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Located in the near Southeast area of Washington, DC, Nationals Park is the home of the Washington Nationals, the city’s major-league baseball team. Weighing in at 1.1-million square feet, it is the first Major League Baseball stadium to earn LEED certification. More than a million visitors were expected during the park’s first year of operation.

Green Catalyst

Nationals Park was intended as a catalyst for urban revitalization. The project is located on a former brownfield that previously housed warehouses, light-industrial businesses, and a trash-transfer station. Before construction began, the businesses on the site provided about 160 jobs. The ballpark created more than 4,400 temporary construction jobs and more than 360 full-time-equivalent permanent jobs. Additionally, since the park opened in March 2008, several private developers have proposed speculative residential, office, and retail projects that will bring hundreds of additional jobs to the area.

Nationals Stadium is easy to reach by subway and bus, and the project team limited parking areas to encourage alternative transportation. The ballpark also provides bicycle parking and, on game days, a bike valet service.

Because the stadium is located on the bank of the Anacostia River, the project team worked to improve the quality of stormwater leaving the site. A 6,300-square-foot green roof covers a concession and restroom area beyond left field. Screens capture solid material from both rainwater and washwater leaving the seating areas. Stormwater passes through large sand filters buried under the project before it is pumped into the public storm-drain system. Washwater, which includes small amounts of detergents, is filtered and then sent to the sanitary system.

Low-flow faucets and dual-flush toilets were projected to save 3.6 million gallons of water each year, and the use of air-cooled instead of water-cooled chillers was expected to save an additional 6 million gallons each year.

Efficient field lighting was projected to save $440,000 over 25 years. Other energy-efficient strategies include additional insulation, high-performance glazing, overhangs and external shading, LED lighting for the scoreboards, and heat-recovery ventilation in the locker rooms. In all, the ballpark was expected to use 15% less energy, by cost, than a comparable conventional ballpark.

The project team selected construction materials for their recycled content, regional availability, and low chemical emissions. Measured by cost, 35% were extracted, processed, and manufactured within 500 miles of the project site. Of all construction waste, 83%, by weight, was diverted from the landfill.