Cumulative Facade Intrusion?

Kimberly Frith

LEEDuser Basic Member

210 thumbs up

September 16, 2011

Our project has two facades extending along sidewalks. Going by the credit requirements, we cannot have more than fifty feet of blank facade. One of the facades has 54 feet of blank length, while the other has only 33 feet of blank length. Is it possible to use a cumulative approach, or a 'blank facade budget' methodology to achieve this credit? Alternatively, would glass art enclosures or murals count as non-blank facade? We have some lengths of the facade that cannot have an opening such as a door or window due to the structural integrity of the high-rise building.

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Chris Marshall

Manager, LEED Technical Development

U.S. Green Building Council

LEEDuser Premium Member

123 thumbs up

Tue, 11/15/2011 - 17:38

For your first question, projects cannot use a cumulative approach to address your buildings facades. Each, separate facade that faces a sidewalk must be individually assessed to determine how much can't be blank. For the 54-foot blank wall, no more than 21.6 total feet can be blank; for the 33-foot blank wall, no more than 13.2 feet can be blank. Second, doors and windows are truly the only design feature that count towards reducing the amount of blank wall space. Murals and glass-enclosed art are excluded in LEED-ND 2009 and are as well in this pilot credit.