by Shane Henson — May 17, 2013—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently certified Schilling Green II, a Class A office building located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—Core & Shell (LEED-CS) Platinum because of the building’s many outstanding sustainable features.
This adaptive reuse project transformed an outdated warehouse site into a showcase for green building, says Merritt Properties, owner and manager of the building. This project utilized a previously developed single-story warehouse and sought to build on the momentum established by the groundbreaking renovation of Schilling Green, continuing the architectural thread and establishing a new campus architecture.
With the goal of receiving LEED Platinum certification, several green techniques and attributes were put in place from the start, beginning with reusing the crushed concrete, masonry and asphalt from the existing building and parking lot as aggregate for the new site. In fact, throughout the demolition of the existing facility and construction of the new building, more than 95% of all waste was recycled, says Merritt Properties.
Among the building’s many other green features, the innovative underfloor air distribution (UFAD) system offers the most tangible benefit to building occupants. Unlike traditional overhead systems, the UFAD delivers fresh air directly to the breathing zone and allows employees to independently adjust the airflow within their workspaces to provide greater thermal comfort. The UFAD’s modular access flooring also facilitates data cabling and accommodates an array of workspace configurations.
In addition to the green attributes mentioned above, the building also features the following:
- White TPO reflective roof as well as a section of green roof
- Irrigation water use reduced by 59% by way of weather stations, efficient heads and drought-tolerant landscaping
- Potable water usage reduced by 48% by using waterfree urinals, metered faucets and dual flush toilets
- Building energy usage reduced by 28% below ASHRAE 90.1-2004
- 25 kilowatt photovoltaic array and a solar hot water collector to heat the building’s domestic hot water
- More than 30% of the building materials contain recycled content
- More than 25% of the building materials extracted, processed and manufactured locally
- All low-VOC (volatile organic compound) materials
- Two electric vehicle charging stations and 17 hybrid vehicle parking spots
- CO2 monitoring system
- Green housekeeping
