![]() |
Best Practice Guide |
|
Commercial Office Buildings |
||
![]() |
Case StudySwinerton, Inc.Property Name: 260 Townsend Website: main www.swinerton.com and Green Building page www.swinertongreen.com
Swinerton Incorporated is a premiere construction company operating in the western United States. Committed to green building and sustainable design, Swinerton put its principles to practice renovating the company headquarters in San Francisco. Originally built by Swinerton in 1986, this seven-story, 67,000 sq. ft. office building now beats California's strict Title-24 efficiency standards by over 12 percent.
High-efficiency lighting fixtures were used throughout the building and adjacent parking garage to reduce energy costs as well as limit outdoor light pollution. Motion sensors are installed to maximize the benefits of these low-watt fixtures. Designers took advantage of daylighting, providing 90 percent of the workstations with direct or indirect natural light. 75 percent of these workstations also have views to the outdoors. Swinerton has found that these changes helped boost worker productivity in the building, which in turn helped quicken the payback rate.
Another measure that combats the impact of urban heat islands is a custom fabricated cool roof. Swinerton convinced 3M to add a white, high albedo admixture to their elastomeric roofing product, which was tested on the headquarters building. The demonstration was so successful that 3M is now testing this coating and hopes to earn an Energy Star rating before making this new product commercially available to the building industry.
Although Swinerton CEO Jim Gillette evaluated the success of the renovation in terms of bottom-line results, his perspective of the benefits has widened. "Seeing our employees in the atmosphere of our new headquarters, with the abundant natural light and improved indoor air quality, everyone is happier," Gillette stated. "There is a definite change. What we've provided for our people, a truly healthy environment, with no off-gassing of VOCs, has proven to be the greatest benefit of all." |