CREJ - Building Dialogue - March 2015
Amid the recent redevelopment surrounding Denver’s Historic Union Station, one sleek commercial high-rise has quietly distinguished itself on a national level. Meet 1900 Sixteenth Street, the first multitenant office building anywhere to achieve three distinct Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. Having recently added the LEED Platinum rating for Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance to previous certifications for Core and Shell (Gold) and Commercial Interiors (Certified), 1900 Sixteenth Street sets a new sustainability benchmark for multitenant office buildings. Perhaps 1900 Sixteenth Street’s under-the-radar accomplishment has been overshadowed by the tremendous pace and volume of area redevelopment. After all, it is adjacent to one of the most dynamic urban makeovers in the United States. In 2006, when the design process was initiated, much of what surrounded the site was a rail yard that felt forgotten between the Platte and Lower Downtown. The property’s visionary development team, however, saw the parcel as ideal for developing a uniquely sustainable office complex that is now the first of its kind. “From the beginning, 1900 Sixteenth Street targeted high-level sustainability as a primary objective,” remarked Collin Kemberlin, a principal with Tryba Architects, project designers. “Everyone on the ownership side, from Bentall Kennedy, the real estate adviser, to Trammell Crow, the developer, and CBRE, the property manager, were all very familiar with the LEED rating system. They listened to conversations about long-term value and payback periods related to decision-making.” Tryba was merged with Saunders Construction in a construction manager/general contractor delivery agreement that allowed the two firms to function as equal partners but operate under separate contracts with the owner. Just steps from the Millennium Bridge, the teams at Tryba and Saunders worked closely with the owners to envision a dual-building office complex with shared parking and a pedestrian plaza. Built on a podium parking structure, 1900 Sixteenth Street and its sister building, the DaVita World Headquarters, take advantage of the area’s tremendous alternative transportation possibilities provided by the multimodal Union Station complex. LEED Core and Shell was an obvious first in terms of meeting the owner’s objectives. Going from CS to Commercial Interiors, however, was more of a delicate process. Doing so required the team to work directly with occupying tenants who would be fitting out their new space. With a total of 21 tenants, each with individual business needs and interests, finding uniform treatments for interior finishes simply wasn’t realistic in today’s brand-centric market. Instead of prescribing specific finish materials, Tryba’s approach entailed creating a Tenant Design Standard, a document that served as something of a roadmap to sustainable choices for tenants without being overly restrictive. “The Tenant Design Standard was really a departure from the business as usual approach to commercial office building fit-out,” continued Kemberlin. “Initially the idea was something of a challenging conversation with the owners and brokers. However, they recognized Denver as a very progressive city and understood that a reasonable number of tenants would value a strong commitment to sustainability.” A key to making the Tenant Design Standard a truly viable solution was to simplify the process of using it. That meant developing a concise, clean, graphically appealing book with material choices that were well organized and easy to find. Additionally, the standard is easily adaptable. Each tenant’s desired finish materials, fixtures and equipment only had to meet the document’s intent for sustainability to be approved for use. 1900 Sixteenth Street was completed in the fall of 2008 and the building easily achieved the first two LEED certifications. The third certification, EBOM, requires a minimum continuous operational period of 12 months before it can be certified. 1900 Sixteenth Street was occupied for more than five years before the ownership team began to look at retro-commissioning, a process used to validate system performance and fine-tune the building’s operational efficiency. “The retro-commissioning process is really about making sure the building is being operated on an optimum level,” remarked Celeste Cizik, senior energy engineer of Group14 Engineering, the firm hired to do the commissioning for the EBOM Certification. “When Group14 was brought on board in January of 2014, we found that the building’s operations team was doing a really good job of using the building’s systems as designed but, generally, there is always room for improvement.” Those improvements included rearranging a systems’ sequencing process during the early morning “building warm-up” period to get the building ready for occupancy more efficiently. Another change involved adding Sky Spark, an innovative data analytics software, that allows users to combine human intuition with measured performance to identify when and where data isn’t lining up with expectations. Sky Spark provides a real-time view of building operations and illustrates how well the building is performing against expectations allowing operators to enhance performance by fine-tuning system sequences. Beyond the certifications, the success of 1900 Sixteenth Street is really about performance. On average, office buildings in the United States operate for roughly $2.04 per square foot per year. 1900 Sixteenth Street runs on just $1.30 per square foot. Multiply the savings of 74 cents by the building’s approximately 440,000 square feet and it’s easy to understand why 1900 Sixteenth Street makes a lot of sense inside and out.