Measuring distance to shower facilities

Unless someone else has had a definitive ruling I think this remains a bit of a gray area. The language is for distance to the shower facilities. The "facility" I think can reasonably be interpreted as the building or suite where the showers are located, although only within reason—if you're at the 200 yard limit already, then I wouldn't make people walk very far once they reach the "facility."

We have the exact same situation for a Student Union, in which we will use the showers in the nearby Athletic Center. We contacted GBCI help, and received a "gray answer" to the question. The GBCI's answer does seem to support Tristan's comment about being within reason as well as measuring to the suite in which they are located when possible. Here is what GBCI said:

Thank you for contacting the Green Building Certification Institute. The LEED Green Building Design and Construction 2009 Reference Guide states that for SSc4.2 the project team must provide shower and changing facilities within 200 yards of a building entrance and it is walking distance to that entrance.

In regards to if the distance should be measured to the entry point of the athletic center, the Reference Guide states that the distance is measured to the shower and changing facility itself, not just to the building in which the facility is located in. For example if the facilities are on the opposite side of the building and the building is 100 yards long, the intent of the credit is not met.

In this forum we cannot approve project teams' strategies, only offer guidance. If you would like an answer guaranteed to be accepted by the review team a CIR should be submitted. For more information regarding CIRs refer to this link http://www.gbci.org/Certification/Resources/cirs.aspx.

that doesn't seem extremely gray until they give the disclaimer at the end.

They are saying that it is to the "shower itself"... not the door of the building containing the shower.

seems kind of nit picky to me but I guess they are drawing a hard line on the 200 yards requirement.

Hi Kathryn,
I didn’t interpret it as necessarily to the shower itself, since they say "and changing facilities." But this is where it gets gray to me - I am taking a hopeful interpretation that it is saying we are allowed to measure the distance to the door to the "suite" inside the building in which the showers and changing rooms are located, which I would consider the full “changing facilities.” In our situation (which I didn't fully explain before), we would be using the locker rooms and showers that are part of the pool facilities within the Athletic center. From within the building, one would enter a small foyer, and then go one direction to directly enter the men's locker rooms and the opposite to directly enter the women's locker rooms. The showers are located at the opposite side of the entry for both locker rooms. We are within 200 yds to the entry to the small foyer, but not to the showers. To me, the entry to the foyer marks the entry to the full suite of shower and changing facilities.
Well, keeping fingers crossed and I will post back after we finish design review and have a definitive answer.

oh dear. So if you measure all the way to the locker room you don't meet it but if you measure to the foyer you do? Ideally you'd be within 200 yards of the changing rooom or showers but seems you're in a challenging position.

I have good news to report back on this topic. Our approach was accepted for this credit. We demonstrated that the common foyer entrance into the shower/changing facilities was within 200 yds of our building entrance and it was accepted.