Our building consists of a 93,600 square foot industrial shop, and a two-story office whose floors are 14,400 square foot each. In order to obtain a point for this credit, we need the shop area to count as having views since the office building alone only has about 65% of its area with views. With the shop area included, the area with views jumps to over 94% overall. In the shop, the windows are located at about 20 feet off of the ground for safety purposes since the shop is mostly a metal piping and duct fabrication facility. The LEED Reference Guide 2.0 states that windows be no higher than 7\'6" in order for the room to count as having a view. We still tried to meet the intent of the credit by introducing views to the shop employees, just at a higher and safer level. Our question is this: since we tried to meet the intent of the credit by having views and we need the shop\'s area to count in order to get over 90%, can we use the shops area even though the windows are over 7\'6" high? We are not looking to exclude the shop area from the calculations since views are detrimental to the shop employees because we need this space\'s views to get over the 90% guideline.
The shop windows as described do not meet the view requirements. The shop is a regularly occupied space and thus cannot be excluded from EQ Credit 8.2 calculations. It is commendable and practical to incorporate clerestory windows to allow daylighting into the shop area. The project team is encouraged to apply for EQ Credit 8.1 (Daylighting).