Site Characteristics Percentage

Patrick Reale

The Pike Company

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

August 13, 2013

For some reason our building to site ratio percentage is extremely high (197%). The building 4 floors with a basement and a rooftop mechanical room. The total sf is 155545sf. We measured the site area within the LEED project boundary to be 78937sf. Is this normal?

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Kimberly Frith

LEEDuser Basic Member

210 thumbs up

Wed, 08/14/2013 - 14:58

Patrick, your ratio is normal. Being above 100% just means you built upward instead of outward. Think of a 1-story, zero lot line property, that would equal a 100% ratio; a tiny building with a large yard would have a ratio much lower than 100%.

Josh Sawyer

SHW Group

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 08/14/2013 - 15:46

Additionally, you should realize that a project of this nature, one that is of high density, will make it more difficult to obtain some of the open space credits (SSc5.1, SSc5.2, SSc6.1 and SSc6.2, as you will not have much land to work with. I ran into this on another project that included several buildings on a tiny site. The solution is then to look at green roofs to get those credits. Just FYI.