I need to determine which rating system to use for a project where the client owns the whole building and is planning to renovate different floors in separate phases over four years. I've reviewed the definitions, but it's still unclear whether or not USGBC has rules about this type of phasing of an existing building. Eventually 100% of the building will be renovated, including a new entrance thereby affecting the ext. envelope, and MEP systems, but each phase will account for less than 40% of the gross area of the entire building. Is it possible to register as a CI project? Would it need be 4 different certifications or can it be lumped into one?
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Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
April 23, 2011 - 9:47 pm
Aaron, based on the fact that 40% of the gross area won't be in play at any given time, I would say that this should be a CI project.
David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1979 thumbs up
April 25, 2011 - 12:56 pm
I agree with Tristan that CI would be the simplest, but I think you could investigate the pros and cons of several options, depending on the building owner's preferences and priorities: LEED EB, CI for each phase or NC for the whole building.
You could pursue LEED - EB since they own the building and plan on renovating all the spaces, so it makes sense to create building standards to guide the renovations and address whole building performance. Once you have 12 months of utility data that meets the energy star pre-req, you could start the EB certification performance period and include one of the renovations. It can be challenging to pursue EB in a multi-tenant building, but it's certainly been done a number of times, and may have long-term benefits for O&M savings.
In theory you may be able to use the "block" function for multiple CI projects so you get the same reviewer and are able to share some of the base building data, but I haven't looked into this extensively.
It would also be possible to collect all the LEED data for all the MR and EQ credits for each renovation phase, wait till the whole building is complete, and submit as one NC project. This would require coordination to track all the materials purchasing, construction waste, and IAQ during each phase of construction, and might only make sense if the same general contractor is doing all the work. The main advantage of this approach might be to capture any big improvements in water and energy efficiency if the base building systems are getting major upgrades. You'd see those captured by EB as well, but NC would look less at the tenant purchasing, O&M policies, ongoing performance.
Hope that helps!