Multiple buildings on podium..certifying only one building..??

Hi Anoop, The Minimum Program Requirements: are pretty clear that is has to be a "whole building", so you need to proceed carefully here. You might be able to get this accepted as a stand-alone project, but  I would definitely recommend getting a formal ruling from GBCI on it. Some key issues to consider are whether or not this tower is independent from the rest of the complex in its mechanical systems, and how well you can define any site area as being specific to the tower.I'd love to hear if others have recent experience with this kind of situation.

I had one odd project that was an urban redevelopment. The existing site was two large parking lots used by a regional transportation hub. A major street split the lots.

The owner was allowed to build on top of the parking lot as long as they: (1) constructed a two-story parking structure, (2) gave the first level of the structure to the transportation hub for public use.

On top of the parking was a podium the owner built seven 4 and 3 story apartments.

Common sense tells you that the project should not be LEED NC because of the 3 story apartments. But, the 3 story apartments were less than 40% of the total building square footage. That means, even though this was before the 60/40 rules, that the project was 100% LEED NC.

We were initially challenged by the reviewers about the public first level of parking, and the 3 story buildings. We were able to exclude the parking by proving it was owned by the transportation hub.

I have seen comments that 3 story residential buildings cannot be certified under LEED NC but that is not true as long as you model the buildings as 4 story buildings using a dummy floor.

Hi Hernando, Situations such as the one you describe above can be rather complicated, and teams are encouraged to contact GBCI (http://www.gbci.org/org-nav/contact.aspx) prior to registering if rating system eligibility is questionable. Please note that LEED 2009 does not allow multi-family residential buildings that have three or less habitable stories to be registered under LEED-NC or LEED-CS. While this option was allowed on a case-by-case basis for some multi-family residential projects registered prior to the release of the LEED for Homes rating system, it is not currently allowed for any 3-story multi-family residential projects. Consequently, there is not an allowance for 3-story or less residential buildings to use dummy floors to make the energy modeling compliant with ASHRAE 90.1.

The LEED 2009 Minimum Program Requirements (www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6715), state that LEED projects must include the new, ground-up design and construction, or major renovation, of at least one commercial, institutional, or HIGH-RISE residential building in its entirety. This issue is also clarified in the The LEED 2009 Rating system selection guidance (www.usgbc.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=6667).

Note that the 3-story multi-family residential buildings would not be eligible for group certification in a LEED-NC group certification project, since the Application Guide for Multiple Buildings and On-campus Building Projects (AGMBC), page 10, states that: “each building or space in the group project must independently qualify for the chosen LEED rating system."

The mixed story building is LEED-NC v2.2 Gold certified.

The basic reason the project was allowed to be certified as a whole were simple.

Per the 60/40 rules a mixed LEED project must follow a specific rating system. So if the project is 60% or more LEED-NC the entire project must be LEED-NC. LEED-Homes 3-story buildings would be "adjusted" to the same energy bar as a 4-story building. That way they can become LEED-NC buildings.

Based on the review comments we received, it appeared adding a dummy floor was a method that had already been used by other projects. Our energy analyst used a different method of equivalence than the reviewer wanted. After making the model to satisfy the reviewer the energy savings claim increased for the project.

The second reason the project was allowed to certify as a whole was related to money. The owner paid the maximum fee possible for certification (> 500k SF). The amount paid was greater than the certification fees that would have been paid if the project was split into pieces. The cost of review and documentation would have been unnecessarily complex and expensive. No one would have benefited.

The entire project was constructed as a single set of construction documents and specifications.

Any project in a similar situation would be allowed to certify 3-story projects as 4-story projects. The 60/40 rules don't let you certify a LEED-NC project and arbitrarily remove elements entirely contained within the scope-of-work LEED boundary.