We've just heard interesting news via the GBCI "contact us" portal and we'd be interested in a reality check. Our building has four floors of roughly 5,000 sf each. When we select the "Under 15,000 sf" option, the views calculator defaults to the threshold of 7,348 sf, which is obviously unworkable. We were told that our building is ineligible for this credit. It hardly seems fair or logical, not to mention sustainable, that a small building should be excluded from attempting this credit. Project like ours (situated on urban infill sites, in high density neighborhoods, located near transit) are in most respects more efficient and "sustainable" than the average building on which these credit assumptions are based. We intend to use the total sf for this credit calculator, as has been counseled above. Has anyone had experience in obtaining this credit for a small building?
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Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
April 17, 2013 - 9:45 pm
Marian, could you quote us the relevant text from your GBCi contact, assuming it was in email form?
Susan Walter
HDRLEEDuser Expert
1296 thumbs up
April 18, 2013 - 11:47 am
Marian, I am not sure why the 7,348 sf is becoming a critical floor area for LEED HC. (See conversation below with Olivier.) This may be something GBCI needs to explain more to project teams. If you can post the text as Tristan suggested, it may help us on the forum to help parse it out.
As you well know, not all credits are available to all projects despite the sustainability of the project in a broader sense. I think the key is understanding why 7,348 sf is important.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11478 thumbs up
April 18, 2013 - 11:58 am
Marian sent me the relevant text, which I'll paste here. Basically it just sounds to me as though they haven't written the credit language for buildings this small, and it would require a CIR or LEED Interpretation to get them to extrapolate down further.Quoting from GBCI: (note that this does not include the full inquiry, but I think everyone will get the idea)1a. The floor plate area refers to the area of one floor plate. The Threshold values refer to the perimeter areas within 15 feet. If your project floor plate is less than the Threshold A value of 7,348, then yes, the credit is not applicable. The project team could potentially attempt one point for inpatient units but unfortunately, that doesn't offer the two points needed for IEQc8.1. There is discussion that this issue could potentially become a LEED Interpretation and reviewed by the TAG to see if the table could be extrapolated to floor plates lower than 15,000 square feet.1b. All floor plates refer to the "Up to." value. So for future reference, a floor plate with a bGSF of 20,236 sf should be concerned with the 25,000 category.2. Yes, obtaining points in IEQc8.1 is contingent upon achieving two points in IEQc8.2. This is a know discussion point and is being reevaluated.
Abena Darden
Senior AssociateThornton Tomasetti
273 thumbs up
April 18, 2013 - 5:56 pm
Thanks Tristan and Susan - I'm following up with the developers of the credit. Failing a satisfactory answer, it is time for a LEED Interpretation. One thing we noted on the table is that the threshold ratios of spaces with views to "non-viewing" spaces seem to range from about 31% for a building 50,000 sf and over and 49% for a building 15,000 sf (per floor plate). So there seems to be some math at work here that makes it hard to propose alternative compliance. Essentially, the larger the building, the lower the requirement is.
Susan Walter
HDRLEEDuser Expert
1296 thumbs up
April 19, 2013 - 2:08 pm
Let us know how it goes Marian!