Phased building construction and LEED --any references or advice

Walt, I have a couple questions to clarify things, before I get to trying to answer your question.Is this a LEED for Schools project?Is this all happening with one building, or multiple buildings? If in one building, are the phased construction projects separated in some way, e.g. by a party wall, or by separate mechanical and plumbing systems?

Walt, for background you should review LEED"s Minimum Program Requirements (see the link posted by David, above). These address issues such as gerrymandering a site, and certifying a whole building.It seems to me that since you will be certifying the whole building that is to be constructed at this time, there is no real obstacle to certifying it under LEED. I  would recommend you consider pursuing SSc9: Site Master Plan, which will help set the stage for LEED certification of the future construction.

So the whole building is existing? How far apart do you anticipate the phases to be? While the first phase is being built, will the other "leg" be occupied, or is the whole building being gutted at once?I'm hoping to provide you with more specific advice, but if you haven't already, you should talk to GBCI and get their advice. They make the rules, after all, and may have some specific insight on this.

Hello,

I'm having kind of the same problem and would greatly appreciate your advice. This is the scenario:
Location: Costa Rica
Building type: mixed use (commercial, office, residential)
Case: the project is a two towers building joined by the common areas (imagine an U) where the horizontal part of the U is 9 stories high and from that level the two towers arise.
The problem is that tower 1 is about to begin construction, but tower 2 won't start until 2013 and they share the same footprint, common areas, ...

Is there any way to certify tower 1 and then tower 2? or do I have to submit the whole project for certification and wait until 2015 to get the certification?

Please let me know if you need clarification.

It may be simpler to wait until 2015 to certify the building as one project as it may be easier to document the performance of the building systems. However, it could be harder to find all the documentation from phase 1 when several years have passed, especially when reviewers ask for clarifications or revisions to the documentation. And everyone would prefer to see a plaque sooner than later.

One issue to clarify is whether the two towers could be defined as separate buildings and thus pursue separate certifications. This depends on how separate are their mechanical systems, entries, and addresses.

There are now definitions of horizontally and vertically attached buildings that you'll want to check to see if you comply. The MPR Supplemental Guidance has a definition of horizontally separated buildings, but the vertical separation definition came out fairly recently, I think by an addendum.

Another option is the concept of a "block." When you go to LEED Online and begin the registration steps, there's an option for Blocks if you indicate future LEED projects will be associated with this one. Blocks are essentially LEED projects that are "linked" to each other in an administrative manner; they will be reviewed by the same LEED review team and thus can more easily share information. You still need to clarify whether the towers can be treated separately, so you may need to contact GBCI directly.