The driveway in West Akron is paved with 24,000 tan-colored bricks.

Not just any brick.

Each is a 5-pound, clay brick that's 8 inches long, 4 inches wide and 21/2 inches deep and manufactured by Canton's Belden Brick Co. It's named The Metro, after Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.

Each brick has small notches on the edges that create space between the bricks to allow water to drain through to the ground. Yet the cracks are small enough to keep the surface handicap-accessible.

The unusual driveway bricks are just one reason an old house that's being converted into park district offices could become the greenest — or most environmentally friendly — building in Ohio.

In April, the park district began remodeling one of two neighboring empty houses it owns on Sand Run Parkway just east of Revere Road. The project costs just under $1 million and is nearly complete, although the landscaping on the 3.8-acre site won't be done until spring.

Park employees — rangers and natural resources staffers — will be moving into the 3,200-square-foot building over the next few weeks.

The park district is hoping that the building will earn a platinum rating for its environmental friendliness from the U.S. Green Building Council in Washington, D.C.

''Things are looking good,'' said Lisa King, a park landscape architect who is overseeing the project. We're solidly in the gold . . . and we're still very hopeful of platinum.''

The park district should learn what rating it has won late this year.

To date, five Ohio buildings have earned gold ratings and 23 others have won certification from the council. Only 70 buildings nationwide — and none in Ohio — have received a platinum rating.

Nationally, a total of 1,228 buildings have been certified by the council.

The park district expects to schedule public tours of the new building, probably in late May or early June, after the landscaping is complete, King said.

Reduce, recycle, reuse

Ninety-six percent of the construction debris from the remodeling project was recycled rather than sent to a landfill. Material from the gutted house that the park district couldn't use was sent to Habitat for Humanity's Restore in Canton.

Bryan Huber managed the park district site for Thomarios, the general contractor, of Akron.

Huber said the biggest problem with creating such an Earth-friendly building in Akron was getting the contractors to change the way they do things.

Dave Whited, the district's chief of planning and development, said the environmentally friendly specifications probably increased the cost of the building project by 10 to 15 percent, but those costs should be recouped in energy savings over time.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Fund provided a $50,000 grant for the project.

The park district is looking at using some of the green measures incorporated in the house in planning to overhaul the Seiberling Nature Realm on Smith Road, Whited said.

No decision has been made on what to do with the other empty ranch-style house on Sand Run Parkway, King said.

Officials had initially discussed razing the upper floor and just using the basement for cold storage, she said, but that plan is being re-evaluated.