For a brief period in the firm’s history, SDC was based in Annapolis – Maryland’s capital city – and became active with the then Maryland Green Building Network, an indirect predecessor of USGBC Maryland. During this year, SDC began advisory work on what would become its first LEED Platinum project: Highland Beach Town Hall. Highland Beach is a historically African American waterfront community that sits in the shadow of Annapolis itself and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Phillip Merrill center – the world’s first LEED Platinum building! That summer, SDC joined a consulting group that Mayor Bill Sanders referred to as his ‘Dream Team’. The new 2,100 sf building replaced a smaller existing building, of which the historic front façade and a portion of the foundation were retained. Highland Beach Town Hall incorporated rainwater harvesting, bioretention, vegetated and solar roof components, a super-efficient building envelope using bio-based insulation, a ground-source heating and cooling system, and real-time monitoring of energy production and use. For more information on this signature project to which SDC contributed, please see here.