Lance Armstrong Foundation HQ named a top 10 green project
April 26, 2011
(SpawMaxwell -- Austin, Texas) More than two years since SpawMaxwell transformed the 1950s-era Gulf Coast Paper Co. warehouse in East Austin into a Gold LEED certified
headquarters for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the awards and recognition keep rolling in.
The project was recently named a Top Ten Green Project by the American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment (COTE). The COTE Top Ten Green Projects program, now in its 15th year, recognizes exemplary and innovative built projects that establish a standard of excellence in sustainable design, demonstrate its benefits, and educate both the profession and the public.
“This represents the 11th award we have won, and the most prestigious honor yet,” said Greg Lee, CFO of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Other awards include International Environmental Project of the Year from Contract Design magazine; Award of Excellence in Green Building from Texas Construction magazine; and an Outstanding Construction award from the Texas Building Branch of the Associated General Contractors.
The COTE award considers multiple factors when evaluating a project including: land use and community; water conservation; energy usage; materials and resources; and operations and maintenance. The environmental impact of the project is significant: Eighty-eight percent of the demolition waste was reused; 66% of construction waste was diverted from landfill, and 28 percent of the remaining non-site-sourced material came from within a 500-mile radius; and the facility was designed to use 39.5% less operating energy than a comparable office building.
Creative means and methods to effectively reuse many of the building’s materials included the following:
- Concrete from a portion of the tilt wall removed from the front of the building was resized and reused as exterior features – curbs, sidewalk, parking stripes, landscape elements, screens, and bench seating; concrete was also reused from the trenches cut into the floor that replaced overhead conduit for electrical, data and cable.
- Individual boards from the roof deck underwent extensive reconditioning - nail and paint removal; boards were planed on all four sides, and cut to size for reuse as part of the cluster of interior “cube” conference rooms.
- Glulams from the roof structure were cut and reused for bench seating.
- The structural steel sawtooth skylight system meant the careful removal of the existing roof structure – approximately 30,000 square feet of roof decking – and the timely coordination for the installation of the new sawtooth system.
By the numbers:
- Building gross floor area: 28,295 square feet
- Number of occupants: 62 (plus 800 visitors)
- Percent of the building that is daylight: 100
- Percent of the building that can be ventilated or cooled with operable windows: Zero
- Total water used, indoors and outdoors: 61,132 gallons per year
- Calculated annual potable water use: 2.16 gallons per square foot per year
- Total energy (MBtu per yr): 1,093 (simulation case)
- EPA performance rating: 75
- Percent total energy savings: 39
- LEED rating: Gold, LEED-NC v.2.2