ECO-STRUCTURE AN AIA MAGAZINE
A MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
GOOD BUSINESS Do Green Offices Beget Healthier Employees?
OFFICE BUILDINGS MAY/JUNE 2011
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REIMAGINING THE BUILDING ENVELOPE Circle no. 11 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Meeting Today’s
BUILDING DEMANDS
A MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
EDITOR Katie Weeks kweeks@hanleywood.com MANAGING EDITOR Greig O’Brien gobrien@hanleywood.com SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Aubrey Altmann aaltmann@hanleywood.com ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Marcy Ryan mryan@hanleywood.com SENIOR EDITOR, PRODUCTS Laurie Grant lgrant@hanleywood.com
With stricter codes and new standards calling for increased use of green building materials, as well as the AIA 2030 Challenge to create carbon neutral
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lindsey M. Roberts lmroberts@hanleywood.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Michael Todaro mtodaro@hanleywood.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jim Schneider
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The Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator (papercalculator.org) estimates that eco-structure will save the following resources by using recycled-content cover stock and paper over the course of 2011: 225 trees ▪ 106 million Btu of energy ▪ 35,886 lbs. CO2 equiv. ▪ 90,006 gallons of wastewater ▪ 9,554 lbs. of solid waste
www.insulated-panels.com/Ecos 800.729.9324 info@insulated-panels.com CIRCLE NO. 25 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Vol. 9, No. 3. May/June 2011. eco-structure® (ISSN 1556-3596; USPS 022-816) is published six times per year (Jan/Feb, Mar/April, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, and Nov/Dec) by Hanley Wood, LLC, One Thomas Circle N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20005. Subscriptions are free to qualified recipients. Publisher reserves the right to determine recipient qualification. Annual subscription rates for nonqualified recipients in the U.S. $15, Canada $64 (U.S. funds), all other countries $192 (U.S. funds). Back copy price: $10 for U.S. residents. Copyright 2011 by Hanley Wood, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited without written authorization. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to eco-structure, P.O. Box 3494, Northbrook, IL 60065-9831. Canada Post Registration #40612608/G.S.T. number: R-120931738. Canadian return address: Pitney Bowes Inc., P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
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Circle no. 93 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
A MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS
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CIRCLE NO. 44 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
COMPARING GLASS SOLUTIONS? It pays to see the big picture.
When you add it up, the better value is clear. If you’re considering specifying SageGlass® electronically tintable glass for your building but think the cost for innovation is too high, take a closer look. Traditional methods of controlling sunlight and heat quickly add up and easily cost the same or more than SageGlass glazing. But dollars are only part of the equation: SageGlass glazing conserves more energy while preserving the view and connection to the outdoors — which is the reason we put glass in buildings in the first place. For a clearer view of the value picture, go to www.sageglass.com or call 1-877-724-3321.
Traditional methods not only increase costs, but cost the environment as well. The extra products needed to control light and heat require additional manufacturing, transportation and installation. SageGlass glazing eliminates add-ons and is more carbon neutral.
Circle no. 50 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
GREENBUILDEXPO.ORG TORONTO OCT. 4–7, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011 celebrates what's NEXT for green building. The world's largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, Greenbuild is where the world’s innovators and pioneers will lead the way into what’s next – for the green building movement, for the new green economy and for our global community. Learn more at greenbuildexpo.org.
Circle no. 61 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
CONTENTS May/June 2011
46
FEATURES Making It Fit 46
KPMG builds out a 15-story tower in London’s Canary Wharf district to make financial and environmental sense.
Preventative Measures 50
A Tennessee health organization designs its campus to keep employees and business in top form.
Gold Standard 54
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50
The Chicago office of IA Interior Architects merges intonations of traditional design with state-of-theart sustainable systems and finishes in the new headquarters for Mesirow Financial.
On the Cover: BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee in Chattanooga, Tenn., designed by Dude/Paine Architects, HKS Architects, and tvsdesign. Photo by Robert Benson. MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 7
CONTENTS
21
DEPARTMENTS Viewpoint 10 Greenscene 12 AIArchitect 17 Products 41 Deep Green 21
This page, clockwise from top: Henry Obasi; Ethan Kaplan; Michael Starghill Previous page, clockwise from top: Hufton + Crow Photography, courtesy KPMG; Christopher Barrett; Robert Benson
DLR Group explains why commissioning is an essential part of evaluating environmental performance.
Technology 27
Mimicking tidal flows, Living Machines offer energy-efficient systems to treat and reuse wastewater.
37
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Flashback 31
At PNC Firstside Center, the first LEED-certified building for PNC Bank and Astorino, green isn’t just the color of money.
Perspective 37
Sally Wilson, senior vice president and the global director of environmental strategy for CB Richard Ellis.
Ecocentric 64
At the House of Air, where biplanes used to take to the sky, now people take flight.
ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
Visit us online for more articles, news, and products. Among this month’s highlights: Deep Green: RTKL compares the process of designing three projects to LEED Platinum. Deep Green: Perkins+Will discusses how it walks the walk by greening its own offices. Technology: Architectural energy modeling. Technology: Daylight-modeling software. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/ecostructure Become a Facebook fan at facebook.com 8 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
AN AIA MAGAZINE
UNEXPECTED ANGLE
Expanding design possibilities while shrinking their impact on the environment. The Appaloosa Branch Library in Scottsdale, Arizona is not just a LEED Gold-certified building, it’s also a stunning example of how PPG’s building products are helping to change the face of modern architecture. To enhance the beauty of the exterior and reduce cooling costs, the library’s architect used PPG Duranar® VARI-Cool™ coatings, which reflect the sun’s energy and dramatically shift color according to viewing angle. Our Solarban® 60 Atlantica™ low-e glass allowed him to incorporate vast areas of emerald-green glass while reducing the size of the library’s HVAC system and its energy bills. These are just two from the wide array of innovative glass, metal coatings, and full line of architectural coating choices you’ll find through PPG IdeaScapes™. From building materials to consumer products, automotive to aerospace, marine and protective industrial coatings, we’re bringing innovation to the surface. Visit ppg.com to learn more.
Bringing innovation to the surface.™™ PAINTS - COATINGS - OPTICAL PRODUCTS - SILICAS - CHEMICALS - GLASS - FIBER GLASS
“Bringing innovation to the surface.” is a trademark of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.
Circle no. 95 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Talk Versus Action
I consider myself a pragmatic optimist, often looking for the inspirational possibilities of a situation, while also being mindful of practical obstacles that need to be addressed. I think that is why I so enjoy putting together each issue of eco-structure, where we seek to showcase forward-thinking work while addressing everyday contraints and challenges. Lately, though, I’ve been fired up. It started in mid-April, when I was invited to attend a lecture by Edward Mazria, AIA Emeritus, founder of Architecture 2030, at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. I have always found conversations with Ed to be informative and thought-provoking, and his most recent presentation, titled “Architecture on the Brink,” was no exception. The U.S. renovates and builds 10 billion square feet of space each year, Mazria told the students gathered, emphasizing the potential for impact on the environment. So, he asked, what would happen between 2012 and 2100 if we continued pursuing architecture and urban planning with a business-as-usual approach? By 2050, he said, 25 percent of all species would go extinct. The coral reefs would die, we would be facing increasing water shortages, more wildfires and flooding, longer and more-intense hurricanes, and, by 2100, sea levels would rise anywhere from 0.75 meters to 2 meters. We’re on the brink, indeed. The take-home message: We’ve got a lot of work to do. The following week, I attended Living Future, the annual conference of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI, formerly the International Living Building Institute). The three-day experience was one of the most enriching professional experiences I’ve had, and I came away reenergized and with a renewed sense of importance about the work our readers are pursuing. The experience also hammered home how much work there is yet to be done. Jason McLennan, Assoc. AIA, executive director of ILFI, author of the Living Building Challenge, and subject of our January/February 2011 Perspective column, infused the conference 10 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
with a sense of optimism—this is a movement based on hope, not on shame or guilt, he said in his keynote —but also with a sense of urgency. “We’re losing every major environmental battle on a global scale,” he said, noting that he was inspired to write the Challenge because he saw the need for more dramatic and forward-thinking action. He dubbed attendees “green warriors” who must fight the popular tide and change the global conversation on the environment. Two weeks later, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Thomas Friedman challenged attendees at the AIA National Convention in New Orleans to embrace a green global ecosystem for the sake of the country’s economic future. “Green is the new red, white, and blue,” he said, according to the AIA’s reports. “Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.” He continued, “Right now we are having a Green Party, not a Green Revolution. Change or die— that’s a real revolution. When clients come to you, they should say we need to change to green or die.” It seems appropriate that this call to action take place in Louisiana. As reported in our sister magazine arcffiitect in May, climate change has an especially dramatic impact there: According to a U.S. geological study by the National Wetlands Research Center, coastal Louisiana lost an average of 34 square miles of land per year from 1950 to 2000, and a total of 1,900 square miles of land was lost from 1932 to 2000. The overall rate of wetland loss in the state, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, is the equivalent of one football field every 48 minutes. I couldn’t fight a growing sense of urgency that for all the great discussions we have regarding the environmental impact of our buildings and the potential of this industry to influence and lead change around the globe, it’s also time for action on a much, much larger scale. On the upside, the building industry is increasingly discussing environmental performance, but when it comes to action items, there’s a stunning lack of progress. As reported in this issue’s Greenscene department on page 14, the AIA recently released a report regarding progress of the organization’s 2030 Commitment Program. The
intiative was launched in 2009 and participating firms pledged to make action plans and implement steps toward producing carbon-neutral buildings by 2030. The firms also pledged to institute at least four action items to reduce their own environmental footprints. The numbers, frankly, are bleak. I commend the 135 firms that signed on to the pledge, but can’t help but be disappointed. The USGBC has 20,000 member companies and organizations (I recognize that not all of which are architecture, engineering, or design firms), and the 2007 Economic Census, the most recent of its kind, reported that at that time, there were 25,144 practicing architecture firms in the country. To have 135 of more than 25,000 participating in a program is dismal. I realize that not every firm aiming to meet the 2030 Challenge has signed on to the AIA pledge, and so this number is but one in a sea of statistics. But I hope it fires you up, too. Being an optimist, I continue to be inspired and encouraged by the work that comes across my desk and that you find in the pages of the magazine each month. Being pragmatic, I challenge eco-structure’s readers to take the points offered by Mazria, McLennan, and Friedman to heart. We need plenty of discussion, yes, but we also need action. How will you help the industry grow and move forward today?
Mike Morgan
VIEWPOINT
AN AIA MAGAZINE
速
速
Going to Battle
The Experience Music Project| Science Fiction Museum in Seattle
FBI Regional Office in Chicago
12 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
THE EPA LAUNCHES THE SECOND-ANNUAL COMPETITION TO REDUCE BUILDING ENERGY USE. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program is again pitting buildings against one another to see which property can reduce its energy use the most. The 2011 National Building Competiton: Battle of the Buildings was announced in early May, and it is the secondannual competition of its kind. It will track energy use in 245 buildings that represent 26 different types of commercial buildings around the country. Participating structures include government buildings, hospitals, houses of worship, museums, office buildings, retail stores, and schools, and are located in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Competitors will measure and track their monthly energy consumption via Portfolio Manager, Energy Star’s online energy-tracking tool. From the intial 245 buildings, a small group of finalists will be selected in late July. Finalists must then submit statements of energy performance on their utility data. The competition will compare each building’s energy use intensity (EUI) between two 12-month-periods, with the ending dates of Aug 31, 2010 and Aug. 31, 2011. The building with the largest percentage reduction in energy use will be recognized as the competition’s winner in November. All of the participants are online at energystar.gov/battleofthebuildings. The competition also will have a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. In 2010, Morrison Hall, a student residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, won the competition by cutting its energy use by 35.7 percent in one year, reducing its EUI from 213 in August 2009 to 137 in August 2010. eco-stffiuctuffie staff AN AIA MAGAZINE
Photos: Courtesy EPA
GREENSCENE
Green Ribbon Worthy THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SEEKS TO RECOGNIZE SCHOOLS FOR GREENING THEIR BUILDINGS, CURRICULA, OPERATIONS, AND SCHOOL GROUNDS. The U.S. Department of Education has launched the Green Ribbon Schools program to recognize public and private K–12 schools for creating healthy and sustainable learning environments and for teaching environmental literacy. Awards will be given to the schools that best exemplify the transition to a sustainable economy. According to the Department of Education, the awards will be voluntary and national, and will stress innovation in community engagement, environmental curriculum development, facilities management, operations, and teacher training. The program is modeled on the Blue Ribbon Schools program, which recognizes schools whose student bodies have displayed high academic achievement or improvement. According to the Department of Education, smarter energy management in schools could
reduce consumption by as much as 25 percent and cut school energy costs nationally by more than $1 billion annually. “In a time when budgets are tight, the Department of Education is encouraging schools to engage in a creative win-win scenario: cutting expenses while using the school facilities as dynamic learning labs for students,” says Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. The program’s adoption is the result of work by the Campaign for Environmental Literacy and a steering committee that included the Earth Day Network, National Wildlife Federation, and the USGBC. The program is currently in development. Program applications will be released later this year, and the first group of Green Ribbon Schools will be announced in 2012. eco-structure staffiffi
Top Notch
THE AIA’S COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT SELECTS THE PAST YEAR’S BEST GREEN PROJECTS.
Ten project across the country have been named as the AIA Committee on the Environment’s Top Ten Green Projects of the year for 2011. Each year, the Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates an integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology. This year’s winners were honored at the AIA’s National Convention in New Orleans in May, and will be featured in the July/August issue of eco-structure. THE 2011 TOP TEN GREEN PROJECTS ARE: 1. Cherokee Studios, an urban infill, mixed-use, market-rate housing project in Los Angeles, by Brooks + Scarpa 2.
First Unitarian Society Meeting House, a major addition to the Frank Lloyd Wright– designed National Historic Landmark Meeting House in Madison, Wis., by The Kubala Washatko Architects
3. Greensburg Schools/Kiowa County Schools K–12 facility in Greensburg, Kan., designed by BNIM
High Tech High Chula Vista, a public charter school for grades 9–12 in Chula Vista, Calif., by Studio E Architects
4.
Livestrong Foundation in Austin, Texas, by Lake|Flato Architects
5.
6. LOTT Clean Water Alliance, a mixed-use interpretative center, commercial office and laboratory in Olympia, Wash., by the Miller Hull Partnership 7. OS House, a single-family residence in Racine, Wis., by Johnsen Schmaling Architects 8. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo., by RNL 9. Step Up on 5th, a mixed-use project offering permanent affordable housing and supportive services for the homeless and mentally disabled in Santa Monica, Calif., by Brooks + Scarpa
Vancouver Convention Centre West in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by LMN Architects
10.
MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 13
How Committed Are You?
A NEW STUDY CHECKS IN ON AIA MEMBER FIRMS’ PROGRESS TOWARD THE 2030 COMMITMENT PROGRAM.
Two years ago, the AIA introduced the 2030 Commitment Program, a voluntary initiative in which AIA member firms pledge to make multiyear action plans and implement steps to advance the goal of producing carbon-neutral buildings by the year 2030. Within six months of joining the commitment, firms agree to implement a minimum of four operational action items to reduce the negative environmental impact of firm operations. In addition, firms were asked to submit assessments of their design work over the course of 2010, and the results are now detailed in a new report. Measuring Industry Progress towards AIA 2030 Carbon Reduction Goal was released at the AIA National Convention in New Orleans in May, and includes data from 56 firms (a 48 percent response rate from the 125 firms that the AIA estimated would report progress for 2010). In total, work from the 56 firms accounts for nearly 385 million gross square feet. Among the findings: • Firms reported a combined average of 35.1 percent predicted energy use intensity (PEUI) reduction from the national Energy Use Intensity (EUI), the basic unit for analzying energy use in buildings that is measured in kBtu per square foot per year. The numbers reported were based on site EUI, meaning they did not include energy used in electricity generation, transmission, and storage. 14 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
• The largest PEUI reduction reported by one firm was 70.6 percent, while the smallest PEUI reduction reported was 11.6 percent. • 58 percent of the gross square footage of projects is currently being energy modeled, and only 38 percent of projects will collect actual data. • 12.1 percent of active projects (defined as “a project that was in an active design phase during the calendar year,” according to the report), are currently meeting the goal of a 60 precent reduction in energy from the national average. • In their own offices, 99 percent of participating firms have implemented or are in the process of implementing firmwide recycling policies; 93 percent are implementing or are in the process of implementing policies to shut down computers after hours to reduce energy use; 90 percent have or are in the process of replacing incandescent lamps with fluorescent lamps; 88 percent have changed or are changing their printing policies to address paper consumption; and about 33 percent have implemented a policy to incentivize employees to ride share, bike, or walk to work. The participating firms will continue to report to the AIA annually and the results will be updated on a two-year time frame. eco-structure stffiffff
Maryland Adopts IGCC
THE INTERNATIONAL GREEN CONSTRUCTION CODE IS SIGNED INTO LAW.
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has signed into law the adoption of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC), enabling local governments across the state to adopt the code. The law complements the state’s existing green-building policy, which requires stateowned buildings and state-funded schools to be designed and built to LEED Silver levels. The state also oaers a corporate and personal income tax credit through the end of 2011 for green buildings that fulfilled their goals by July 2009. The IGCC addresses energy use, water use, material and resource use, indoor environment quality, and building impacts on the environment such as greenhouse gas emissions, site design, existing buildings, and sustainability education for owners and facility management. Designed to provide a regulatory framework for integrating sustainability into commercial buildings, the IGCC was developed by a Sustainable Building Technology Committee created by the International Code Council (ICC) board of directors. The American Institute of Architects and ASTM International served as cooperating sponsors. As previously reported at eco-structure.com, the IGCC is not intended to compete with other codes or standards, but to coordinate or integrate with existing International Codes to provide minimum regulations for buildings and systems using prescriptive and performancerelated provisions. For example, the IGCC uses the requirements of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Codes as its baseline energy provision. In addition, recognizing potential conflicts in the marketplace, the ICC worked with ASHRAE, the USGBC, and the Illuminating Engineers Society to incorporate ASHRAE Standard 189.1 into the technical content of the IGCC as an alternative path of compliance. The IGCC is currently undergoing a period of comment and revision on a second published public version, and is set for a 2012 launch. eco-structure stffiffff AN AIA MAGAZINE
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may/june 2011
photo: scott francis
Internal Revenue Opening up work environments is one way to tighten performance. by bill millard
imaginary workplaces in mad men and the office are structured for climbing hierarchies: rat-racing from the souldraining staff floor to a perimeter office, where sunlight is an uppermanagement prerogative. But there’s a more interesting story brewing in spaces designed for real-world firms: a growing awareness that sustainability (including more daylight for all) isn’t just admirable, it’s good business. While greener interiors can change a company’s culture, they aren’t about stewardship alone. “That certainly helps,” says James S. Camp, AIA, LEED AP, managing director of Gensler in Baltimore, but a sustainable office is “an environment that is allowing the employees to be more productive [and] healthy.” LEED certification, the U.S. General Services Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers have helped legitimize a growing green-office movement, Camp reports. Private-sector clients have also done their share, favoring spaces that integrate function, efficiency, and sustainability. The Gensler-designed Armstrong World Industries headquarters in Lancaster, Pa., was a LEED pilot project in 1999, and new Gensler offices for several financial institutions have earned LEED-CI Gold. tighter, brighter, quieter Camp and others see many clients and designers embracing open interiors, flexible in floor plans and details. Though organizations’ needs vary, the Mad Men paradigm is giving way to fewer territorial spaces. Certain business categories appear “able to adapt very well to a fairly small workplace,” says Ken Wilson, FAIA, LEED AP, principal at Washington, D.C.’s Envision Design. “An architecture firm cannot function with everyone in a private office,” he notes, “because there’s so much collaboration going on.” The typical 150-square-foot office is shrinking to 120 square feet, Wilson reports, and outer executive corridors are no longer de rigueur. Camp adds that companies are eliminating spatial hierarchies (in terms of personnel and positions as they relate to a floor plan), so when staff sizes fluctuate “they’re moving people and boxes, not having to move walls.” Some firms use glass partitions, as in Gensler’s own LEED Gold Baltimore office. Others replace full-height structures with LEED CI– standard, 42-inch-high partitions. Still others follow European-style floor plans by placing everyone near daylight. Slaterpaull Architects recently acquired downtown Denver’s Engine House No. 5 for headquarters and gave staff prime spots near outsized windows. “This is one
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of the first ones I’ve seen,” says president and CFO Jamie Pedler, AIA, “where all of the principals are towards the inside.” Wilson observes that “In retrofitting buildings, the best lowhanging fruit is in lighting.” Envision’s design for the U.S. Green Building Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., strives to halve
AIAPERSPECTIVE
Though organizations’ needs vary, the Mad Men paradigm is giving way to fewer territorial spaces.
investments in more than the building Informal facilities such as Portland’s Burnside Rocket by Francis Dardis, AIA, (now a principal at Stack Architecture) represent the antithesis of the ’50s model. This four-story LEED Platinum building’s two commercial floors host a winemaker in one open space while 12 businesses share the other. “It’s a pretty good business model in Portland,” Dardis says, “renting a desk for $350 a month versus $1,200.” High-thermal-mass concrete construction and water-based geothermal systems create exceptional energy performance. Even if the upfront costs slow a project’s transition to profitability, the longrange benefits are substantial. Small spaces conserve costly Class A real estate in business districts, but unused spaces squander those gains. “Hot desking,” in which frequent travelers—often senior personnel—have portable carts rather than personal offices, maximizes spatial value in sectors such as technology and accounting, where firms “have people who are spending the majority of their time in their client’s space,” Camp notes. A green office dramatically affects every company’s greatest asset: its workers. Effects on productivity indicators such as turnover and absenteeism, Wilson calculates, suggest that investments in daylight, air, and other intangibles bring returns that dwarf real estate or buildout expenses. Envision shows clients a scenario where a retrofit saves over $1.3 million annually (or $30 per square foot), which is enough to amortize a 40,000-square-foot building within a decade by giving each employee one fewer sick day a year and a 5 percent productivity increase. Buildinglevel and office-level upgrades reinforce each other, says Daniele Aquino Horton, LEED AP, sustainability manager for the Thomas Properties Group in Los Angeles. For a tenant moving into City National Plaza in L.A., where a multisystem renovation earned LEED-EB: Operations & Maintenance Gold last year, “all the things we’ve done would get them to the LEED-certified level right off the bat,” she says. “Then what they’d do beyond that would get them to higher ratings.”
photo: iia start
may/june 2011
the lighting load, using perimeter carpeting “that essentially acts like a light shelf” as well as task lights, daylight-sensing dimmers, and vacancy sensors. “The new code is one watt per square foot, and we were trying to achieve half a watt a square foot for our fully connected lighting load,” Wilson says. “We did that, but the actual usage is about a quarter of a watt per square foot.” A decade ago, when code called for three watts per square foot, Envision’s Greenpeace USA headquarters in Washington, D.C., achieved 1.3, considered “amazing” at the time. “So codes are helping to drive this change,” Wilson says. Camp cites Encelium’s nonproprietary software for flexible lighting management. Technology fosters spatial frugality, Wilson adds. With email replacing calls, workspaces grow quieter, letting interiors emphasize benching and team areas over isolation. Noise reduction in open plans stimulates innovations such as Slaterpaull’s “acoustic cloud” tiles suspended above workstations to dampen reverberation. Overall area ratios, Wilson estimates, are dropping from 250 square feet per person to 200—and sometimes as low as 100. The adoption of nonhierarchical spaces will accelerate, Camp expects, as baby boomer leadership passes to tech-friendly Gen Xers and millennials.
last october a symposium hosted by boston architectural College tested this truism of the sustainability movement. The argument advanced by those who advocate retrofit and recycling is that a thorough analysis of the cost of new commercial construction, from acquisition and the transportation of raw materials to the tightening of the final bolt, will reveal a higher environmental if not bottom-line budget cost. What’s clear to me and others—such as the urbanophile.com blogger Aaron Renn, who articulates in his article “Century of the City” (DesignIntelligence, January 2011)—is that this line of thinking represents a historic convergence of several powerful currents: the preservation movement, the rising cost of energy, and the fact that for the next 40 or 50 years today’s existing urban inventory will represent the bulk of America’s mid-21st-century commercial buildings. One other current deserves notice: Increasingly, people hunger for a clear sense of place. Bostonians want their city to look like Boston, not San Francisco, and vice versa. This hunger can’t be blown off as a visceral fear of anything new. Cities as diverse as Denver (the thriving Lower Downtown district, or LoDo) and New Orleans (just about any city block or neighborhood) are marketing the economic potential of their older intact building stock. They’re being leveraged as powerful engines of revitalized, living downtowns. Call it the value of having a unique brand. Also call it a historic opportunity for architects. Although many older buildings, especially those of the 19th century, had sustainability designed into them, the vast stock of 20th-century construction is ripe for a green revolution. This fact has not been lost on the Obama administration, which this year proposed incentives designed to encourage commercial building owners to increase the energy efficiency of their buildings by 20 percent over the next decade. The AIA supports what the administration is calling the “Better Building Challenge.” It’s a win-win initiative for all—owners, who would have better control over the cost of operating existing buildings; the construction industry, which accounts for a substantial percentage of this nation’s GDP; cities, whose revitalized and sustainable downtowns would give them a competitive edge; and, of course the environment. Are the greenest buildings already built? Not yet. But America’s architects are transforming the potential of today’s richest in-place resource into the reality of tomorrow’s economically vibrant, livable, healthy, and sustainable communities. Clark D. Manus, FAIA, 2011 President
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Circle no. 94 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
DEEP GREEN
Optimal Performance is Bliss DLR GROUP EXPLAINS WHY COMMISSIONING IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE. Text Dan Munn and Michael Lavoie Illustration Henry Obasi
Ownership is bliss. It’s breathing that new car smell, buying a home in a coveted neighborhood, or experiencing a solid financial return on an investment. In the built environment, commissioning and verification of design can ensure that owners delight in the shine of their building and that their investment returns both financial and sustainable gains. Consider this: At one school in Minnesota designed by DLR Group, commissioning resulted in operational efficiencies and utility cost savings of more than $71,000 a year, and a savings to the environment of approximately 620 metric tons of CO2 annually. That’s bliss. Through an integrated approach, design teams and owners collaboratively define project goals and objectives related to aesthetics, functionality, and budget at the project outset. Environmentally friendly buildings are expected, if not demanded, in today’s climate. Many owners are setting energyconsumption parameters that are reflected in the facility design. The act of simply setting energy goals is not enough, though; building owners should also validate performance through processes such as commissioning or retro-commissioning. Owners of newly constructed buildings can use commissioning to measure a facility’s actual performance against its design intent. At its most basic, commissioning can uncover problems, including improper system installation or unanticipated occupant actions that are negatively impacting system operations. Operational changes MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 21
DEEP GREEN
can then be implemented to enhance both operational and energy efficiency. To evaluate the performance of existing buildings, owners can use retro-commissioning, which identifies low-cost operational and maintenance improvements to optimize system performance. Many times, a few simple adjustments can improve indoor air quality, enhance occupant comfort, and optimize energy performance. Both commissioning and retro-commissioning can reassure owners that their systems are operating and interacting optimally.
CIRCLE NO. 24 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Design, Build, Validate In September 2007, Belle Plaine Public School District in Belle Plaine, Minn., opened the doors of the 500-student Oak Crest Elementary School. Minnesota Department of Education guidelines require all schools with construction value greater than $500,000 to be commissioned, and in addition to designing the school, DLR Group also served as commissioning agent for the building. The goal for Oak Crest Elementary was to build a high-performance system that was designed to exceed Minnesota’s energy code efficiency standards. At the time that Oak Crest was in design, Minnesota’s energy code called for 119kBtu per square foot per year, which is the equivalent of an Energy Star rating of 38. To set an energy benchmark for Oak Crest, an energy model was created. Energy modeling allows design teams to compare dieerent conceptual designs, and then allows the team, in conjunction with the owner, to select the best option based on price, life-cycle costs, energy savings, and return on investment (ROI). The final Oak Crest energy model predicted an annual energy consumption of approximately 69.7kBtu per square foot per year, equal to an Energy Star rating of 84. In the upper Midwest, commissioning is done following a year of operation to allow the building systems to cycle through four distinct seasons. This season cycle is essential to obtain an accurate diagnostic of the complete mechanical system. Once completed, the commissioning process determined that Oak Crest was actually consuming approximately 84kBtu per square foot per year, which corresponds to an Energy Star rating of 68, a significant variance from the targeted rating of 84. Investigation and analysis discovered five system anomalies in the heating plant that were negatively impacting the building’s operational efficiency: 1. Air-handling units were operating when the building was not occupied. Although an automated schedule dictated that these units should be powered oe during designated periods when space temperatures were satisfied, the units were still enabled. In many instances, the outside air dampers remained open, allowing cold air to enter the building and to further impact load. 2. Demand-control ventilation was not operating as designed. Large volume, single-zone areas such as the gymnasium were operating using a minimum outside air intake of 30 percent, rather than the average 5 percent. 3. The relief air fans were operating during unoccupied times when the fans should be disabled. 4. Outside air dampers were open during the night setback mode. 5. There was more outside air entering the building than specified by the design, which had followed ASHRAE Standard 62 guidelines. Belle Plaine Public School District wisely included commissioning services as part of AN AIA MAGAZINE
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DEEP GREEN
93
Oak Crest Elementary School’s Energy Star rating after commissioning identified efficiency issues, up from an original rating of 68.
the design services contract. As part of that contract, the contractors executed modifications and repairs to the mechanical and temperature controls system issues identified through commissioning at no cost to the district. Immediately after the heating system was modified, the district realized positive results. A subsequent evaluation determined that building energy consumption dropped by 14kBtu to approximately 71kBtu per square foot per year, equivalent to an Energy Star rating of 82. The commissioning process also identified a few deficiencies with the operation of the cooling system: 1. The energy-recovery wheel was not operating during cooling modes. 2. The economizer cooling system was not recognizing the full opportunity to provide outside air for cooling in lieu of using mechanical cooling. 3. Air-handling units were heating during morning cooldown modes, resulting in an additional cooling load that needed to be overcome when the building was indexed to occupied mode. Once again, after these issues were corrected, the district reaped significant rewards. One year after all heating and cooling system modifications
were implemented, DLR Group and the district evaluated Oak Crest’s energy consumption. This time, the building consumed approximately 62kBtu per square foot per year, corresponding to an Energy Star rating of 93, exceeding the original energy model by more than 7 percent. This resulted in Oak Crest using nearly 48 percent less energy than a standard code-compliant building. The impact of commissioning is not only about energy use and ROI. Through verification, we can ensure that a building and its systems are working as intended, and that indoor air quality and thermal comfort are achieved. Retro-commissioning of older buildings also has its benefits. Whether the intent is to revert the mechanical systems back to the level of operation that the owner enjoyed when the building was new, to fix ongoing issues, or to enhance energy performance, retro-commissioning can allow buildings to perform at their best. Ultimately this elevates the experience of occupants and users of a building. ▪ Dan Munn is senior principal and Michael Lavoie is senior associate in the Seattle and Minneapolis offices, respectively, of DLR Group, an interdisciplinary firm providing architecture, engineering, planning, and interior design services. dlrgroup.com
CIRCLE NO. 39 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
Circle no. 27 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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Circle no. 3 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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TECHNOLOGY
Ecologically Inspired
MIMICKING TIDAL FLOWS, LIVING MACHINES OFFER ENERGY-EFFICIENT SYSTEMS TO TREAT AND REUSE WASTEWATER.
Text Kim A. O’Connell Illustrations Jameson Simpson
When the new 13-story building for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is completed in mid-2012, it will feature attractive exterior landscaping, just like any other large public building would. The key difference, however, is that the plantings will be part of an energyeecient Living Machine system that will treat all the building’s graywater and blackwater for reuse on site, saving a projected 750,000 gallons of water per year, in addition to 500,000 gallons saved for irrigation. Owned by Charlottesville, Va.–based Worrell Water Technologies, Living Machines mimic the processes of tidal wetlands to naturally treat wastewater in an easy-to-operate, self-contained system. The systems are small enough to be located entirely on site in most applications and do not produce the by-products associated with traditional wastewater treatment such as biosolids. “Our goal was to create a wastewater treatment system that was energy- and space-eecient,” says Eric Lohan, general manager of Living Machine Systems. Most water-treatment systems use a process of pumping oxygen into large vats of wastewater, which produces significant sludge and is not energy-eecient, according to Lohan. Naturaltreatment wetlands have been around for over 40 years, he explains, but on a larger scale — a scale that generally has not been appropriate for most suburban and urban applications. Other on-site treatment technologies, such as membrane MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 27
bioreactors, may fit in a building basement, Lohan says, but they use a high degree of energy relative to their size. “We were trying to find that middle ground so that our systems were small enough to use in suburban and certain urban sites,” he says, “but were much more energy-efficient than a membrane bioreactor.” Living Machine Systems use a primary settlement tank and planted wetland cells lined with a gravel medium. Sequential wetland cells are filled and drained with wastewater about 12 times a day, mimicking tidal ebbs and flows. The process creates a biological interplay in which
bacteria growing on the gravel medium and plant roots consume and remove the nutrients in the wastewater. When the water drains out, the basin is oxygenated, which promotes the rapid metabolism of more nutrients and solids. When the water completes the process (which might include a disinfection step in a separate tank, depending on the final use), it can then be repurposed on site for toilet flushing, irrigation, washing equipment, landscape water features, and other uses. “Tidal wetlands tend to be the most productive ecosystems, promoting more biomass per square meter than a tropical rainforest,” Lohan says. “One of the reasons is because of the daily cycle. As the
Hybrid Wetland Living Machine Diagram
Disinfection system
Wastewater in
Horizontal flow wetland
Tidal wetlands
Reuse storage tank
Primary Tank
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CIRCLE NO. 8 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
CIRCLE NO. 1 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
tides come in, nutrients come in, and as the tide goes out, oxygen comes in and provides a substrate for the bacteria.” Living Machines were initially designed by a company called Living Technologies, which Worrell acquired in 1999. The first-generation machines were hydroponic systems that supported only tropical greenhouse plants and still used significant energy. After the acquisition, the company had enough capital for a new research and development effort that resulted in more-eecient next-generation Living Machines. Although it varies, the typical scale of the system is about 150 square feet for every thousand gallons of wastewater, Lohan says, with extra capacity built into the process. He notes that wastewater comes in many different concentrations, with lower-flow fixtures resulting in more concentrated wastewater. The systems can pump more cycles throughout the day if necessary, he says, and controls are Web-enabled so that operators can check levels using remote computers. Because there is no surfacing wastewater, Lohan adds, the potential for contact with human waste is eliminated. Fans are used to vent out most odors. Hundreds of plants can be used in Living Machines, including a variety of native plants. The SFPUC building, for example, is located in
an urban “canyon” with relatively little light. The team chose 12 plant species for that project, with the understanding that some of the species will do better than others and that only, say, eight of the 12 might ultimately thrive, Lohan says. “The good plants will take over,” he explains. “As we get more and more experience, it will become something of a self-designing process.” To date, the company has installed over 30 Living Machines, including 15 of the nextgeneration model either operating or under construction. Projects range from the Port of Portland oece building in Oregon and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego to a demonstration project at Furman University in South Carolina and another in Ghana, Africa. Lack of familiarity with the system during construction and occupancy is perhaps the biggest challenge for owners, says Laura Lesniewski, AIA, a principal with Kansas City, Mo.–based BNIM, which incorporated a Living Machine system into the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center in Kansas City. (For more on this project, see cos-truffiorffiuc’s May/June 2010 Flashback column, “Natural Centerpiece,” at eco-structure .com) “Commitment by the owner to maintain the system—to treat it as a living system— is critical,” she says.
CIRCLE NO. 99 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
TECHNOLOGY
The benefits, Lesniewski says, include education, beauty, and biophilia within the building. Lohan adds that installing a Living Machine can contribute to several points under the LEED system, by reducing potable and irrigation water demand and by treating wastewater on site. “The Living Machine,” Lesniewski says, “showed that we do not need to treat our waste by sending it away, but instead could turn it into a beautiful and life-giving component of the design.” ▪ Kim A. O’Connell writes frequently about historic preservation and sustainable design from Arlington, Va.
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FLASHBACK
A World of Firsts AT PNC FIRSTSIDE CENTER, THE FIRST LEED-CERTIFIED BUILDING FOR PNC BANK AND ASTORINO, GREEN ISN’T JUST THE COLOR OF MONEY. Text David R. Macaulay Photo Ed Massery, Massery Photography
It takes vision, calculated risk, and sometimes a leap of faith to create real change. In 1998, when Rebecca Flora, then the executive director of Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance, initially contacted PNC Bank to discuss a different, more sustainable approach for the bank’s new downtown office tower, crews had already begun erecting steel. “First I said, ‘Maybe you can catch me on the next one,’ but she persisted: ‘Can I meet with you for an hour?’ ” recalls Gary Jay Saulson, director of corporate real estate for PNC Financial Services Group. “So I said ‘I’ll give you half an hour.’ ” Saulson oversees management of all properties, construction, and development for the financial corporation. “Rebecca told me about LEED and
convinced me why I should make this a green building— that it was the right thing to do for our employees, our shareholders, and the community,” he says. “She was still in my office two hours later.” The next day, Saulson announced his plans to the project team. Despite concerns about higher costs, schedule delays, and the necessity of redrafting construction documents, they proceeded with pursuing more sustainable measures. With the aid of Tom Paladino of Seattle-based Paladino and Co. as green-building consultant, the project finished early and $4 million under budget in September 2000. Saulson’s decision had several unintended consequences. The five-story, 647,000-square-foot project became the first to MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 31
FLASHBACK
achieve Silver certification under LEED-NC Version 2.0, and also became the world’s largest green building at the time, as well as the first LEEDcertified financial institution. As the lead architectural and engineering designer for the project, Pittsburgh-based Astorino was charged with researching sustainable design trends and incorporating new features to achieve a LEED rating. However, many of the necessary elements were already in place: high-efficiency glazing, optimal building orientation, and lighting and daylighting controls. In addition, PNC had chosen to locate the new building on a former brownfield site. “Our challenge was really just testing our design against the LEED scoresheet and credits, to see how it stacked up before we did a lot of design modifications,” explains Bob Ward, president of engineering for Astorino. “It was a pleasant surprise that a lot of what we had already designed fit in there nicely.” The building’s large floor plates, each 125,000 square feet, are divided into three major elements that align with the urban grid massing and surrounding natural elements. Major entrances are located to tap into to larger urban circulation patterns. Light wells bring daylight to 90 percent of the building’s floor area, while exterior sunshades reduce glare and heat gain. The majority of the
office features underfloor air delivery to ensure occupant comfort and control. In addition to energy savings, the raised access floor offers flexibility for the company’s high churn rate as departments are able to easily move around the open-plan layout. PNC planned this as a 24/7 mission-critical facility, explains Ward. “But mostly,” he says, “they wanted the interior environment to be conducive for minimizing employee turnover and absenteeism while increasing employee efficiency.” An AIA COTE Top Ten Green Project award winner in 2001, PNC Firstside Center continues to create market ripples, its design remaining fresh after more than a decade. As the first LEED-certified project for Astorino, it represented a shift in focus for the firm. The firm went on to partner with PNC on the J. Richard Carnall Center (completed in 2003, and certified LEED-NC Gold) in Wilmington, Del., and Three PNC Plaza (completed in 2010, and certified LEED-CS Gold), a 23-story, 780,000-squarefoot multiuse facility in downtown Pittsburgh. To date, Astorino has completed 14 LEED-certified buildings, with another 25 projects pending LEED certification. For PNC Financial Services, Firstside set a dynamic new course for its portfolio of corporate properties. To date, the company’s 125 LEEDcertified buildings make it the largest private owner
CIRCLE NO. 57 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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Annual Design Review
CELEBRATING THE BEST IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE ELIGIBILITY
Projects must have been completed after June 30, 2010 and must have been built in the United States or designed by a U.S. firm.
PUBLICATION
ARCHITECT’S Annual Design Review is a juried competition of the best U.S. architecture completed in the past 12 months. Judging is blind, to give every project an equal opportunity to win, and awards will be given in six project-type categories.
Winners in each category (selected by a jury) will be published in the December 2011 issue of ARCHITECT.
CATEGORIES
WORK Office, Government, and Commercial Mixed-Use PLAY Sports, Hospitality, and Retail LIVE Multifamily Housing, Single-Family Housing, and Residential Mixed-Use GROW Education, Science, and Healthcare MOVE Infrastructure and Transportation BOND Institutional, Cultural, and Religious DEADLINES
August 31, 2011: regular submission deadline (postmark) September 7, 2011: late submission deadline (postmark, additional fee required)
FEES
First entry: $295 Additional entries: $195 per entry Late entries: $50 additional fee per entry by September 7 For more information, visit architectmagazine.com/adr or email adr@architectmagazine.com
and developer of newly constructed LEED projects in the world. It also led to creating the Green Branch concept in 2002, now totaling more than 100 environmentally friendly bank branches — each including recycled materials and design elements such as daylighting and high-efficiency HVAC — across 12 states, with plans for more under way. This program, under which branches are designed and constructed to LEED-certified requirements as a minimum, was part of the pilot program for the LEED Volume program for high-volume property developers. The premise of making a healthier, more productive workplace conveyed during that first two-hour meeting between Flora and Saulson still resonates with Saulson. “Twelve years ago, we wanted to be the employer of choice, to build an open-area environment where people want to go to work,” he says. “We said we’d figure it out.” And it remains an integral part of the bank’s threepronged approach to sustainability “as a community builder, as a climate responder, and as a workplace innovator.” ▪
FLASHBACK
David R. Macaulay is the author of Integrated Design: Mithun, and the blog greenarchitext.com. To see more photos of PNC Firstside Center, visit eco-structure.com. To read an additional case study produced by the AIA about the 2001 COTE Top Ten Green project, visit aiatopten.org.
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• Advocate for green materials and design strategies. The project’s LEED checklist reflected low scores in Materials and Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality, due to the lack of market support at the time of construction for products such as certified wood and low-VOC adhesives, sealants, paints, and coatings, items Astorino regularly includes in projects today. The firm also continues to press the City of Pittsburgh to permit low-flow fixtures and other water efficiency measures. • Evaluate constructability details early and often. Astorino’s engineers discovered the importance of working with contractors on HVAC testing and balancing tasks during construction and to avoid troubleshooting system airflows, pressures, and other elements before a building is turned over to the owner. • Think and act as an integrated design team. The project’s evolution from market rate to LEED certified clearly illustrated the benefits of all different entities working closely to coordinate varied sustainable design elements. Today, Astorino designers actively utilize energy modeling and BIM, while incorporating predesign and user-experience research into projects.
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LESSONS LEARNED
Pittsburgh’s PNC Firstside Center was a catalyst for the owner, PNC, and the project’s designer, Astorino. It was the first green project for both companies. More than a decade later, PNC continues to monitor and measure performance of the five-story, 647,000-square-foot facility. A study commissioned by PNC at the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh gauged employee retention and satisfaction as 50 percent higher when compared to a traditional customer service center. The project became an opportunity for Astorino’s engineers and architects to make a transition, notes Catherine Sheane, the firm’s sustainable design manager. “Unknowingly, we were veering in this direction, but it certainly brought green design for us to the forefront,” she says. Today, the 39-year-old company retains a leadership role with LEED projects throughout western Pennsylvania. However, both Sheane and Bob Ward, president of engineering for Astorino, also reinforce the lessons learned at PNC Firstside:
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CIRCLE NO. 29 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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Circle no. 92 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
PERSPECTIVE
Operations and Management
Interview Katie Weeks Portrait Michael Starghill
When it comes to analyzing the environmental impact of corporate office space, Sally Wilson, AIA, brings several viewpoints to the table. After years as a partner in a Washington, D.C.–based architecture firm, she transitioned into real estate, where she is now a senior vice president and the global director of environmental strategy at CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). In 2010, the company had 2.9 billion square feet of commercial property and corporate facilities in its management portfolio. Wilson, 52, is the brokerage giant’s representative with the USGBC, is a director on the board of the Green Building Certification Institute, served three years on the LEED Core and Shell steering committee, and was the first licensed broker to be designated as a LEED Accredited Professional. She recently spoke with eco-structure on the process of tackling an environmental footprint from the perspective of tenant, broker, and manager. MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 37
“It’s about investing in efficiency, going to highperforming buildings, and using alternative energy sources. A company’s greatest opportunity to manage its carbon footprint better is through real estate.”
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CIRCLE NO. 98 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
How has the broadening awareness of sustainability in the built environment impacted the brokerage community in the past five to 10 years? The brokerage side can’t ignore it. In the past couple of years, there has really been an increased awareness on the agency side, which typically represents landlords. The other side of the business is the tenant side, and tenant brokers working with corporations and the GSA [the U.S. General Services Administration] have had a strong awareness for a while because of mandates in those realms. One thing to look at in creating a portrait of America is that in 2010, roughly 70 percent of the S&P 500 filed for 2009 with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP, www.cdproject.net), which addresses carbon accounting, environmental commitments, and programs to reduce carbon emissions. More and more of corporate America is disclosing that [information]. We file with the CDP and have about 370 offices globally, so it’s a big job to get your arms around what that means. You have to be able to measure your utilities, understand your utility sources, and the carbon intensity of the utility. If you think about having about 370 leases, not all of which are submetered, it becomes a very complicated process. All of the stuff that’s happening regarding carbon right now leads to the concept that the greatest way you can reduce your footprint is by managing your facilities better and making them more efficient. It’s about investing in efficiency, going to high-performing buildings, and using alternative energy sources. A company’s greatest opportunity to manage its carbon footprint better is through real estate. CBRE enacted an environmental stewardship policy on May 31, 2007 for its offices. What has this meant over the past four years? In 2007, we went through our entire portfolio to identify the holes in gathering data, and then put an action plan in place to bring us up to speed. We consolidated offices. We looked at leasing time lines to figure out how to get into better facilities. If we could move, we built a LEED-certified facility or highly energy-efficient space depending on location, cost, and size. Simultaneously, we developed internal operations policies regarding day-to-day things like doublesided printing, turning off computers at certain times, AN AIA MAGAZINE
[or] changing incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. [It was] a list of green things to do in the office to reduce energy and waste. (For more details on CBRE’s sustainable initiatives, visit cbre.com/usa/sustainability/sustainability.) What’s been the biggest challenge? The biggest challenge is the economy and being able to invest in upgrades in our offices to reduce our footprint. Another challenge is that we have so many corporate leases. Digging down to get accurate utility-usage figures has been really hard to do as not all of the offices have meters. One may have a meter, while another’s use might be mixed in with the entire building. Our offices are anywhere from 800 square feet in size to 200,000 square feet. There are a lot of variables. Economics is also an issue on the owner side. You can get people to do low-cost or no-cost solutions, but over the past few years, it’s been hard to get them to think about deeper upgrades. Another current challenge for us that will remain in the foreseeable future relates to how energy is regulated in the U.S. When you look at our footprint, which may include 180 offices in the country, we have landlords buying power from up to 180 different utility entities. In addition, states have different laws regarding renewable energy and carbon-intensity levels. If you think about CBRE being a big property manager buying energy, if we had regulation whereby we could aggregate the 3.74 million square feet of space we lease, we could create a renewable-energy market. We can’t right now because of the state of the grid and regulation, and that’s a real challenge. If you think about CBRE and other major property owners like Jones Lang LaSalle, Cushman & Wakefield, and Newmark Knight Frank using our scale together, we could create a market pretty quickly. Do you think that will happen in the future? I think that’s a long way off. It’s a very political hot potato. CBRE previously announced the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by the end of 2010. What is the status of this? We’re on track. It’s been difficult given the operational complexity and geographic diversity of the company. We have our best practices and standards in place to get an accurate measurement for 2010, but can’t get final measurement until we have all the operating expenses and things like that from the landlords, which we just received in March. We’re working on finalizing our footprint and already know we’ll have to buy carbon offsets to reach our goal. We’ve negotiated carbon-offset projects that we think are both socially responsible and in line with internationally accepted standards in the carbon market. Some of the projects involved conservation initiatives, landfill methane-
emissions mitigation, and sustainable economic investments. Our plan is to finalize our measurements and put in the [carbon offset] requirements, and we’re likely to make an announcement about achieving the target in June. Given the state of the real estate market over the past few years, do you think properties focused on efficiency have fared better? Is it a selling point? Definitely. Something that’s really interesting is that three years ago, in 2008, we were in the heat of understanding footprint management, understanding the practices and policies to put in place, and engaging our clients about building operations and maintenance, Energy Star, and the like. All of our clients said “That’s great, but I’m trading my building next month and I’m not going to put a cent into it.” When the capital markets were going crazy, people were buying and selling all the time and no one was investing in the buildings. The good news for energy efficiency is the market stopped, so building owners are sitting on their properties. They have to retain tenants— and tenants are downsizing. It’s become a tenant’s market with the increase in vacancies, and buildings are having to invest in energy efficiency and other amenities as marketing pieces. At the same time, stimulus money that was available also helped fuel investment.
PERSPECTIVE
I’m often asked if LEED-certified buildings get more rent. If I invest in this, will I make more? In some markets, you may get a little bit more. But with higher rent, you also have higher real estate taxes, so there are trade-offs. Not to get too much into the weeds, but what we’ve seen is that in markets like Washington, D.C., if you do a LEED Gold building, you can get more foot traffic, proposals, leases, and tenants. If you can lease that space faster because of that, [then] that is your real economic value. If you have a regular building that no one is coming to see, and it takes you a year longer to lease it than if you had a LEED-certified building, [then] you’ve lost that money. The real value is in the lease-up time and interest in the building. ▪
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Circle no. 51 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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Interiors Text Laurie Grant
LineUp, a striped pattern in the 100 Percent collection from 3form, is for the company’s architectural panels made of high-density polyethylene recycled bottles. The panels, which measure 4 feet by 8 feet, can be used for tabletops, countertops, and where durable surfaces are needed. 3-form.com; 800.726.0126. Circle 100 ecostructure.hotims.com
Herman Miller and its subsidiaries, Nemschoff and Herman Miller Healthcare, have released the Harmon Lounge, which features three back options — wood, wood slat, or upholstery —and three arm-cap-inset options —upholstery, urethane, or wood. The chair is Greenguard-certified for indoor air quality and for children and schools, and is 35.2 percent recyclable at the end of its useful life. Its open arms facilitate easy cleaning and help prevent dirt buildup. hermanmiller.com; 616.654.3000. Circle 101 ecostructure.hotims.com MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 41
PRODUCTS
Archaeology by Marazzi is a glazed porcelain tile with a travertine look created by using digital print technology. Eight sizes from mosaic to floor-tile are available in four colors: amber, cream, silver, and walnut. Archaeology can accommodate decorative inserts. The tiles contain 21 percent pre-consumer recycled content and have class IV abrasion resistance, which means that they can withstand heavy amounts of traec and dirt in settings such as commercial kitchens. marazzitile.com; 972.232.3801. Circle 102 ecostructure.hotims.com
Milliken Contract’s Southern Analog is produced in carbonnegative manufacturing facilities, and its yarn contains 65 percent post-industrial and 5 percent post-consumer recycled content. Using solution-dyed yarn means that no water is required to produce the tiles, which are manufactured in certified carbon-negative plants with internally generated credits and renewable-energy sources. The collection offers bio-based, adhesive-free TractionBack modular installation that eliminates VOCs. millikencarpet.com; 800.528.8453. Circle 103 ecostructure.hotims.com
Lace It Or Leave It from Karastan Contract, part of the Mohawk Group, is a tile and broadloom carpet collection that uses large-scale patterns and features piece-dyed technology that incorporates a new yarn with contrasting luster intensities. It also employs a cut-and-loop pattern to create a plush tonal effect. Karastan expects the modular collections to be NSF 140 Gold Certified and broadloom Platinum Certified with 15 percent post-consumer recycled content. karastancontract.com; 800.554.6637. Circle 104 ecostructure.hotims.com
CIRCLE NO. 10 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
AN AIA MAGAZINE
Circle no. 33 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
PRODUCTS
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Options for Omnova Solutions’ Essex commercial wallcoverings include Ring Toss, Ring Toss Texture, and Swivel Shift. All three patterns use the company’s Recore recycled wall technology, which contains 30 percent recycled content and is certified by Scientific Certification Systems to contain a minimum of 20 percent postconsumer content. Ring Toss and Ring Toss Texture include 18 natural tones, while Swivel Shift has 13 options. The 54-inch-wide wallcoverings have a 100-percent-recycled polyester nonwoven backing. omnova.com; 330.869.4200. Circle 105 ecostructure.hotims.com
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CIRCLE NO. 74 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
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creating better environments Circle no. 16 or http://ecostructure.hotims.com
MAKING IT FIT Text David Sokol
KPMG BUILDS OUT A 15-STORY TOWER IN LONDON’S CANARY WHARF DISTRICT TO MAKE FINANCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SENSE. If not the European headquarters of KPMG, 15 Canada Square could have been just another box. Before the accounting and professional-services firm, one of the four largest in the world, agreed with developer Canary Wharf Group to take ownership of this metropolitan London office, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates’ (KPF) base building design had not included the atrium that runs the full height of the 15-story tower. Nor had KPF conceived the signature three-story “cassettes” that march up the building’s southwestern corner. The original building had more of a traditional lobby without atriums; the cassettes were designed by KPF in response to KPMG’s needs. “It changed from a spec office building to a specific program for work, education, and client reception,” says KPF managing principal Paul Katz. KPMG encourages cross-disciplinary work, with members of different divisions seated side by side, so four cassettes — upper-story atriums that connect three-story blocks of offices by stairwells off of an 11-story atrium—foster collaboration at a large scale. In another example, the main atrium includes a coffee bar on the ground floor before security, allowing in-person client conversations to take place without protracted security check-in. The distinctive features such as the transparency provided by the multiple atriums also broadcast KPMG’s ethos to the public. The cassettes’ stairwells also lessen elevator usage, and indeed, KPMG requested a more sustainable building than the building’s developer had intended. “They are the most environmentally aware client I’ve worked with,” says Angela Sasso, the London-based director of commercial interiors for Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA), which KPMG retained for the interior fit-out. KPMG had developed a sustainability management plan in consultation with the British organizations the Carbon Trust and the Waste & Resources Action Programme, and the plan not only included its Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ambitions, “but also recycling content in the building, aspects of waste management, noise — it went far beyond the standard, ‘Let’s just get the certification.’ ” When it opened in May 2010, 15 Canada Square had secured BREEAM Excellent ratings for Design & Procurement, Post Construction Review, and Management & Operation. In the UK-based sustainable assessment system, a building can receive rankings of outstanding, excellent, very good, good, pass, and unclassified. Yet the client also insisted on a balanced ledger, “which is why you don’t find PV cells on the building. Payback was something like 275 years, whereas payback on chilled beams was a more sensible 25,” Sasso says. As an integrated team, the designers did the math on myriad technologies’ performance and amortization, and presented the findings to a steering committee and the KPMG board. “We went through a whole process of verifying the installation and operation costs of the most efficient systems,” Katz explains. “As eventual owners of the building, KPMG wanted to achieve a sustainability goal, but within a specific budget.” In addition to those chilled beams, the finished product includes smart-building management that
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Left and previous spread: Courtesy dbox. This page: Hufton + Crow Photography, courtesy KPMG
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can adjust room temperatures according to body heat. Another 25-year investment is a trigeneration unit that produces gas-fired electricity on site, and whose waste heat is used for building heating or cooling. The system will help cut 15 Canada Square’s carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent against 2006 building regulations and by half against the KPMG buildings it replaced, and KPF principal and project manager Shawn Duffy says that commissioning thus far confirms performance projections. Taken individually, 15 Canada Square’s sustainability strategies are competitive in the regional marketplace, and they are becoming increasingly common as a result. “You can incorporate economically and technologically feasible strategies without compromising the overall design,” Duffy says. Features such as the ventilated wall cavity and 15-story atrium are well-suited to London’s temperate climate. A sedum roof controls runoff from London drizzles, while graywater recycling, which reduces water consumption by approximately 40 percent, places less stress on municipal infrastructure. Other moves, such as the interior fluorescent lighting, make sense anywhere: “LEDs’ intensity and color output just aren’t there yet,” Sasso says of the sourcing decision. Perimeter sensors adjust the lamps’ intensity according to daylight levels. KPMG proved a valuable research partner to KPF and SHCA in turn. For years it had scrutinized how staff occupies space, finally determining a blended desk-sharing ratio of 1:1.4. That figure represents a big swing, from 7:1 in the case of the on-the-go auditing team to the tax department’s 1:1 rootedness. Besides justifying Sasso’s open and mobile office workspace, the data allows for more intensive use of the interior design. At opening, the building included 2,800 desks for 4,000 staff, and the addition of 500 employees beyond that has required no extra furniture. Sasso explains that typical buildings are utilized at 50 percent capacity; at 15 Canada Square that figure is 80 percent. This represents a shift in sustainability metrics, from Btus per square foot to consumption per capita, and the forecast for the building is even more favorable should the company consolidate employees from its office still operating in Salisbury Square. That lease expires in 2015. Yet another metric that the designers cite is 30, the average age of KPMG employees. That would explain the mobile workspaces or the conversion of one floor of underground parking to 200 bike pods with changing facilities: Employees these days like to work and commute these ways. This also justifies KPMG’s race to sustainability in general. In addition to ultimately saving money, facilitating an internal culture, or projecting a positive image to the public, sustainability wins the hearts of young talent. ▪
KPMG’s 15-story building consists of several atriums that are designed to encourage collaboration. One large main atrium (opposite page) opens from the base of the building and four smaller “cassettes” connect three floors each (seen accented with pink lighitng on the previous spread). Amenities include an employee restaurant (1), coffee shops, a health and wellbeing suite, casual meeting spaces on the ground floor before security (2), and smaller breakout spaces and conference rooms (3). Controls monitor daylight throughout the space so that perimeter lighting switches off when there is sufficient daylight to light the perimeter zone of the building.
David Sokol writes about architecture and design from New York and Washington, D.C. For more photos of 15 Canada Place, visit eco-structure.com. MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 49
PREVENTATIVE A TENNESSEE HEALTH ORGANIZATION DESIGNS ITS CAMPUS TO KEEP EMPLOYEES AND BUSINESS IN TOP FORM.
Text KJ Fields Photos Robert Benson
MEASURES
1 Previously spread out in 10 buildings in downtown Chattanooga, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee employees are now consolidated in ďŹ ve buildings on Cameron Hill (previous spread), overlooking the city. The buildings are arranged like spokes on a wheel and are connected by a central courtyard (1) and sky bridges. In each building, the traditional central elevator cores were relocated to the ends of each ďŹ&#x201A;oor to allow higher daylight penetration into spaces such as the cafeteria (2), casual touchdown spaces (3) and interior corridors (4). Low-E, 1-inch-thick glazing and fritted glass as well as a series of horizontal louvers help reduce glare and minimize heat gain.
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It’s rare to find a company genuinely enthusiastic about getting its employees out of the office to enjoy the fresh air, soak up the sunshine, and find a peaceful equilibrium in the day, but BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) built its 950,000-square-foot facility with a deliberate focus on this goal. The statewide health insurer’s ingrained culture of caring for the well-being of its 3 million members extended to its 5,300 employees during the consolidation of 10 owned and leased spaces in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn. Moving onto a hilltop campus benefitted the organization with decreased facility costs and increased efficiency, and removed employees from several outmoded buildings. “We looked at ways the facility could balance operational competitiveness with wellness,” explains Dan Jacobson, BCBST’s vice president of properties and corporate services. “We spent a lot of time and intention on creating four outdoor spaces that include three garden habitats and a central courtyard that provide variety, interest, and excitement to encourage the highest possible health of our employees.” Durham, N.C.–based Duda/Paine Architects worked with Dallas-based HKS Architects on the project’s concept, and with Atlanta’s tvsdesign on the interior architecture and finishes. The facility consists of an eight-level parking structure and five buildings arranged like spokes on a wheel above downtown Chattanooga, on Cameron Hill. Four workspace buildings point out toward the city—and are sited to correspond to the city’s grid—and join together at a central courtyard and then connect again via covered sky bridges at the fourth levels. The fifth building, which is connected to two of the other buildings by a glass-enclosed walkway, houses amenities such as a wellness and fitness center, health clinic, and pharmacy, spaces for communal activities, and meeting rooms. According to Turan Duda, AIA, design partner at Duda/Paine, the spaces between the buildings were as important as the buildings themselves. HGOR of Atlanta designed the central courtyard, as well as three gardens between the buildings that beckon employees outdoors. The Forest Garden is a shaded vegetated space that features a reflecting pond, while the Great Lawn Garden has a dry streambed and retention pond that collects and holds stormwater runoff from several buildings. The third garden is an employeemaintained vegetable garden peppered with herbs and medicinal plants that imparts experiential education about healthy eating and supplies food to local community kitchens. The central courtyard is a destination plaza that features a fountain and an overhead canopy for protection from the elements. “Workplaces everywhere are going through a paradigm shift in terms of how people communicate, work, and experience the spaces,” Duda says. “Sustainable initiatives aren’t just about energy—they are also about creating well-being in the work environment. This facility adapts to that shift with welcoming open spaces and interiors with a higher percentage of collaboration spaces, views to nature, and generous daylight.” Glazed curtainwalls and a novel approach to structural bay depths enhance daylight penetration and views. Rather than typical four-column-bay floor plates and a central elevator core, the team supported the floors on three rows of columns and moved the elevators and restrooms to the ends of each floor. Private offices were zoned to align with the elevator cores. Nancy Cartledge, AIA, principal at tvsdesign, says that the solution achieves daylight access through the center of the floor plates and views from multiple vantage points. “By working together very early in the process, we were able to consider exactly how it would all fit together down to the furnishings. The 20 office floor plates have unique build-outs but the universal zoning concept is very modular, which provides flexibility for future reconfigurations and reduces materials use,” Cartledge says. Low-E, 1-inch-thick glazing and fritted glass on the windows that begins 7 feet above the viewing plane and extends to the ceiling, along with a series of horizontal louvers, help reduce glare and minimize heat gain. Raised floors with underfloor air distribution provide employees with individual control of heat and air for increased comfort. An HVAC system with high-efficiency heat pumps, efficient cooling towers, and variable speed fans help conserve energy. With abundant daylighting and efficient features, the campus is saving 20 percent in utility costs, or $265,000 annually compared to buildings designed for minimum code standards. The $248-million BCBST campus earned LEED Gold certification and came in under budget. Ralph DiNola, Assoc. AIA and principal at Portland, Ore.–based Green Building Services, who provided LEED project management and energy modeling on the campus, says that the facility raised the bar for the state of Tennessee. “BCBST proves that it’s possible to build a significant project, achieve a high level of sustainability and still remain within budget. This project was really a catalyst for the green-building movement in Chattanooga.” Now, BCBST is working on its corporate sustainability plan. “We are reaping the benefits of our decisions and want to continue to increase that value,” says BCBST’s Jacobson. ▪ KJ Fields writes about sustainability and design from Portland, Ore.
MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 53
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GOLD STANDARD
THE CHICAGO OFFICE OF IA INTERIOR ARCHITECTS MERGES INTONATIONS OF TRADITIONAL DESIGN WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS AND FINISHES IN THE NEW HEADQUARTERS FOR MESIROW FINANCIAL. Text Jean Nayar Photos Christopher Barrett
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There’s no rule that says a traditional company with a long-standing history can’t be progressive and forward-thinking, too. For 75 years, Mesirow Financial has merged its creative entrepreneurial spirit with a conservative Midwestern approach to doing business, enabling the company to evolve from a small brokerage firm at its inception in 1937 into the more-than-1,200-person diversified financial services company it is today. And its new 348,000-square-foot headquarters in Chicago underscores its balanced yet adaptive business outlook. Designed by the Chicago office of IA Interior Architects, the new headquarters occupies 12 floors of a newly constructed 45-story office tower—designed by Lohan Anderson and developed by a team including Mesirow Financial—on North Clark Street in Chicago’s River North area. While the space plan of the new offices tilts toward tradition (enclosed offices, often situated around the perimeter, occupy a substantial portion of workspace floors), it also incorporates sustainable features that have contributed to earning Mesirow’s offices LEED Gold certification, which matches the LEED certification earned by the core and shell. “At the outset, we came up with our project requirements and stated our philosophy and goals on sustainability,” says David Rotholz, a senior vice president with Mesirow Financial. “We were committed to achieving LEED Gold so that our interiors would be consistent with the base building.” A keen sense of environmental consciousness played into the sustainable choices made by Mesirow’s leaders; not surprisingly, financial motives drove their decision-making process, too. By committing to designing to LEED standards through the City of Chicago’s Green Building Permit Program, Mesirow was able to expedite the permit process and reduce its permitting costs. It also saved money through significantly reduced energy expenses thanks to an array of systems solutions, many suggested by Mesirow’s LEED consultant, HJKessler Associates, in conjunction with the design team before the base building was completed. Among the most significant of these was the lighting system. “The City of Chicago has a strict energy code, requiring lighting to meet 1 watt per square foot, which is more stringent than the LEED 2.0 and ASHRAE 90.1-2004 prerequisites,” says Arturo Febry, IA principal and design director on the project. “Another challenge was to target a 25 percent power reduction for the Optimize Energy Performance credit. So the challenge was to have adequate lighting levels where needed while conforming with the city’s energy laws.” By installing a mix of energy-efficient light fixtures with addressable ballasts, occupancy sensors, and daylight-harvesting sensors, the design team created a lighting scheme that dramatically reduces energy consumption. “The light fixtures are controlled through Lutron’s Quantum system and are preprogrammed to operate at 80 percent,” says Ann Marie Krol, IA associate and senior designer on the project. By utilizing this system, Rotholz says, “the instantaneous power savings over the past 12-month period was 33 percent, or 164kW. The total cost savings relative to a ‘full on’ condition was approximately $235,116, or a savings of 2,351MWh.” Working with HJKessler Associates, the design team introduced a combination of additional efficient systems and construction approaches that further reduce the office’s energy consumption. In terms of plumbing, the use of water-conserving, low-flow fixtures in kitchens, pantry areas, and restrooms has lowered water usage by 30 percent. The installation of Energy Star–rated equipment throughout has also resulted in lower energy consumption and utility bills. An indoor-air-quality management plan, which aimed to minimize and contain dust during construction, allowed for the monitoring of air quality as the offices were being built. And the use of Lutron’s Green Glance software enables energy consumption to be managed on a floor-by-floor basis now that the building is complete. To address Mesirow’s mandate for flexibility, the design team introduced an infrastructure grid in the ceiling and deployed demountable modular systems in 90 percent of the workspaces to reduce environmental impact —as well as costs —whenever the firm needs to reconfigure workspaces, offices, and even conference rooms. The headquarters project combined two separate office locations into a single new location, so the offices now also fulfill the company’s goal of creating a unified space that clearly presents one brand and one name. At the same time, the furniture systems provide flexibility to establish a sense of individuality. “This was a cultural change for Mesirow—it was the first time everyone was in one facility, so we created systems composed of a kit of parts to accommodate the various business groups, allowing them to change the looks of their suites without changing the footprint,” Krol says. The materials and finishes in the offices are as sophisticated as they are sustainable. “It was essential for us to have our offices be of the highest quality,” Rotholz says. Millwork made of FSC-certified eucalyptus and low-VOC-emitting carpets bring a sense of tradition and luxury to the space without compromising environmental benefit. Light-colored finishes and clear glass-enclosed offices keep spaces bright and minimize the need for excessive energy-consuming fixtures (the light load is less than 1 watt per square foot). Thanks to the efforts of a conscientious design team, Mesirow Financial’s new corporate headquarters now reflect its entrepreneurial culture, as well as its high ethical and professional standards. “We achieved all 38 of the LEED points we requested,” Rotholz says. “By embracing a sustainable and flexible design philosophy, all aspects of our business have benefited and our clients have responded positively as well.” ▪ Jean Nayar writes about architecture, design, and real estate from New York City.
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LEED FOR COMMERICAL INTERIORS, VERSION 2 RESULTS Sustainable Sites: 5 points Water Efficiency: 2 points Energy and Atmosphere: 8 points Materials and Resources: 7 points Indoor Environmental Quality: 11 points
38 Innovation and Design Process: 5 points
TOTAL LEED POINTS
GOLD CERTIFICATION
The floor in Mesirow Financial’s reception area (previous spread) is made of white and gray marble, while the wood ceiling defines the desk area and brings down the scale of the large space. The desk is composed of lemon-yellow resin, and cove lighting and low-voltage MR-16s highlight the wood around the ceiling. A breakout area on the west side of the building (1) includes an inset counter for serving pastries and coffee. Beyond the windowed wall is the auditorium, which is topped externally with a green roof. In an oasis area (2), a pantry with millwork housing the trash and recycling components sits next to a window that allows in ample daylight.
2
MAY/JUNE 2011 ECO-STRUCTURE 57
SPECS MORE AT ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
BLUECROSS BLUESHIELD OF TENNESSEE
MESIROW FINANCIAL
GREEN TEAM
Architect: IA Interior Architects, interiorarchitects.com
Associate architect: HKS, hksinc.com
Client, owner, project manager: Mesirow Financial,
Civil engineer: March Adams & Associates, maengr.com
mesirowfinancial.com
Client, owner: BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, bcbst.com
Electrical engineer, mechanical engineer: Environmental
Construction manager: Skanska, skanska.com
Systems Design, esdesign.com
Design architect: Duda/Paine Architects, dudapaine.com
General contractor: Power Construction Co.,
Development manager: Jones Lang LaSalle,
powerconstruction.net
joneslanglasalle.com
LEED consultant: HJKessler Associates, hjkesslerassociates.com
Electrical engineer, mechanical engineer:
Lighting designer: Lighting Design Alliance,
S.L. King & Associates, www.slking.com
lightingdesignalliance.com
Exterior lighting designer: Cline Bettridge Bernstein
Structural engineer: Epstein, epsteinglobal.com
GREEN TEAM
Lighting Design, cbbld.com
KPMG, 15 CANADA SQUARE
General contractor: EMJ Corp., emjcorp.com
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
Geotechnical engineer: Qore Property Sciences
Acoustical system: Lencore, lencore.com
Interior designer: tvsdesign, tvs-design.com
Adhesives, coatings, and sealants: Dow Chemical Co.,
GREEN TEAM
Interior lighting designer: Quentin Thomas Associates,
dow.com; Seal Bond, seal-bond.com
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, kpf.com
quentinthomasassociates.com
Building-management systems and services: Johnson
BREEAM assessor, electrical engineer, mechanical
Landscape architect: HGOR, hgor.com
Controls, johnsoncontrols.com
engineer: AECOM, aecom.com
LEED consultant: Green Building Services,
Carpet: Bentley Prince Street, bentleyprincestreet.com;
Civil engineer, geotechnical engineer, structural engineer:
greenbuildingservices.com
Constantine Commercial, constantine-carpet.com;
Ramboll UK, ramboll.co.uk
Structural engineer: Brockettedavisdrake, bddeng.com
Hokanson, hokansoncarpet.com; Shaw, shawcontractgroup .com; Tandus Flooring, tandus.com
Client, owner: KPMG, kpmg.com Designers: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Swanke Hayden
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
Ceilings: Architectural Components Group, acgiwood.com;
Connell Architects, shca.com
Carpet: Shaw Contract Group, shawcontractgroup.com
Armstrong, armstrong.com; Hunter Douglas,
General contractor: Canary Wharf Contractors,
Ceilings: Armstrong, armstrong.com
hunterdouglascontract.com
cwcontractors.com
Fabrics: Arc-Com Fabrics, arc-com.com; Bernhardt,
Concrete, masonry, and stone: Architectural Stone Design,
Lighting designer: Light Bureau, lightbureau.com
bernhardttextiles.com; Carnegie, carnegiefabrics.com;
www.astonedesign.net; Stone Source, stonesource.com
Project manager: Turner & Townsend, turnerandtownsend.com
Edelman Leather, edelmanleather.com; HBF Textiles,
Fabrics: Arc-Com; Brentano, brentanofabrics.com; Designtex,
hbftextiles.com; Joseph Noble, josephnoble.com; Luna Textiles,
designtex.com; HBF Textiles; KnollTextiles, knolltextiles.com;
MATERIALS AND SOURCES
lunatextiles.com; Maharam, maharam.com; Sina Pearson
Maharam; Momentum Textiles, themomgroup.com; Pallas,
Building-management systems and services: Building
Textiles, sinapearson.com; Unika Vaev, unikavaev.com
pallastextiles.com; Sina Pearson Textiles; Spinneybeck,
Automation Solutions, www.bas.uk.com; Trend Control
Flooring: AAA World Floors; Armstrong; Buchtal USA;
spinneybeck.com
Systems, www.trendcontrols.com
Centaur Floor Systems, centaurfloors.com; Ceramic Technics,
Flooring: Armstrong; Forbo Flooring Systems, forbo-
Carpet: InterfaceFlor, interfaceflor.com
ceramictechnics.com; Crossville, crossvilleinc.com; Gerflor,
flooring.com; Mannington Mills, mannington.com
Ceilings: SAS International, sasint.co.uk
gerflorusa.com; Key Resin Co., keyresin.com; Lea Ceramiche,
Furniture: Coalesse; Davis, davisfurniture.com; HBF;
Curtainwalls: Permasteelisa Group, permasteelisa.it
ceramichelea.it; Stone Mosaics; To Market, tomkt.com
Herman Miller; KI; Knoll, knoll.com; Nucraft, nucraft.com;
Flooring: Arena Stone, arenastone.co.uk
Furniture: Allsteel, allsteeloffice.com; Coalesse, coalesse.com;
Steelcase; Swedese, swedese.se
Furniture: Knoll, knoll.com
Creative Wood, creativewood.net; Davis, www.davisfurniture
Glass: Skyline Design, skydesign.com; Trainor Glass Co.,
Glass: Saint-Gobain Glass, saint-gobain-glass.com
.com; Dellarobbia, dellarobbiausa.com; HBF, hbf.com;
trainorglass.com
HVAC: Carrier Corp., carrier.com; Hoval, hoval.com; Dalair,
Herman Miller, hermanmiller.com; KI, ki.com; Landscape
HVAC: Price, price-hvac.com
dalair.co.uk; Trox USA, trox.us; Ability Projects,
Forms, landscapeforms.com; Martin Brattrud, martinbrattrud
Insulation: Johns Manville, jm.com
www.abilityprojects.co.uk; Grundfos USA, grundfos.us
.com; Neink채mper, nienkamper.com; Spec, specfurniture.com;
Interior walls: KI
Interior walls: British Gypsum, british-gypsum.com; Radii
Steelcase, steelcase.com; Versteel, versteel.com; West Coast
Lighting controls: Lutron Electronics Co., lutron.com
Lighting control systems: Simmtronic, simmtronic.com
Industries, westcoastindustries.com
Lighting: Axis, axislighting.com; Boyd Lighting, boydlighting
Lighting: Wila, wila.com
Glass: Bendheim, bendheim.com
.com; Europhase, eurofase.com; Flos, flos.com; Focal Point,
Millwork: Taylor Made Joinery Interiors,
Millwork: DuPont, www2.dupont.com; Formica, formica.com;
focalpointlights.com; Foscarini, foscarini.com; Itre, interior-
www.taylor-made-joinery.co.uk
G&L Marble, glmarble.com; Pionite, pionite.org; Silestone by
deluxe.com; Lightolier, lightolier.com; Square 1, sq1pl.com;
Paints and finishes: AkzoNobel, akzonobel.com;
Cosentino, silestoneusa.com; 3Form, 3-form.com; Wilsonart
Winona, winonalighting.com
ICI Dulux, dulux.com
International, wilsonart.com
Metal, millwork: Parenti & Raffaelli, parentiwoodwork.com
Renewable energy systems (excluding photovolatics):
Paints and finishes: Benjamin Moore & Co., benjaminmoore
Paints and finishes: The Sherwin-Williams Co.
Caterpillar, caterpillar.com
.com; Crossville; Daltile, daltile.com; Duron Paints & Wall-
Plumbing: Dornbracht, dornbracht.com; Toto, totousa.com
Roofing: Sika Sarnafil, usa.sarnafil.sika.com
coverings, duron.com; PPG Pittsburgh Paints, ppgpittsburgh
Signage: API Signs, accplusinc.com; Xibitx, xibitz.com
Signage: Olympia Signs, olympiasigns.co.uk
paints.com; Rex Ceramiche Artistiche, rex-cerart.it; The Sherwin-
Wallcoverings: Carnegie; Designtex; Knoll Textiles;
Windows and doors: Radii
Williams Co., sherwin-williams.com; Southwest Progressive
Maraham; MDC Wallcoverings, mdcwall.com; Wall Talkers;
Enterprises, swprogressive.com; Triarch, triarchinc.com
Wolf Gordon
Stone: G&L Marble
Windows and doors: Eggers, eggersindustries.com; Omega
Wallcoverings: Carnegie; Eykon, eykon.net; Maharam;
Door Frame Products, omegamfg.com; Parenti & Raffaelli;
Sanfoot, jacaranda.com; Walltalkers, walltalkers.com;
Trainor
Wolf-Gordon, wolf-gordon.com 58 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
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ECOCENTRIC
Up in the Air
AT THE HOUSE OF AIR, WHERE BIPLANES USED TO TAKE TO THE SKY, NOW PEOPLE TAKE FLIGHT.
Text Laurie Grant Photo Ethan Kaplan
64 ECO-STRUCTURE.COM
San Francisco boasts many unique attractions, and among the offerings at Golden Gate National Recreation Area is House of Air, a trampoline facility in a former biplane hangar on the historic Crissy Field in the Presidio. The facility, which opened in September 2010, houses performance trampolines where athletes can practice snowboarding and other extreme-sport moves. There also is a trampoline dedicated to an ongoing game of dodge ball, trampolines for classes and jumping, and a bounce house for children. House of Air sits next to a biking and walking path with views of San Francisco Bay. It’s a location that came at a cost. This former military hangar was built in the 1920s when materials such as asbestos and lead were commonly used. The cleanup effort was significant, but one that Mark Horton, FAIA, principal of San Francisco–based Mark Horton / Architecture, took on with enthusiasm. Most of the project’s budget was dedicated to updating seismic requirements and cleaning up the toxic site. The process took close to eight weeks. This already complex undertaking was further complicated by the fact that the Presidio and its structures are historic buildings on federal property, which mandated that Horton go through an approval process with the Presidio and required that he keep many elements of the building intact. The exterior was clad in a corrugated cementitious material, which is still made today. However, while today it is cement-based, 50 years ago it was
asbestos-based and, under the Presidio’s historic regulations, the material had to stay in place. “That meant that anytime you put a single screw hole through it, you needed to tent it because you’re going through toxic material,” Horton says. “That was a huge amount of work.” Tenting also was necessary when replacing the window panes. “The window caulk holding the panes in place was asbestos-based,” Horton says. “Taking each one of those panes out was toxic remediation.” The light-frame steel building has a 6-inchthick concrete roof, which was bombproof when it was built (but would not withstand modern bombs). The architects were required to keep the roof for historical reasons. To obey seismic zone requirements, structural steel members were added inside the building to support the roof’s weight. Each member added was going into an area that was coated in lead paint, so the lead paint first had to be removed. The concrete floor of the hangar also had endured years of aviation fluid spills. “We had to spend a lot of time cleaning that and resealing it,” Horton recalls. “Almost every single surface in the building was, by some standard, not eco-friendly.” The House of Air is now LEED Certified and the end result has been especially gratifying for Horton. “We started where the client had no idea that architecture could make a difference or be an important aspect of their project,” he says. “What is most rewarding for me is making architecture out of a project that didn’t start out that way.” ▪ AN AIA MAGAZINE
“The powerful geometries of the island and land wings of Exploration Place required a roofing system that would lend itself to the positive and negative toroidal forms of the roofs.” — Hugh Phillips, principal at Moshe Safdie and Associates
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