I am working on a project that has a main 40 story office building with a retail plaza surrounding it. The site area includes the retail plaza, but does this mean that we have to test all the air handling units in the retail spaces? Would it be possible to keep the site boundary to include the retail plaza area, but not include the retail spaces themselves in the credits.
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David Posada
Integrated Design & LEED SpecialistSERA Architects
LEEDuser Expert
1979 thumbs up
July 20, 2010 - 3:40 pm
The reference guide is pretty strict about defining the LEED boundary area to include the whole building, as discussed in the comments above. See the MPR Supplememental Guidance document for specific language on defining the LEED project boundary.
However, On page xxii of the Reference Guide there is the option to possibly exclude up to 10% of the project area for a particular credit when the applicant does not have control of or accesss to the required element. You may have to justify why you can't get access to those elements, so there's the possibility they may not accept the exclusion.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
July 20, 2010 - 5:42 pm
Matt, this sounds like an MPR issue. For EBOM projects, you have to include a building in its entirety, and you can't gerrymander. I'm not totally clear from your description if the retail space is attached to and part of the office tower. If it is, then it would be hard to justify not including it for this and other credits. But if it's a separate building with separate addresses, it could be excluded. See the MPRs and MPR supplemental guidance for more. Sounds like this might be a "horizontally attached" building situation, in which case you may find some gray areas.
Matthew Macko
PrincipalEnvironmental Building Strategies
66 thumbs up
July 21, 2010 - 2:17 pm
Thank you David and Tristan for these answers. The retail is indeed separate, with each store having its own entrance and address. The site area is currently encompassing the entire retail plaza as they main office building's property management company who I am working with controls the entire plaza in terms of hardscape management, and there is parking located underneath the plaza that we are counting. They do not have control over the individual HVAC systems in the retail shops.
In general, can I not include the retail spaces in the project do I have to. I don't believe this credit has the 10% exemption option.
Tristan Roberts
RepresentativeVermont House of Representatives
LEEDuser Expert
11477 thumbs up
July 24, 2010 - 12:23 am
Looks like your last comment got a bit jumbled at the end, Matt, so I'm not sure if you still have a question. It sounds like you're talking about a multiple-building EBOM application, and I don't have experience with that. But I think that if you're going to try to include all the buildings in one application you have to include those HVAC systems here.
Matthew Macko
PrincipalEnvironmental Building Strategies
66 thumbs up
July 26, 2010 - 3:36 pm
Tristan,
Sorry about that - my fault.
The retail should really be included because it would normally and would in an NC application especially for credits like proximity...
So I think it is important that we include it since the somewhat sprawling (a large city block) retail area is managed and controlled by the owner even though the main focus of our efforts is for the 40+ floors or tower.
The question dials down to whether we need to provide Outside Air ventilation numbers for each of the individual small package units (probably in the 100s) that provide demand cooling for the shops. Most shops just keep their doors open during the day anyway which further exacerbates the "proofing" required for 62.1 calcs.
Does that make sense? Essentially, can we exempt or find another way to get around testing OA at every package unit???
Dan Ackerstein
PrincipalAckerstein Sustainability, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
819 thumbs up
July 28, 2010 - 12:01 am
I feel your pain Matt, but I don't believe there is an existing pathway that you can rely upon. In all cases that I've seen or reviewed, the GBCI has insisted on actual measurements of all AHUs in the building, regardless of size or number. Sampling is a tempting strategy here assuming the units are the same size and model, but sampling is specifically proscribed by the Reference Guide. I wish I had something to offer you but nothing comes to mind - perhaps another user has an idea? Also, as an aside, because the OA measurement must be conducted under 'worst case normal operating conditions' the fact that doors are often open is not likely to be relevant. You need to assume that its a rainy or cold day and the door is closed while the store is populated - 'worst case normal'.