Hello!
The project has two large buildings which have an intertwined 3rd floor. Building A has retail space on floors 1st & 2nd and then residential on 4th-17th floors. Building B is 100% commercial space (with future tenant fit out) occupying floors 3-13. Both of these buildings share one utility meter.
My question is, can we combine these buildings and go for one certification? Could it be CS? There is more than 60% future tenant fit out space so it seems this would be most appropriate. Then, how would we handle the residential portion? Can a CS building be residential? OR, would the building have to go for NC (because of residential portion) and write tenant guidelines?
Thank you!
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
December 14, 2012 - 12:09 pm
Yikes, this is complicated. I think you have to start by determining if the buildings should be certified together or separately, and the answer to that will impact your rating system selection. See MPR3 for guidance on your project boundary.
Courtney Royal
Sr. Sustainability ConsultantTaitem Engineering
50 thumbs up
December 16, 2012 - 2:10 pm
Thank you for you reply, Tristan.
After a client meeting we decided that due to the complexity of modeling, materials, etc issues it would be easiest to combine the buildings into one certification. We chose CS 2009 because of the commercial/residential breakdown of leasable space. There is about 60% future tenant fit out commercial space and the rest 40% will be a residential tower which the developer had full control over the interior build-out.
However, we're not clear how the residential portion of a CS project is handled? In reading some credits it seems you can exclude those spaces not within the scope of the credit, so for all of the MR and IEQ materials credits, the majority apply to the residential portion and not the tenant spaces? I am just not clear how to handle documention when a specific credit doesn't exactly apply to those spaces.
Also, they planning to have valet parking in the project, do you know how this would effect the alternative parking credit SSc4.3?
Lastly, is anyone aware of any examples of certified CS projects including residential portion? I thought it might help to get some clarity if I had a sample to look at.
Thanks much!
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
December 17, 2012 - 9:47 am
Courtney, mixing CS and residential is relatively challenging, from what I have gathered. I would suggest you post questions on specific credits to those forums. I hope anyone with overall experience will pipe up, and I'll try to ask around as well.
David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1980 thumbs up
December 18, 2012 - 2:29 pm
Courtney,
CS and residential projects are an awkward fit, and might be worth trying to avoid. Is this project in the US? One question to ask is whether you can pursue LEED Homes for the residential portion of the building - I hear that LEED H for Mid-rise is being expanded to include high rise projects. Then C&S for the rest of the project would make more sense. Either way, you'll probably need technical input from GBCI on how they advise you to handle this.
Courtney Royal
Sr. Sustainability ConsultantTaitem Engineering
50 thumbs up
December 19, 2012 - 2:10 pm
Thank you for you reply, Tristan and David. David, yes the project is located in Flushing, NY. LEED-H Midrise is a good thought, but I believe you have to build those projects from the ground up, well at least that is what GBCI said when I called them. Also, its a 2009 project so wouldn't the MPR prevent the building from pursuing two different certifications for the building? The one building that has the residential tower also have commercial spaces.
Hmmm...we have questions in to GBCI so hopefully we hear something soon! If not CS then I assume NC?
Christopher Snee
Sustainability ConsultantAECOM
8 thumbs up
January 29, 2013 - 9:13 pm
Courtney,
I have a project with similar constraints and I’m interested to hear if you got a definitive response from GBCI.
Thanks
Courtney Royal
Sr. Sustainability ConsultantTaitem Engineering
50 thumbs up
January 29, 2013 - 10:25 pm
Christopher,
Yes we did get some guidance. We actually went through with combining two of the buildings into one certification and in deciding which rating system to use (either CS or NC), USGBC confirmed the following:
"To recap, if less than 60% of the total ‘gross floor area’ (as that term is defined in the Glossary of the Rating System Selection Guidance: http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=10135) of the combined projects (including the retail spaces in the podium) and will be ‘complete’ when the LEED project is submitted for its last phase of certification review, the project would only be eligible for LEED-CS. If 60% or more will be ‘complete’ at that point, LEED-NC would be an option. This is explained more fully in LEED Interpretation (LI) 10102 (https://www.usgbc.org/leedinterpretations/LISearch.aspx?liaccessid=10102). Please also note that the parking garage does not count towards the “gross floor area” for LEED purposes.
You confirmed that the two buildings share a common podium of Retail that comprises contiguous gross floor area connecting the two towers to one another. Thus, it is appropriate to define these components as part of ‘one building’ per the guidance on page 22 of the LEED 2009 MPR Supplemental Guidance (http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=10131)."
Was this what you were looking for?
Christopher Snee
Sustainability ConsultantAECOM
8 thumbs up
January 30, 2013 - 8:53 pm
Thanks Courtney,
Looks like my “superstructure” will need to be certified as one building as well but I wish GBCI would allow you to treat these projects like a campus and have multiple certifications. It would make many of the credits easier to document but it would cost tens of thousands more in review fees.
Christopher Snee
Sustainability ConsultantAECOM
8 thumbs up
February 11, 2013 - 2:29 pm
Courtney,
The Supplemental Guide to the MPR has a section that talks about defining super-structures as one building. One of the criteria that must be met is that LEED prereqs can be treated in the same review. I'm not sure how you're conditioning the residential component of your project but I'd suspect it would be difficult to document EAp2 and IEQp1 under the same review as your retail component. In your discussion with USGBC did this issue come up?