Not many institutional and commercial facilities are for the birds, and that’s a bad thing, mostly for the birds. Managers know full well that birds present a host of pest control challenges for facilities, but on the flip side, millions of birds die annually after colliding with large glass panels in buildings.
One new building in Milwaukee is trying harder to do it’s part to protect the birds. The new Milwaukee Bucks arena, Fiserv Forum, includes design elements that make the massive building bird-friendly, making it less likely that birds will be killed after flying into the large glass windows.
The Bucks and arena designer Populous incorporated the features in the arena early in the design process after they were urged to do so by Bryan Lenz, who now works for the American Bird Conservancy but was then director of Bird City Wisconsin.
Populous already had planned to incorporate green building features into Fiserv Forum in accordance with standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ratings system. The arena’s LEED certification is pending, but it already has been granted a LEED bird collision deterrence credit.
Fiserv Forum is the first professional sports arena in the world to receive such a designation, according to Lenz and the Bucks. "I know it sounds like it's not a big deal, but it is — because we happen to be in a migration path," said Bucks President Peter Feigin, who credited Lenz for his persistence on the issue during building design.
This Quick Read was submitted by Dan Hounsell — dan.hounsell@tradepressmedia.com — editor-in-chief of Facility Maintenance Decisions, and chief editor of Facilitiesnet.com.
