Location:  Hoover Dam; Boulder City, Nevada
Owner/Agency:  Bureau of Reclamation
Architect:  JMA Architecture Studios
Contractor:  Martin Harris Construction
Sustainability Consultant:  Daniel Huard, Humann Building Solutions

The location of the Spillway House allows visitors to enjoy panoramic views of the upstream side of Hoover Dam’s crest, the intake towers, and Lake Mead. The building overhangs the Lake Mead reservoir by a few hundred feet with only one side of the building accessible from the roadway. The Bureau of Reclamation had the option of dismantling the entire existing building, or reuse the foundation (with seismic remediation) to construct a new a building that is compliant with the National Park Service and Federal Historic Preservation Standards.

The building follows Federal Executive Orders 13423 and 13514 and Department of the Interior’s Sustainability requirements (Guiding Principles), and has its LEED certification pending. A 24,000 kWh roof mounted photovoltaic array was designed to produce enough energy to offset the annual energy use of the Hoover Dam’s station service generator.

The building provides educational exhibits for the visiting public and school groups. Exhibits include a tactile model of Hoover Dam and an interactive sustainability model of the building’s green elements. The building was designed to be flexible and adaptive, where the majority of the public spaces can be reconfigured quickly for meeting, conference or special events uses while the rest of the structure is open to the public for viewing exhibits.

Humann Building Solutions, LLC principal, Daniel Huard served as the Project Executive, Program Manager and Sustainability Team Lead on the project as a contracted Subject Matter Expert to the U.S. Federal Government.