BRR Earns LEED Certification

A national architectural firm’s Bentonville office is now a LEED-certified building.

BRR Architecture, at 700 S.E. Fifth St., has received the Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The 5,650-SF office space is in a renovated building that’s at least six decades old, originally built as a food-processing facility.

Brothers Bill and Pete Norwood own the building.

BRR entered the Northwest Arkansas market in 2003, formerly headquartered at 200 S. Lincoln St. in Lowell.

The company made the move to Bentonville on Dec. 7, 2010, primarily for a closer proximity to one of its chief clients, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“With all the happenings in Bentonville, with Crystal Bridges and all the other things that are here, it’s a good place to be,” said Bart Brown, a senior associate at BRR and the manager of the Bentonville office, which includes 12 employees.

BRR also has office locations in Kansas City, Kan., Phoenix, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Miami.

“This is the first LEED project for our [company],” Brown said.

In addition, the Bentonville project also won two Bronze awards in the Master Design Awards presented by Qualified Remodeler magazine.

Since its development in 1998, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design was established for industry leaders to design and construct buildings that protect and save resources while also making good fiscal sense.

Gold is the second-highest level of certification.