Escambia’s New ‘Green’ Central Office Complex Opens
November 16, 2010
Escambia County’s new green office building opened Monday of Fairfield Drive.
The new 79,000 square foot Escambia County Central Office Complex (ECCOC) located at 3363 West Park Place houses members of the Escambia County Building Inspections, Environmental Enforcement, Fire Safety, Community and Environmental Services, Geographic Information System, Animal Control, Engineering, Development Services and Transportation offices. The consolidation of these services that were once housed in three separate buildings provides a “one stop” complex that meets the public’s needs. Now residents and business owners can have their plans reviewed by the necessary entities and pull a permit all under one roof.
The complex, Escambia County’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified building, has one of the largest green roof systems in the State of Florida. In addition, the building boasts pervious concrete paving, energy-efficient construction and natural light that, according to studies, improves employee productivity. It is estimated that the building will use 22 percent less energy and 38 percent less water than current building codes allow.
The building also has bicycle racks to encourage residents and employees to ride their bikes instead of driving a car, special parking for low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles and native vegetation that require no irrigation. Thirty-four percent of materials used to construct the building were purchased from regional vendors and 43 percent of the total value of materials installed were manufactured from recycled content.
The construction of the new ECCOC was funded through grants from Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Department of Environmental Protection at a cost of approximately $11 million.
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3 Responses to “Escambia’s New ‘Green’ Central Office Complex Opens”
Whatcha wanna bet the price of permits will soon increase even more now and they will come up with more new ideas of what to make you pull a permit for, in order to pay for this fancy one stop building?
3363 West Park Place?? Is this the NEW building located in the old parking lot of Builder’s Square on Fairfield Drive or “L” Street, depending on which way the building faces? If this is it, why come up with an address that no one knows where it is? A Fairfield Drive address would have been much better for those of us trying to find the building. And for the elderly! What was the county trying to do, make it sound better by making up a new street and giving it a BETTER SOUNDING address???? Try putting it in Google Maps – it comes up as “3363 Park Street” Pensacola, FL. (someplace close to Baars Street?). Bet it’s not in your GPS either. Good Job Again – Escambia County! Apparently even William felt compelled he had to clarify where the location was in his first sentence.
When will they ever learn. Facilities should be in a more centralized location and be for the benefit of all the taxpayers, not a select few. Here again like so many in the past, such as the judicial center, it seems more intelligent decisions could be made.