The Edith Green – Wendell Wyatt (EGWW) Federal Building has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the AIA COTE Top Ten Plus award.

Each year, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) selects ten top projects that that protect and enhance the environment. The COTE Top Ten Awards program is one of the most rigorous recognition program for sustainable design excellence. The relatively new Top Ten Plus awards goes one step further and recognizes one past AIA COTE Top Ten Project Award recipient which has quantifiable metrics that demonstrate the true impact the sustainable design has achieved.

EGWW was selected after an in-depth study of the past 20 years of AIA COTE Top Ten Award winners, encompassing almost 200 projects. According to the jury, EGWW won the award because "this project transforms a generic concrete office building into a high-performance, environmentally responsive, comfortable place to work."

The major modernation of this 500,000 square-foot building resulted in a 55% reduction in energy use and 65% less water use compared to the pre-renovation 1970s building. These savings equate to around $313,000 in energy operating costs and 4 million gallons of water annually.