We are stuggling to define "regularly occupied space". We are working on a corporate interior space with meeting rooms, printing rooms, private offices kitchenettes, lounges and open areas with systems furniture. When calculating square footages for example, can we take only the portions of the open areas that is dedicated to systems furniture, or must we take the entire open area, even though a portion of it is dedicated to circulation?
We have a low VLT and therefore need a larger WFR to meet the goals of the prescriptive option.
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David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1979 thumbs up
April 6, 2011 - 5:49 pm
At first glance, it sounds like your meeting rooms, private offices, and open office areas would be regularly occupied spaces. If the kitchenettes, lounges, and printing rooms are not places where people stand or sit to do work, they are typically excluded. Print/ copy rooms where people go to pick up prints and office supplies would not usually be considered "regularly occupied" whereas a high-volume printing room where people operate the machines as part of their job probably would be considered occupied.
For the open office areas, I think it's most common to include the circulation areas in and among the workstations, but exclude the main circulation area closest to the core.
You may get different results with a daylight simulation or by taking measurements with a light meter - the prescriptive method is a pretty rough approximation of actual performance and the least accurate.
Jill Perry, PE
ConsultantJill Perry, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
440 thumbs up
April 6, 2011 - 6:34 pm
A LEED interprestion on a different, but related topic on 6/26/01 states that the area between work stations in an open office should be included in the regularly occupied space, but the corridors or transitions spaces that go around this area are not. It would be difficult to calculate using the prescriptive approach and exclude the area between cubicles.
I agree with David on this and on the assessment of the other spaces. The prescriptive method is meant to be quick to use but isn't as accurate, telling or "giving" as the other methods.