We have a new 609,000 sf building seeking LEED BD+C v4 certification. A new 1800 space parking garage will be built design-build as part of the project but by separate designer, same CM. The garage is seeking Parksmart certification. Parksmart allows award of some credits as a result of the main building LEED certification but to do that requires the main project's LEED boundary to include the garage. My question is if we do that does the garage affect the main building credits? In other wordfs do the garage materials , construction waste management, energy performance, cost, etc. get included with the main building's documentation? (Including the energy performance, for instance, doesn't seem to make sense; the buildings are totally different animals). A complicating factor is that the long-term bycycle storage is in the garage, the garage provides shaded parking, etc., and the garage is shared with other campus properties.
You rely on LEEDuser. Can we rely on you?
LEEDuser is supported by our premium members, not by advertisers.
Go premium for
Dionisio Franca
DirectorWoonerf Inc.
30 thumbs up
July 25, 2020 - 2:23 am
Hi Ralph,
We need to break down this into different questions in order to make sense of how to document this. I don't have Parksmart knowledge, so my responses are for general parking garages in LEED. Garage materials? Included in the material and resource calculations. Construction waste management, included in both the pertinent prerequisite and credit. Energy performance = garage is included in the building energy model. For the energy model, the garage probably does not have conditioned areas, but it still has lighting usage, so if you are using efficient lighting and controls, you can get some savings there that might help your whole project. Long term bicycle? Must check the distance from the building entrance (you may use LEED v4.1 that has longer distances). Shading =? You can probably get a point under heat island reduction.
Being shared between other buildings may get the documentation more complicated. If you are able to draw your boundary without including it, the documentation may be simpler. Some credits like the bicycle credit may be affected though. I recommend discussing this type of credit with the LEED Coach before preparing the documentation. The response time is not good though.
Ralph Bicknese
PrincipalHellmuth & Bicknese Architects
19 thumbs up
July 27, 2020 - 10:10 am
Thank you Dionisio. Much appreciaited.
Brian Bartholomew
August 6, 2020 - 1:44 pm
Ralph, I'm wondering if ParkSmart is using LEED credit awards as a sort of Alternative Compliance Path for its garage credits? If that's the case, it may be why ParkSmart requires the garage to be in the LEED Project Boundary. And so, couldn't you exclude the garage from the LEED Project Boundary and just work with the garage designer and supply the documentation needed for the ParkSmart credits?