8 recent LEED-certified office projects for 2025
By Quinn Purcell, Managing Editor
The editors of Building Design+Construction have collected over 40 recent office and office-to-residential projects, including mixed-use destinations, LEED-certified buildings, and mass timber-built headquarters.
We’re breaking down the submissions into several individual articles to highlight what makes each project special. Because these were all completed in the last 18 months or are currently under construction, these office building and office-to-res projects showcase the latest the market has to offer in terms of amenities, trends, and construction techniques.
Below are eight of the 40 projects. The full list is coming soon, so stay tuned!
8 LEED-Certified Office Building Projects for 2025
Here are eight recent office projects that targeted or achieved LEED certification:
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20 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington, D.C.
20 Massachusetts, or 20 Mass, is a repurposed seven-story office building-turned mixed-use destination. It mixes a 274-key luxury Royal Sonesta hotel with Class-A office space, brought together by various amenities: Penthouse conference and lounge spaces, retail and dining, conference facilities, and a fitness facility.
To accomplish this repositioning, the exterior skin and interior of the building were stripped down to the structural frame and concrete floor plates. The subgrade parking levels were retained. Three floors were added, and the footprint was extended one column bay adding a total of 101,000 sf, taking the building to 485,000 sf.
"In an era where carbon footprints are of utmost concern, the careful, even painstaking, reuse of existing buildings is important work. Thanks to the resilience and dedication of the entire team, we are proud of how 20 Mass transforms an outdated building into a destination filled with character, connectivity, and sustainability." — Janki Bhatia, AIA, Senior Project Architect
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: The RMR Group
Architect: Leo A Daly
Structural Eng: SK&A
Civil Eng: Bohler DC
MEP Eng: Interface Engineering
Landscape Architect: Lee and Associates
General Contractor: DPR Construction
55 Broad Street
New York, N.Y.
55 Broad Street is the residential conversion of a midcentury office tower in Manhattan’s Financial District into a 571-unit rental apartment complex. Originally designed by Emery Roth & Sons and once home to offices for Goldman Sachs, the adaptive reuse has been carried out by CetraRuddy.
Typical of a commercial high-rise from this era, 55 Broad Street has three different floorplates, with a large podium on the lowest six stories and two subsequent setbacks as the tower rises to 36 stories. To address this long lease span, many units on the lower floors have flex spaces and home office areas. The residential program includes an array of amenities—such as substantial resident coworking space and a new rooftop addition with a 45-foot-long outdoor pool, where the original cooling tower and mechanical plant once stood.
The building has also been fully electrified—a rarity in New York City—and is expected to be the first fully electric office-to-residential development to achieve LEED certification, according to the development team.
On the Building Team:
Developers: Silverstein Properties and Metro Loft Management
Architect, AOR: CetraRuddy
Structural Eng: GACE Consulting Engineers
MEP Eng: FMC Engineering
Construction Manager: Collaborative Construction Management
1608 West 5th Street
Austin, Texas
1608 West 5th Street is a three-story multi-tenant urban infill project, consisting of more than 40,000 sf of office space and four levels of underground parking. The building design responds to Austin’s historic warehouse district context through massing, material choice and detailing. The project, on a very tight urban infill site (just 150’x150’), reflects the evolving construction market in Austin.
Designed to look like an old remodeled warehouse–a nod to the district’s history–the three-story building features the familiar exterior vocabulary of brick, glass, and concrete. Traditional Black brick, recalling the familiar materials of the old buildings, is combined with light brick that takes on the appearance of a modern addition.
1608 West 5th Street was also awarded LEED Silver. Low-water plumbing fixtures are expected to help achieve over 40% indoor water use savings, while a combination of optimized building envelope components, efficient HVAC and lighting systems target over 20% whole building energy cost savings.
On the Building Team:
Owner: Manifold Real Estate
Architect, Interior Designer: Studio8
Cleveland Foundation Headquarters
Cleveland, Ohio
The Cleveland Foundation Headquarters is a three-story, 55,000-sf building that integrates deeply with the neighborhood it serves. The foundation’s mission is focused on enhancing the lives of all residents of Greater Cleveland by working together with donors to build community endowment, address needs through grantmaking, and provide leadership on key community issues.
The mass timber building targets LEED Platinum status and enabled the Foundation to relocate its headquarters from its previous high-rise offices to a sidewalk-level presence for the first time in over a century. The design reinterprets the industrial aesthetic of the area through innovative mass timber construction, featuring a warm wood and glass façade that invites interaction and transparency.
The property includes private offices, workstations, conference spaces for both Foundation and community use, community public areas, building amenities, and a lower-level parking garage. Notably, it dedicates half of its footprint to community-oriented facilities, including a public café, a dance and multipurpose studio, a conference center, and an art exhibition space.
A 250-kilowatt solar canopy offsets up to 30% of the building’s annual electricity use, reducing carbon emissions by over 250,000 pounds annually. Surrounding greenspaces enhance the natural environment, and the building’s design incorporates universal accessibility, natural materials, and energy-efficient systems, achieving LEED Gold certification with the goal of reaching LEED Platinum status.
On the Building Team:
Developer: Cleveland Foundation
Architect: S9 Architecture
AOR: Vocon
Structural Eng: Osborn
MEP Eng: Karpinski Engineering
Landscape Architect: DERU Landscape Architecture
Furniture: APG Office Furnishings
Construction Manager: Panzica Construction
Confidential Technology Client Headquarters
Chicago, Ill.
Within their existing headquarters building, this confidential technology client needed a nationally recognized meeting and events venue capable of servicing assemblies, lectures, and company gatherings while fostering optimum working and conferencing spaces for local team members.
The project was designed to support the full range of work modes: focus, collaboration, socialization, learning, and rejuvenation. Biophilic design elements were included, such as unencumbered views, natural daylighting, and a material palette reflective of the natural world.
The client and design team were equally passionate about sustainability and attempted to address every area possible: material selection, construction methods, mechanical systems, local sourcing, reuse of furniture, and biophilia. The philosophical synergy between the client and design team allowed for a deeper and more effective approach to sustainable initiatives, folding seamlessly into an already LEED Platinum headquarters campus.
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: Confidential Technology Client
Architect, MEP Eng: Stantec
Structural/Civil Eng: TSG
Branding: IA Interior Architects
Acoustics: Talaske
Lighting Designer: Schuler Shook
General Contractor: Skender
MilliporeSigma Office
Rockville, Md.
The MilliporeSigma Office is a new 285,000-sf, LEED Gold workspace for MilliporeSigma employees that were previously spread over various buildings and locations. The six-story office incorporates a flexible lab planning strategy and an agile workplace to adapt the real estate as business drivers require.
The first floor incorporates a visitor experience center and formal conference rooms in the main reception lobby. Other program elements on the ground floor include a market, work café, flexible meeting rooms, and a training room in addition to workplace and lab functions. Upper floors encompass the remaining workplace and labs at a ratio of 30% workplace, 70% lab. The new lab spaces vary in type and classification and include general labs, a BSL3 lab, and cGMP clean rooms.
The architectural and material selection of the office represents simplicity. Integration of clean lines and simple gestures, organized lighting, and transparency of spaces will contrast with strong accent colors and visible bold brand elements. The workplace will provide diversity and movement through choice and variety of places to socialize, work, and meet. Additionally, zones of collaboration and concentration provide access to all types of productivity with impromptu and formal spaces while linking work neighborhoods.
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: MilliporeSigma
Architect: Stantec
Structural/Civil Eng: McNamara Salvia
MEP Eng: RG Vanderweil Engineers
General Contractor: Whiting Turner
Southline
Dorchester, Mass.
Southline is the repositioning of a three-story office and industrial building—the 16.6-acre former Boston Globe headquarters at 125 Morrissey Boulevard. The 700,000-sf retrofit is now a modern hub for creative office, laboratory, and retail uses.
It includes 360,000 sf of office space, 300,000 sf of flex/industrial space, retail, 100,000 sf of lab space, a 10,000-sf fitness center, 100-seat restaurant, and a micro craft brewery including an outdoor beer garden. 868 parking spaces and 200+ bike storage spaces are also available on-site. A multi-story atrium creates a central gathering area with food hall and collaborative meeting/gathering spaces. Southline aims to attract tenants who will stimulate growth in the fields of life science, high tech manufacturing, and technology.
The project's biggest challenge was that the 700,000-sf building is wedged between major highways, requiring the team to stretch the project budget and planning to create a sustainable and inviting community. Southline Boston has attained LEED Core and Shell Silver certification, with a significant portion of points derived from diverting over 90% of the building's structure and mass from waste streams. Improved site and connectivity including enhanced multi-modal paths linking neighborhoods and transit lines and stewardship of the neighboring parkland, Pattens Cove also contributed to certification.
Beacon remains committed to Southline’s Fitwel certification, supporting local businesses like Craft Food Hall, a budding restaurant concept offering healthy food, and Inner City Weightlifting, a fitness operator with a social justice and inclusion-based business supporting those reentering society.
Healthy indoor environmental quality is a high priority, with Real-Time IAQ monitoring showing Southline Boston's air pollutant levels in 2023 and 2024 being 17% and 45% lower, respectively, than typical commercial office buildings. Annual water sampling based on the Harvard research framework, the 9 Foundations, reveals Southline Boston scored nine points higher than the median Healthy Building Benchmark of over 1,000 buildings.
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: Nordblom Company, Beacon Capital Partners
Architect: Stantec
Structural Eng: McNamara | Salvia
Civil Eng: Howard Stein Hudson
MEP Eng: BR+A Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architect: Copley Wolff
General Contractor: John Moriarty + Associates
Stonebriar Commercial Finance
Plano, Texas
Stonebriar Commercial Finance’s custom office pays homage to the financial firm’s primary focus—the transportation industry—with themes of streamlined motion, clean lines dramatized by black accents, and materiality that echoes major modes of transport. The amenity-rich space is designed to bring people together and adapt to daily needs in an environment that nurtures well-being.
The socially oriented office is made to be flexible and to draw employees out of private offices. With a putting green and golf simulator, fitness and wellness rooms, and multiple places to socialize throughout—including a speakeasy—the office combines high functionality with space for authentic connection.
The client’s openness to fresh ideas enabled bold decisions in this project, including the pursuit of LEED Silver certification, thoughtful material selections that reflect the client’s story, innovative approaches to collaborative spaces, and the creation of specialized, socially oriented areas. Where the office at large reflects industrial-scale movement, the more intimate spaces take inspiration from freeform, human-scale motion.
“The space was envisioned to cultivate an entirely new workplace culture for our client, one that emphasizes collaboration and actively draws people together, blending modern aesthetics and thoughtful detailing with functional creativity,” — Ariel Lumry, Senior Interior Designer, Perkins&Will – Dallas
On the Building Team:
Owner: Stonebriar Commercial Finance
Architect, Interior Designer, Sustainability: Perkins&Will
Structural Eng: L.A. Fuess Partners
MEP Eng: AOS Engineering
Acoustical: Topakustik
General Contractor: Balfour Beatty