Page 35 - Green Building Through Integrated Design

THE RECIPE FOR SUCCESS IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE PROJECTS 13

for an extraordinary exercise of will as well as high-level professional skills and judg-
ment. As we’ll see in this book, every high-performance building reaches some point
of insurmountable obstacle, whether technical, functional, or financial, that has to be
overcome by the collective will of the building team.
Let’s take one look back at the practice of integrative design as expressed by Bill
Reed. He is adamant that the LEED system is for keeping track of results, not about
dictating design decisions; he says, “don’t count LEED points; indoor environmental
quality, energy use, water, habitat and site issues are all connected—it’s a whole sys-
tem. You can’t achieve a quality environment without looking at all of those
areas....We rarely score LEED points until the third or fourth charrette. What we do is
have people think systematically [about all these things that are interrelated]”. Finally,
Reed says, “do it all in predesign; you should be getting all of these answers before
you’re even starting to design the building.”
So, let’s close this chapter with Reed’s main points for designing and delivering
high-performance buildings:
1 Don’t count LEED points.
2 Think systematically.
3 Do it all in predesign.
4 Practice the “4 Es”: Engage everyone, early, with every issue.

PLATINUM PROJECT PROFILE
Alberici Office Headquarters, St. Louis, Missouri
Completed in December 2004, this 109,000-square-foot office building serves as
the headquarters for Alberici Corporation, a St. Louis-based construction company.

Photography by Debbie Franke.