Last week, the city of San Francisco announced the grand opening of the Greenest Urban Office Building in North America. The new San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Building (SFPUC) boasts new Living Machine technology, as well as LEED Platinum standards.
The 13-floor building can hold around 900 people, but consumes 60% less water and 32% less energy than most buildings of its kind. The building can achieve these high levels of conservation due it its on-site grey and black water treatment.
The technology for this treatment, The Living Machine, reclaims and treats all of the building’s wastewater– meeting the demand for all of the buildings toilets. The Living Machine can treat 5,000 gallons of water daily, reducing per-person water use from 12 to five gallons. The building also has a rainwater harvesting system that can store up to 250,000 gallons of water annually for use in the building’s irrigation systems.
As far as power goes, the building uses a greenhouse gas-free power from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, but also has an integrated hybrid solar array as well as a wind turbine that can generation about seven percent of the building’s annual energy needs.
The building was designed with a raised flooring system to house its data and ventilation infrastructure that also reduces heating, cooling and ventilation costs by over half. They also plan to do the more simple things, like automatically shut off workstation power after business hours, use more sustainable building materials, and limit parking to encourage alternative transportation among employees.
“The unique hybrid wind-solar installation combined with the use of onsite, recycled wastewater makes 525 Golden Gate one of the most self-sustaining buildings anywhere in the world,” said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington as part of the announcement. “We did not spare any detail to demonstrate the water-saving and energy efficiency revolution that all of us must start to embrace.”
However, the building cost the city a whopping $146.5 million– which brings back the argument between building new energy efficient buildings, or spending the money to make the ones we already have perform better. There isn’t a right answer, what’s probably best is for there to be a combination of the two– a new building should be built to high energy standards, but some time and resources should be taken to reboot the clunky power-wasters that remain in every city.
Employees are set to move in to their new space in July and August, and the building is set to be on track for its Platinum LEED ranking within a year of operation. The SFPUC estimates that building and owning its new headquarters will allow the department to save residents around $3.7 billion over the expected 100 year life of the building. +
--
Beth Carter is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.
Related Stories
| Oct 3, 2014
New survey tracks Americans’ attitudes towards transit use
A record 10.7 billion rides were taken on public transit in the United States last year. And a national survey of Americans finds that the speed, reliability, and cost, more than any other factors, determine people’s willingness and frequency of use.
| Oct 2, 2014
Effective use of building enclosure mock-ups within the commissioning process
Engineers from SSR offer advice and guidelines on implementing building enclosure mockups on any project.
| Oct 2, 2014
Budget busters: Report details 24 of the world's most obscenely over-budget construction projects
Montreal's Olympic Stadium and the Sydney Opera House are among the landmark projects to bust their budgets, according to a new interactive graph by Podio.
| Oct 1, 2014
Long-time competitors NAC|Architecture and Osborn merge
The combined firm has offices in California, Colorado, and Washington, and offers a wide range of services, from landscape architecture and graphic design to architecture and interior design.
| Oct 1, 2014
Philip Johnson's iconic Crystal Cathedral to be modernized, made 'intrinsically Catholic'
Johnson Fain and Rios Clementi Hale Studios have been commissioned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to upgrade the all-glass church in Garden Grove, Calif. The church acquired the property in 2012.
| Oct 1, 2014
4 trends shaping the future of data centers
As a designer of mission critical facilities, I’ve learned that it’s really difficult to build data centers to keep pace with technology, yet that’s a reality we face along with our clients, writes Gensler's Jackson Metcalf.
| Oct 1, 2014
EYP, WHR Architects merge, strengthening presence in education, healthcare, energy sectors
The merger unites 530 professionals to better address some of the most critical issues facing our nation, namely education, healthcare, and energy.
| Sep 30, 2014
The Big Room concept: Using Building Team collocation to ensure project success
Implementing collocation via the Big Room concept will remove silos, ensure a cadence for daily communication, promote collaboration, and elevate your chances for success, write CBRE Healthcare's Stephen Powell and Magnus Nilsson.
| Sep 30, 2014
USGBC, Bank of America name recipients of 2014 Affordable Green Neighborhoods Grant Program
Eleven projects have been selected for the 2014 Affordable Green Neighborhoods grant program. Each will receive $31,000 and an educational package to support their pursuit of LEED for Neighborhood Development certification.
Sponsored | | Sep 30, 2014
What are you doing to win business and improve morale?? VDC Director Kris Lengieza shares ways to do both
Bluebeam's Sasha Reed sits down with Kris Lengieza, Director of Virtual Design and Construction for Stiles Corporation, to learn how he approaches change management. SPONSORED CONTENT