Our healthcare project will be a licensed facility by the state's deparment of public health. However, it is a community health center and not part of a hospital campus. The facility will more likely resemble an office building w/ some exam rooms and standard office hours than a hospital building with intensive equipment, 24hr operation, food services, and cooling towers. Another problem is that there are fewer credits available for the SS category in HC than NC, and this client is very interested in employing, or accounting for, most of the sustainable site credits.
My gut sense is to use the NC rating system and document some valuable HC prereqs or credits as ID credits under the NC system. Maybe I can also achieve a few other credits with an alternate compliance approach using the HC criteria.
Does using NC seem legitimate since our project does not match much of the HC building descriptions? Or do I need to use HC without exception? I can only find that one statement about licensed facilities needing to use the HC rating system without much detail on the subject. Let me know your take on this one. I can't steer the client down the NC road just to be rejected and possibly miss some HC prerequisites.
Thanks - Kathy
Susan Walter
HDRLEEDuser Expert
1299 thumbs up
January 23, 2013 - 4:15 pm
Kathy,
Your project reads like a MOB to me but it is licensed. This puts you in a gray area in my mind too. My gut would agree with you on the NC program but I recommend you get clarification on the program call with the GBCI.
Most of the HC pre-reqs are easy to do. You likely would not miss anything if you switched from NC to HC mid design. While there are less SS credits, there are more EA credits with a 'bonus' point starting at 18% in EAc1 that the other programs don't do. (This 'bonus' point phases out at 26%.)
Susan
Kathy Wislocky
Project ManagerWilson Architects
2 thumbs up
January 23, 2013 - 4:38 pm
Thanks so much Susan. Do you know if I need to register as one system and then pay to ask the question? Then am I able to change from HC to NC when I get my answer? I'm not sure if we can ask GCBI such questions before being registered.
I think the one-day design charrette (ID prereq) will be expensive to hold if not required. A wonderful excuse to truly get everyone to bring ideas to the table, but expensive since it's unexpected.
Thanks again!
Kimberly Frith
323 thumbs up
January 24, 2013 - 5:35 pm
Kathy, I believe you can now ask LEED Interpretations without registering a LEED project.