Holocaust Museum Houston Expansion Receives LEED Certification

The $34 million expansion to the Houston Holocaust Museum (HMH) recently earned official LEED certification by the USGBC.

The new, three-story 57,000-square-foot building, officially named the Lester and Sue Smith Campus, houses expanded exhibition spaces, classrooms, large library, and administrative offices. The new facility is more open, multi-layered and brighter than the museum’s original structure. In scale and in nuance, the spaces are meant to evoke HMH’s message: “from darkness, light.”

The design includes numerous sustainable strategies, including quality views of the surrounding landscape with large swaths of glazing overlooking portions of the Museum district, the Children’s Garden of Hope, as well as orienting the majority of offices toward the Downtown Houston vista. 

Additional points were awarded for the reduction of onsite waste during construction, ongoing maximum recycling opportunities, minimal water consumption for both indoor plumbing and outdoor landscape selection, and making the building envelope and energy consumption as efficient as possible.