The project is a new facility, which has a new construction and renovation component. The new building is 6 stories tall, adjacent to an existing 3 story plus roof deck building. In our project we will build the new building and renovate floors 2 and 3 and add a roof garden to the existing building. The two structures will act as one building at the renovated floors – floor plates will flow into each other. Only the renovated floors will be utilizing the new M&E systems, the lower floors of the existing building will continue to be served by their existing system. Total square footage for the whole project is 200,000 gsf.

To complicate things… we will move a few walls and fix finishes for a few rooms on the basement level of the existing building, totaling 2000 gsf. This work has been discussed with the project so far, but it will be minimal and will continue to utilize its existing M&E systems. We would like to exclude this space from our LEED project boundary (and therefore our energy model) on the basis that it is not served by our new M&E systems. Can we do that?

Proposed LEED boundary:
Basement level – new construction only
1st level - new construction and site work
2nd level – new construction and existing renovation of adjacent building
3rd level – new construction and existing renovation of adjacent building
4th level – new construction and existing renovation of adjacent rooftop into roof garden
5th level – new construction
6th level – new construction

Biggest question is can we organize our LEED boundary vertically as outlined above?
Do we need to separate the small amount of renovation work in the basement into a different phase, or a different package? (As a way to exclude this space from materials credits, construction waste management credits – since it would be excluded in the LEED boundary).
Can we include only these few rooms being renovated in the basement in our LEED boundary? Or do we need to include spaces that feed these rooms (corridors, etc) as well?