Madison, Wisconsin--March 22, 2002--Pharmacia's Building Q in Skokie, Ill., has officially been awarded a LEED 1.0 Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a self-assessing system designed by the US Green Building Council for rating new and existing commercial, institutional, and high-rise residential buildings. It evaluates environmental performance from a "whole building" perspective over a building's life cycle, providing a definitive standard for what constitutes a green building.

To date, only 20 of the 330 projects seeking LEED certification nationwide have achieved final rating -- and of these just four have achieved a Gold rating. Pharmacia's Q is the first R&D laboratory in the country to earn LEED Gold.

Pharmacia's Building Q is a four-story, 180,000 square foot research laboratory featuring chemistry, analytical and process labs, with an NMR facility clustered around a central atrium. Extensive site modeling and wind tunnel testing was performed to determine stack heights and exhaust patterns that minimized reentrainment. DOE-2.1E modeling was used to study net energy use for over 80 design alternatives. Daylighting analysis utilizing Lightscape computer simulations was performed for the offices, labs, and atria. In addition, a proprietary analysis by the 3M Company to incorporate their light-directing fresnel lensfilm technologies into the atria skylighting resulted in the largest application of its kind.

Pharmacia is also the recipient of Special Mention for Lab Planning & Sustainability in the 2001 "Lab of the Year" competition, sponsored annually by R&D Magazine.

The U.S. Green Building Council is the nation's foremost coalition of leaders from across the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. For more information about the US Green Building Council and other LEED certified projects, visit www.usgbc.org.

Flad & Associates is an Architecture/Engineering firm recognized for its planning and design of high technology facilities. Areas of specialty include and science and technology; office/ workplace; healthcare; and academic facility design; and strategic facility planning. Flad has offices in six states and staff of 360. See us on the web at www.flad.com.