Page 236 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

212 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

grills so there’s more free area to make the chilled beam work. On the other hand, the
architect needed to have a reflective surface to throw natural light deeper into the
building. So we had to compromise between the airflow and reflective surface. We
decided to use a grill that was open on one part and had a flat surface on the other
part. It wasn’t exactly what the architect wanted and it wasn’t exactly what we
wanted, but it really brings the light deeper into the space and it doesn’t compromise
the function of the chilled beams.
The project uses evaporative chillers but we could have gone even further with energy
recovery [enthalpy] wheels [as did the Ohlone College project] that capture the heat
or cool energy in the exhaust air from the building for energy and [use it to] pre-treat
the air coming into the building. We did a quick calculation to determine how much
efficiency we would get out of it. Was it going to get us from seven to nine LEED
energy points? We calculated that it would get us close to eight maybe, and that it
would cost another $60,000 to get to nine points. We quickly decided that we had
done enough to achieve our goals.

The key to achieving LEED Platinum rested not only with the collaborative effort
of the design and construction team, but also with many of the product suppliers:

People really went above and beyond as far as contributions and efforts (the sup-
pliers and even the contractors). You know when you get into something and you
don’t know what it is? The Signature Centre did not start out on as a LEED
Platinum project. It was determined to go for high-level certification after the ven-
ture was underway. Yet, everyone embraced the process. I think everyone believed
in the project

Integrated design is really a collaborative effort. You can’t have people sitting out on
their own islands and being successful. The team has to have one single focus. If you
have a player that sits over here and says, “I’m just going to do what I have to do
and get out,” then that’s going to be a hindrance to the success of the project.
Everyone has to have a commitment to the project not to just themselves and their
bottom line. [This means that] you have to pick the right people. The selection of
people is critical. They really have to understand how their work impacts other peo-
ple. It’s basically playing nice in the sandbox. It comes down to the relationships that
you build.

This extended commentary about the role of all parties in the integrated design
process illustrates clearly that everyone needs to be engaged and brought into the
decision-making throughout the process. It also speaks to the need for rapid decision-
making for high-performance projects; that in turn requires that the owner’s project
manager be capable of and authorized to make key decisions. For many large compa-
nies and institutions, that would be a departure from standard practice, in which the
project manager does not have enough latitude to make key decisions. The lesson here
is that high-performance results require process changes as much as advanced
technologies.