Case Studies

Written by Denise Bates, RID, IIDA, LEEP AP

 

LEED SILVER CERTIFICATION

The Hunt Headquarters Building, located at 1900 North Akard Street in the heart of the Downtown Dallas was recently awarded LEED Silver Commercial Interiors (CI) 2.0 certification for the interior design and construction of a new 14 story high rise office tower. The 480,000 square foot building borders the Arts District to the east and marks the northern entrance into the downtown district. This prominent site, selected out of a desire to pursue an environmentally sensitive development, facilitates Hunt’s desire to promote a broad view of socially responsible corporate leadership.
 
Although the new office high rise building obtained certification for the interior elements within the primary tenant area of the facility, numerous other sustainable strategies were woven into the design of the entire development throughout the project creating a balanced sensitive approach to the complex.

Ray Hunt, Chairman and CEO, stated at the certification plaque ceremony, “If there was ever a building that represented good out-of-the-box ideas coming from hundreds of different people and coming together, with the best of those producing a remarkable result, this is that example.”

To reach this achievement, the project met stringent credit qualifications of the U.S. Green Building Council LEED for Commercial Interiors (CI) Rating System for the interior elements and also incorporated guidelines for the entire building as found in the LEED Core and Shell (CS) Rating System.

“As an energy company, creating a LEED-certified work environment was a conscious decision we made during the design phase,” said Ben Tyner, Building Operations Manager for Hunt Oil Company.  “Receiving LEED Silver certification is a great accomplishment for the company and demonstrates our sensitivity to a number of environmental issues we face today.”  

The LEED CI Silver plaque certification was unveiled to Hunt employees during a recent ceremony.  The building stands as an example of sustainable development teamwork, commitment, and vision in creating a beautiful, functional, and healthy work environment.

INTERIOR

Programmatically, the high-rise glass and stone building houses a combination of open and hard-wall office spaces, a conference center, training facilities, smaller conference areas, an employee dining room with catered food service, and flexible adaptable office workspace environments.  The building is part of an entire city block complex that includes a neighboring parking garage directly to the south with a secured pedestrian skybridge providing direct connectivity from the garage to the main building.

EXTERIOR

The building exterior is comprised of a combination of native stone elements at the ground level and a sophisticated unitized curtainwall system with glazed-in granite panels. The primary focal point of the building exterior is expressed at the northern elevation with a full elevation glass curtainwall ‘sail’ form with an extruded cylindrical glass element juxtapositioned at the ground and upper levels of the façade.  The pre-glazed curtainwall ‘sail’ form, constructed of bent metal and curved glass integrates a LCD lighting assembly integral to the vertical mullions of the ellipse curtain wall. White backlit laminated glass is used at the perimeter of the curtain wall and provides the building an effervescent glow at night.

SITE PLAN

The exterior site plan incorporates quality natural stone materials, water elements, and exterior lighting creating a sense of place at the pedestrian access level and providing a properly scaled portal into the facility.  Large landscaped areas incorporating native North Texas plantings surround the complex providing areas of shade, respite, and protection from the sun.  

An elliptical fountain and reflecting water feature pool encapsulate the primary entrance to the facility and cascade into the main lobby blending the exterior with the interior.  The exterior planting environment at the ground level balances native sustainable vegetation strategies with the surrounding Art’s District vegetation requirements of compositionally incorporating bald cypress trees and massive live oak trees.  A mature landscape was provided as a result of transplanting many new mature trees in the site area and providing drought tolerant grasses and plantings. The landscape was designed to reduce the urban heat island effect of the development.

SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES

Many sustainable elements were incorporated into the design and construction of the facility as part of a comprehensive balanced strategy of the exterior and interior.  Ray Hunt stated, “All of us should take great pride in receiving this award,” “The award is significant and it is something that is very, very meaningful. What is more meaningful…is that the award represents the values that all of us have.”  As a total construction development complex incorporating both LEED CI and CS criteria, some of the building’s energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features include:

• Use of energy efficient lighting and extensive use of natural daylighting
• Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system that includes energy monitoring equipment to improve indoor air quality
• Twenty percent of total building materials used were made of recycled content
• The building uses 23 percent less water overall (with an irrigation system that uses 50 percent less water than conventional systems)
• At least 50 percent of electricity used in the building comes from renewable sources
• Installed daylight responsive controls reduce environmental impacts associated with excessive energy use
• Native drought-tolerant grasses and plants were utilized
• Use of low-emitting carpets, paints, adhesives, sealants and coatings
• Implementation of a corporate ergonomics program
• Implementation of a corporate van/car-pooling program
• Water efficient landscaping

During the construction process, the following environmental savings were realized.

• 5.3 million gallons of water were saved during construction
• 4.7 million pounds of concrete were recycled
• Nearly 2,800 cubic yards of landfill space was saved by diverting construction waste
• Nearly 3.5 million kilowatts of electricity was saved during construction

BY THE NUMBERS

A brief overview of the pursued LEED CI credits utilized in the building is listed in the following table:

Sustainable Sites	5
Water Efficiency	1
Energy + Atmosphere	5
Materials + Resources	3
Indoor Environmental Quality	8
Innovation in Design	5
Total	27

 

BY THE DETAILS

A detailed breakdown of the individual credits achieved with the LEED Gold Pre-Certification of the building is listed below:

SUSTAINABLE SITES

• SSc1    Sustainable Site Selection
• SSc2    Development Density & Community Connectivity
• SS3.1    Public Transportation Access
• SS3.2    Bicycle Storage and Changing Rooms.
• SS3.3    Parking Availability

WATER EFFICIENCY

• WE c1.1    Water Use Reduction
• WE c1.2    Water Use Reduction

ENERGY AND ATMOSPHERE

• EAp1    Fundamental Commissioning
• EAp2    Minimum Energy Performance
• EAp3    CFC Reduction in HVAC&R Equipment
• EAc1.2    Optimize  Energy Performance- Lighting Controls
• EAc1.3A    Optimize Energy Performance- HVAC
• EAc1.4    Optimize Energy Performance- Equipment and Appliances
• EAc2    Enhance Commissioning
• EAc4    Green Power

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

• MRc1.1    Tenant Space, Long Term Commitment
• MRc4.1    Recycled Content
• MRc4.2    Recycled Content

INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

• EQp1    Minimum IAQ Performance
• EQc3.1    Construction IAQ Management Plan, During Construction
• EQc3.2    Construction IAQ Management Plan, Before Occupancy
• EQc4.1    Low-Emitting Materials – Adhesives and Sealants
• EQc4.2    Low-Emitting Materials – Paints and Coatings
• EQc4.3    Low-Emitting Materials – Carpet Systems
• EQc6.1    Controllability of Systems, Lighting
• EQc7.1    Thermal Comfort- Compliance
• EQc7.2    Thermal Comfort- Monitoring

INNOVATION IN DESIGN

• IDc1.1    Innovation in Design. Ergonomic Criteria
• IDc1.2    Innovation in Design. Smart Chair Certification
• IDc1.3    Innovation in Design. Green Housekeeping Operations
• IDc1.4    Innovation in Design. Green Power
• LEED Accredited Professional

PROJECT TEAM

Owner: Hunt Consolidated, Inc.
Developer: Woodbine Development Corporation
Interior Designer: Gensler
Architect: The Beck Group
Structural: Brockette Davis Drake, Inc.
Civil: Raymond L. Goodson, Inc.
MEP: James Johnston and Associates, Inc.
Landscape: TBG Partners
Low Voltage: Michael Raiser Associates
Security: Kroll Schiff
Curtainwall: CDC & B.J. Swango Consulting
Commissioning: Air Performance
Contractor:  Austin Commercial, L.P.