Building with future additions connecting interior spaces

LEED Pro Consultant

Bioconstruccion & Energia Alternativa

LEEDuser Basic Member

63 thumbs up

June 4, 2014

Hello all, We are working on an industrial facility with an adjacent office building that is looking for a NC certification LEED v2009. This project in a future includes several expansions in different phases as adjacent buildings, sharing the same building main entrance. In the office building the interior space will be connected between phases. In the production area this is different, every phase will have a different process and will be separated with a wall so they will not share any systems, but they still will be sharing the same building entrance in the phase 1. In this case it is difficult to define the LEED boundaries, because they will share the entrance and they will not be completely independent one from each other, but we cannot register all the phases as one project, because we don´t know yet when all the phases will be finished or if all the phases will be done, and we only have phase 1 in process. Is there a way to define LEED boundaries in projects that consider future additions for one building, even if they share some elements? I have read the LEED v2009 MPR, which talks about projects with future additions, but it doesn´t mention what happens when the expansion shares elements with the first building (entrance, restrooms, etc.) Or should the project look for the certification as one building only after the completion of the project?, which is not the best option, because it could take several years to be finished. Thank you in advance! Regards,

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Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Tue, 06/17/2014 - 22:09

Rosamaria, this is not a simple question and a thorough answer would require more detailed information on the area of the various phases and some plan detail.I have a couple of thoughts, though. One is that with each successive phase you could recertify the whole building under LEED-NC. Basically start fresh each time, relying on the documentation you've previously completed to inform the new certification.Depending on square footage, this could be done under the LEED-EBOM program, which would be more common.Another option is to wait for the project to be complete and do it all at once under LEED-NC, or do it all at once under LEED-EBOM.You can also do the phase-by-phase approach and just make boundaries where it makes the most sense. I think this could work out okay as long as you weren't double-counting site features, or doing anything else that would give a project an artificial advantage.

Susan Walter

HDR

LEEDuser Expert

894 thumbs up

Wed, 06/18/2014 - 14:16

Rosemaria, I agree with Tristan; he has given you good advice. A few more thoughts, have you read through the AGMBC? It should help you think through the additions more carefully. It also sounds like you have an existing building that phase 1 is either renovating or expanding and renovating. What if you did NC for this phase and then moved them into EB+OM for the future additions? Finally, I'd recommend reviewing your time frames against the sunset dates for v3 and compare it to v4. If they are long, moving the project into v4 may make the most sense. We do a lot of long range project planning and keeping an eye out for sunset dates has been very helpful in minimizing project impacts down the line.