{"id":14969,"date":"2013-07-20T00:13:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T00:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedpoints.com\/?guid=0d96b30f3653e0599d5e186eff54be04"},"modified":"2013-07-20T00:13:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T00:13:23","slug":"sfpuc-headquarters-earns-leed-platinum-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/sfpuc-headquarters-earns-leed-platinum-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"SFPUC Headquarters earns LEED Platinum certification"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\n SFPUC, by Bruce Damonte <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The statuesque new $147 million San Francisco Public Utilities Commission<\/a> (SFPUC) Headquarters this week achieved LEED Platinum certification<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 13-story, 278,000-square-foot headquarters at 525 Golden Gate Avenue, a half block away from San Francisco City Hall, offers Class A office space for roughly 900 workers. SFPUC provides water and waste services to San Francisco, wholesale water to three bay area counties, and hydroelectric and solar power to San Francisco’s municipal departments. It’s estimated the super-efficient building will dole out $3.7 billion in ratepayer savings (or $500 million in 2011 dollars) over a 100-year lifespan.<\/p>\n

Delayed and nearly derailed several times, the SFPUC Headquarters project took over a decade from conception to completion. The City of San Francisco acquired the site 12 years ago, when it contained a vacant state office building damaged by the Bay Area’s 1989 Loma Prieta ear<\/a>thquake<\/a>. The intention was to build a new tower for several city departments. But in 2002, with design development well underway, the dot-com bust stalled progress, according to Architectural Record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2006, SFPUC resuscitated the project, which was then targeting a LEED Silver rating. Before construction got underway, the project was almost halted again when solicited estimates came in several million dollars over budget. That led to what Architectural Record describes as a “rigorous value-engineering exercise.”<\/p>\n

Project partners include Webcor Builders<\/a>, KMD Architects<\/a>, Stevens + Associates<\/a>, Thornton Tomasetti<\/a>, Antonia Bava Landscape Architects<\/a>, Tipping Mar<\/a>, Tom Eliot Fisch<\/a>, Jensen Landscape<\/a>, S J Engineers and http:\/\/www.arup.com<\/a>Arup. It was the second certified LEED Platinum project announced in the past week for Webcor (the other was at the U.S. Marine Corps Emergency Services Fire Station in Camp Pendleton<\/a>, CA). <\/p>\n

How did the project earn the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest rating for new construction? Following is an executive summary of project highlights:<\/p>\n