Hi folks,

Have a question that I believe relates to Interpretation #10102 and incomplete spaces (though I’m open to suggestions if I’m off-base). 

Project: LEED v4 Core & Shell, approximately 180,000 GSF, Office. 

We will be fitting out floors 1 & 2 as coworking / office and planned to provide a white box for floors 3-9 with core-fixtures (typical core and shell). 

As a cost-savings measure the owner has asked: what if we do not fit out the cores of floors 3 – 9 and provide only rough-ins for plumbing and mechanical (so – there would be piping but no toilet fixtures for example).  It would be up to future tenants (not the owner) to provide toilet fixtures.  I'm thinking this would make these core spaces "incomplete".   

  • If we recommend high performance fixtures (like we are using on floors 1 & 2) in the tenant design guidelines, do we assume the same performance for floors 3-9 when tallying credits such as Indoor Water Use?  
  • To further muddy the waters - our spaces for bike racks are currently included in the core and would assumedly be left for future fit-out...the same questions below would apply.  
  • Since some of these recommendations have to do with pre-reqs and some with scaled-metrics, would performance standards (gallons per flush for example) have to be built into binding & signed lease agreements?  Or could we wrap all of it into Tenant Design Guidelines (but assume certain fixture performance, bike racks, etc)?

Or is there another strategy I should be considering (including - telling the client they simply can't do what they're proposing without sacrificing certification)?  I’m carefully reading pages 14 and 15 of the reference guide but the language is still giving me pause – hoping for a sanity check from the group. 

Thanks,

Tom