AMD completes major “green” tech campus
AMD completes major “green” tech campus
Written by Christi Covington Wednesday, 18 June 2008
With Gov. Rick Perry and Mayor Will Wynn as guests, AMD celebrated the official opening of its new Southwest Parkway site June 16.
The California-based AMD has had employees in Austin since 1979, when it built the company’s first U.S. chip manufacturing facility outside the Silicon Valley. Since then, the Central Texas team of more than 2,500 employees has become responsible for design verses manufacturing services, but has not had a consolidated campus.
"We came to Austin to grow and grow we did,” said Hector Ruiz, the CEO of AMD. “But we ended up in 12 different places.”
To bring together the company’s holdings, AMD began construction of its 870,000 sq. ft. Lone Star campus in 2006. The site was chosen because it was close to a large portion of the company’s employee base. Overlooking the Hill Country, the campus has four four-story office buildings, three parking garages and the Lone Star building, featuring an employee fitness center, cafeteria, gourmet coffee bar, casual meeting space, outdoor decks and a gaming center with table tennis, billiards tables and video game consoles.
Gov. Rick Perry attributed AMD with helping make Texas one of the fastest growing employment bases in the nation. He said last year half of the jobs created in the United States were found in Texas.
“Lots of folks think we’re still wearing cowboy hats, have a ranch and an oil well on the Back 40,” Perry said. “You know, they think we have oil stains on all our clothes, and some of us do and that’s OK. But I have to tell people that the Texas of the 21st Century is not your father’s Texas. It’s a different place.”
Mayor Will Wynn also noted the company’s influence in Austin growth and its leadership in setting a standard for corporate responsibility.
“Attractive cities attract people. We live in a capitalistic society. This city has a fabulous business ethic, and meanwhile remains in having a high quality of life,” he said. “It is not a question of if we are going to grow. We are going to grow. The question is how we’re going to grow.”
Built in the Barton Springs Zone of the Edwards Aquifer, an area dubbed environmentally sensitive, the new campus has eco-friendly features such as 100 percent native landscaping. Some of the trees, shrubs and grasses were harvested from the site prior to construction construction and are being replanted by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
On each building, the roof surfaces double as a rainwater harvesting system. Rainwater is stored in two underground tanks that can hold 1.5 million gallons of filtered water, which is then used to irrigate the campus and support a cooling system.
AMD has also submitted an application for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification. This Green Building Rating System is considered the national benchmark for high performance green buildings. If approved, the Lone Star site would be the largest LEED Gold certified corporate campus in Texas, based on current certified projects.
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