Discussion on:

San Francisco debuts North America's 'greenest urban office building'

From Smart Planet on June 1, 2012.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/astute-architect/is-this-the-most-energy-efficient-office-building/563?tag=search-river

I'd just like to inject my two cents about Tipping Mar's contributions to project's sustainability features, which includes resilience--a very important factor in a project's longevity and service potential--and green concrete mixes, to dramatically lower GHG emissions. As the seismic consultant to SFPUC, Tipping Mar implemented our extremely cost-effective innovative post-tensioned lateral system that returns a building to plumb after a seismic event--this means no permanent deformations after a very large earthquake, the kind that render a building uninhabitable until it is repaired, often to the tune of millions of dollars. In addition, our design solution (1) added a thirteenth story to an originally 12-story building owing to lowered floor-to-ceiling heights (equating to higher density, not to mention greater usable real estate); (2) trimmed the construction schedule owing to our optimized link-beam design that, in conjunction with our PT lateral system, reduced steel reinforcement by 50 percent; (3) saved the project $10 million in direct costs; and (4) decreased the project's carbon footprint by 7.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, owing to Tipping Mar's work with Central Concrete to design six different low-concrete specs used throughout the building.

For in-depth information, read Engineering News Record's cover feature on Tipping Mar and SFPUC: http://enr.construction.com/buildings/sustainability/2012/0220-65279tensioning-eases-stress.asp

All new buildings must be prescribed to be done this way or better!

www.juneayasol.com

I'm sorry but a "hybrid solar array as well as a wind turbine that can generation about seven percent of the building???s annual energy needs" does not constitute sustainable.
It may well be "one of the most self-sustaining buildings anywhere in the world" but only because these touted power generation sources are coupled with things like the raised flooring system that reduces HVAC costs by half. Cutting costs in half, now that is impactful. Please don't try to pass off 7% as significant. Not until solar cells are more efficient will solar power be close to a viable "alternative" energy source. And wind? Seriously? I am all for sustainable alternative energy sources but throwing billions of dollars and acres of land into windmills is not the answer.

Finally, limiting "parking to encourage alternative transportation among employees" doesn't encourage but coerces employees to search for another option. Force will never change someone's thinking. If they don't see the environmental benefit to one less car on the road they will either pay more for the available spots or begrudgingly find an alternative.

Don't get me wrong, this building as a whole really sounds great! I have worked in the AEC industry for nearly 20 years and have been looking forward to innovations like LEED and ISI (http://sustainableinfrastructure.org/). Now we just need to figure out how to bring down the cost so that LEED principles will be used in more construction.

Sorry for the rant. For the last few years I have been working with and learning more about energy. I get a little upset when someone praises one of the so-called alternative energy "solutions" that are still years away from putting a significant dent in our energy needs/consumption.

The Rice Fergus Miller office building in Bremerton, Washington, is among only a handful of buildings ever to receive more than 90 LEED points. It has a remarkable energy efficiency level of 21Kbtu/SF, making it possible to reach Net Zero Energy with a large enough solar array on the roof (when they can afford to install it). The building had an extremely affordable construction cost of $105/SF and was a renovation of an historic old dilapidated building in the heart of Bremerton. This building is a model for deep energy savings in existing buildings without huge budget and without tearing down old historic buildings.

http://buildings.newbuildings.org/overview.cfm?projectID=2136