It’s not surprising that forward-looking NASA recently set out to build the federal government’s most sustainable building. What is surprising, however, is that this ultra-green experimental building, dubbed the Sustainability Base, will open its doors in May of this year–just two years after construction began. This week, we had the chance to sit in on the Autodesk Sustainability Summit and listen to some of the people involved in the planning process explain what went into NASA’s newest Moffett, Calif., building. Here’s what we learned.

NASA’s had a number of requirements for its $20.6 million, Ames Research Center-based building: a healthy working environment, excellent air quality and natural light, low energy use, intelligent controls, a flexible building system, the integration of NASA’s emerging technology, and the most challenging requirement of all–LEED Platinum status as a baseline for sustainability.

“NASA was used to being responsible in outer space, and they wanted to

bring it back to Earth,” explains June Grant, an AECOM Project Manager

who helped design the project.

So AECOM and William McDonough + Partners got to work designing the two-story, two-wing building, which will consist of approximately 50,000 square feet of space and house 225 workers when it is complete. Using Autodesk software, the team was able to design a a steel frame exoskeleton-equipped structure with high ceilings to ensure daylight, natural cross-ventilation, control systems that react to the environment (by automatically adjusting the building temperature), and more.