Heifer International Headquarters

Shining Star of Sustainable Design

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Heifer International is a non–profit organization dedicated to relieving global poverty by providing livestock, plants, and education to disadvantaged families worldwide. When the organization needed a new headquarters, it decided to transform an abandoned railyard, an environmentally dirty site known as a brownfield, into a model of "green" architecture and landscaping.

From the ground up, the project was designed to meet and exceed LEED certification standards. The curved shape of the building maximizes sun exposure. To redirect the sun's rays, the team used exterior sunshades to block excessive sunlight, and interior light shelves to "bounce" natural light up to the ceiling and reflect it into the building. The building's narrow floor plate worked with the curtain wall to bring daylighting into the center of every floor.

An intelligent design, combined with the use of Kawneer products, all produced using recycled aluminum billet, helped to build a shining star of sustainable design — one that became the first LEED Platinum certified building in Arkansas.