Page 166 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

LEARNING FROM A LEED PILOT PROJECT 145

during the pre-construction and design phase, we learned it was the policy of most
chain store and big box tenants to demolish the existing facade on buildings they
rented, regardless of its physical condition, so the tenant could build a new facade to
suit its current corporate identity. Since corporate identities seem to change every few
years, we saw this practice as wasteful and certainly not sustainable. So we designed
our shopping center with a traditional look and substantial facades that we hope future
tenants won’t want to demolish, but will, instead, be happy to adapt to, just as tenants
in buildings in downtown Savannah choose not to demolish two-hundred-year-old
facades but instead accept and adapt them.
If you look closely at our buildings, you will see a greater level of architectural
detail compared to typical retail shopping center facades. In addition to better quality,
we ensured an appropriate level of caulking and painting to provide a better airtight
building envelope. To aid our facade performance, the walls are insulated to R-19, and
the roofs are insulated to an extreme level, R-30, to save energy.
When considering the design of our storefront facades, we took into account the
inevitable heat gain from sunlight through our glazing. As a result, we provided more
window glazing in north-facing facades, which receive less direct sunlight, and less
window glazing in the west-facing facades, which get much more direct sunlight late
in the afternoon, when temperatures in the summer often reach the high 90s at 5 p.m.
One thing I wish we had thought of is the use of dissimilar building-wall thick-
nesses in appropriate locations. Like most developers, at the time of design we didn’t
consider that some wall sections battle heat gain, whereas other wall sections, such as
north facades, don’t. In hindsight, it only makes sense that a building’s walls should
be thicker on the west-facing facade and, in some cases, the south-facing facade, to
accommodate more insulation. Why do we build north-facing walls and west-facing
walls the same way? The simple, common sense answer is that we shouldn’t. But
sometimes the common sense answer isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
Another common sense idea is to build with demolition in mind. After all, no mat-
ter how much we don’t want to see serviceable buildings torn down, the fact is that
any building may eventually be demolished. Therefore, in our design and construction
of our steel members we have many mechanical connections instead of welds, so the
steel can easily be removed and re-used in future renovations.
In addition to these sustainable design practices, we also included as standard items
high-efficiency two-by-four light fixtures that use 28-watt tubes, hot gas re-heat effi-
cient HVAC equipment, and of course, low-emission (low E) window glazing that, in
addition to keeping heat inside in winter and out in summer, reflects ultraviolet light,
which can damage furnishings and window displays. These energy-saving features, com-
bined with the quality building envelope and the highly reflective white roof mem-
brane, reduce average electricity consumption at Abercorn Common by an estimated
30 percent when compared to a conventional building built during the same time frame.

SAVING WATER
One goal we set for our design team early on was to significantly reduce water use. To
that end, the restrooms at Abercorn Common are equipped with low-flow sink faucets