The main intent of the MPR and supplemental guidance requirements regarding additions is to discourage the LEED certification of one part of a building that is not clearly separate from the rest of the building that is not being certified. That's not the case here, since both are getting certified, so you just need to figure out what's a reasonable approach.
The question is whether that addition should be added into the original LEED submission as part of that project and included in that one LEED submission or treated as a separate project for a separate LEED award. It may depend on how far along is the design review for the first phase. You'll probably want to contact the GBCI and explain the situation and your timeline to see if they advise combining the two or registering them separately. If you have different design team members, contractors, HVAC systems or specs for the addition, it might be easier in the long run to treat them as separate projects, but if it's mostly the same, see if you can combine them into one.
If you need to treat it as a separate project, you'll probably want to register it as a "block" when you register in LEEDOnline so it can be associated with the first project and thus reviewed by the same review team.
Also check the MPR Supplemental Guidance document pages 15 - 17 for how to deal with the site area and LEED boundary in phased projects.
LEED Pro Consultant
Bioconstruccion & Energia Alternativa78 thumbs up
April 1, 2013 - 7:52 pm
Hello David!
I am following on this thread because I have a similar case as Garry. Our client has finished construction and we're now on the final documentation stage of the project. But now, they are planning a building addition (completely attached to the original building) and they wish to consider LEED Certification for it too.
But, if the addition would have a separate LEED Certification, is it possible to use the same site for this? (as I understood that there cannot be 2 LEED Certifications within a single project boundary) Wouldn't the projects need to use the AGMBC to share site credits?
The other option I see is to actually consider the addition into the current Certification project, although a lot of the credits would change. Please correct me if I am wrong!
Thanks!
LEED Pro Consultant
Bioconstruccion & Energia Alternativa78 thumbs up
April 1, 2013 - 7:54 pm
I just realized this story was from 2010!
Garry, what did you end up doing for this project and its addition?
Thanks!!
Mary Lea Tucker
PresidentGreen Sage Consulting LLC
8 thumbs up
April 25, 2014 - 7:30 pm
I too have a similar project in the works and would like to know how this is done!
Mary Lea Tucker
PresidentGreen Sage Consulting LLC
8 thumbs up
April 29, 2014 - 7:41 pm
I believe I have an answer! I posed the question to the technical department at the GBCI and their response was to refer to the Nov 2009 edition of the Supplemental Guidance of the Minimum Program Requirements:
"You may wish to review an older version of the MPR Supplemental Guidance (November 2009), http://www.usgbc.org/resources/leed-2009-mpr-supplemental-guidance-nov-2009, that more specifically addresses the situation you describe. While this document is not the latest version, the guidance on page 15 under 'Site boundary guidance for phased building projects, or building on land that was designated for a previously certified LEED project' can be applied to current projects."
Hope this helps everyone else!