To Parksmart or Not

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Project location :

U.S. and Canada

October 30, 2018

Our project is a single building - an office building built atop a parking structure. Has anyone done a pro/con analysis of whether 'tis better to include the parking structure in the LEED boundary, certified with the office building, or to certify it separately under Parksmart?

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Tristan Roberts

Representative

Vermont House of Representatives

LEEDuser Expert

7780 thumbs up

Mon, 11/05/2018 - 15:34

I haven't but I'm curious what factors you would weigh and how you would weigh them? Parksmart is pretty new and most people don't have experience with it. So expect to spend more time than you would otherwise just understanding it internally. Based on your future plans for certification, would this be an investment in future capability, or just a cost? Similarly, do you welcome the more fine-grained parking-related considerations Parksmart is going to have you go through -- do you welcome the ideas and structure the rating system will give you -- or will it be an unwanted constraint on the project? All about what your goals are and what you learn from the experience.

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Tue, 11/27/2018 - 17:51

The pro/con analysis came out pretty neutral. On including the garage in the boundary, we thought we might gain an Optimize Energy Performance point through better than code lighting power densities and controls in the garage, and lose a point in Outdoor Water Use Reduction because the garage landscape design requires more water than we can economically harvest and store. We also would lose the Light Pollution Reduction point because the owner desires some "signature" lighting elements on the garage - don't get me started on that... We felt like Heat Island Reduction and the Material and Resources and Innovation points were neutral. The garage adds a lot of structure (steel and concrete) to the material cost of the project, but may also yield a number of fairly easily gained EPDs (from mill certificates from the various steel elements in the garage).