Hello, I am wondering if I am not able to get square footages of all buildings in the area from a reliable source am I able to scale a map and and use square footages that are shown on the map (this would not give me the building total if I don't know how many floors but it would at least give me a floor potentially to use against the buildable area)? Obviously this is important because if I would like to offset the buildable area with as much suare footage as possible. Thanks for any help on this topic.
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Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
368 thumbs up
February 22, 2022 - 12:02 pm
I've done this when I couldn't find actual SF values for all buildings, plus using Google streetview to see the number of floors. I've also gotten some estimates by looking up leasing websites for apt (# of units) and office buildings (rentable SF per floor). The LEED reviewer isn't going to check your sources/methods on this unless something looks really off - if you're doing these measurements in good faith and not trying to skew the numbers it's not going to be an issue.
Just in case you weren't aware of it - the v4.1 version offers an alternative to the calculation where you just use WalkScore.
Decorda McGee
Jacobs1 thumbs up
February 22, 2022 - 4:17 pm
Thanks for your response Emily. To add to this question I am wondering about buildings partially in the 1/4 mile radius boundary. Are we allowed to use the sf of the part of the building that sits within the boundary or do we need to negate those buildings entirely? Thanks. I will also look up the v4.1 alternative as a potential option.
Emily Purcell
Sustainable Design LeadCannonDesign
LEEDuser Expert
368 thumbs up
February 22, 2022 - 5:05 pm
Include or exclude the entire site and building - slicing them up is more trouble than it's worth! Again there's no hard and fast rule - just represent the density honestly while making the calc/map process as easy on yourself as possible. When I've done these calcs in the past I've just looked at the map to judge whether a site is mostly in or mostly out of the radius.
Decorda McGee
Jacobs1 thumbs up
February 22, 2022 - 8:45 pm
Will do! Thanks for the help.