapcin with Architecture Inc. was the project architect and Ted Sottong, formerly with Architecture Inc., now Studio+, was the principal in charge for the architectural design. Joe Broughton, P.E. with Burgess Engineering provided the mechanical/electrical/plumbing design.

Owen-Ames-Kimball Company has offices in Collier, Lee and Charlotte counties.

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Owen-Ames-Kimball Company earns LEED Silver Certification for Bonita Springs church