Corporate Building Design | 3D Rendering: office interior design

Showing posts with label office interior design. Show all posts

Green Building Facts

MARKET IMPACT OBSERVED BY 3D POWER

This year it is estimated that 40-48 percent of new non residential construction will be green, equating to a $120-145 billion opportunity
62 percent of firms building new single-family homes report that they are doing more than 15 percent of their projects green. By 2018, that percentage increases to 84 percent.
Historical averages have pegged the economic impact of investments in the U.S. residential market at roughly 5 percent of GDP, while other economic activity surrounding housing services as a whole have held historical averages fluctuating between 12 percent to 13 percent of GDP.3 This means that the current surge in green building starts and investment in the residential market will have an outsized impact on an estimated 17 percent to 18 percent of the domestic economy over the next decade.
More than 13.8 billion square feet of building space are LEED-certified (as of August, 2015)
41 percent of all non-residential building starts in 2012 were green, as compared to 2 percent of all non-residential building starts in 2005.
Areas with the greatest per capita investment in green buildings in the U.S. for 2014 were:

District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Illinois
Colorado
Maryland
Virginia
Massachusetts
Hawa'ii
California
Georgia
Minnesota
Arizona
New York

LEED is referenced in project specifications for 71 percent of projects valued at $50 million and over
675.9 million square feet of real estate space became LEED certified in 2014, the largest area ever to become LEED certified in a single calendar year, and a 13.2 percent increase in total certified square-footage from 2013. 2015 looks to be another record-breaking year with 2,870 projects certified representing nearly 464 million square feet of real estate as of August 1, 2015.

Achieving LEED certification is a top sustainable goal for both private and public organizations, with LEED Gold certification being set as the goal for a majority of the organizations

INTERNATIONAL

LEED is the most popular and widely used green building rating system globally. There are currently more than 72,500 LEED building projects located in over 150 countries and territories (as of August 2015).
As of August 2015, approximately 43 percent of all square footage pursuing LEED certification existed outside the U.S.
Project expectations in four countries in 2015:

Brazil - 83 percent of firms planning new green commercial projects
Singapore - 69 percent of firms planning green renovation projects
United Arab Emirates - 73 percent of firms planning green institutional projects
United Kingdom - 65 percent of firms planning green renovation projects

ENERGY

By sector:

Buildings: 41 percent
Industrial: 30 percent
Transportation: 29 percent

Buildings are one of the heaviest consumers of natural resources and account for a significant portion of the greenhouse gas emissions that affect climate change. In the U.S., buildings account for:

38 percent of all CO2 emissions
73 percent of electricity consumption
Green buildings consume less energy. Compared to the average commercial building, the LEED Gold buildings in the General Services Administration’s portfolio generally:
Consume 25 percent less energy and 11 percent less water
Have 19 percent lower maintenance costs
27 percent higher occupant satisfaction
34 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions

LEED buildings avoided 0.35 percent of total U.S. CO2 emissions in 2011. The percentage of CO2 avoidance attributed to LEED buildings is estimated to be 4.92 percent in 2030.

WATER

Buildings use 13.6 percent of all potable water, or 15 trillion gallons per year.
The industry expects that water-efficiency efforts will:

Decrease energy use by 10-11 percent
Save 11-12 percent of operating costs
Reduce water use by 15 percent

Retrofitting 1 out of 100 American homes with water-efficient fixtures could avoid approximately 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of removing 15,000 cars from the road for one year

MATERIALS

Buildings use 40 percent of raw materials globally (3 billion tons annually).
The EPA estimates that 170 Million tons of building-related construction and demolition (C&D) debris was generated in the U.S. in 2003, with 61 percent coming from non-residential and 39 percent from residential sources. They also estimate that 250 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the U.S. in a single year.
Green buildings consume less energy and fewer resources:

LEED projects are responsible for diverting over 80 million tons of waste from landfills, which is expected to grow to 540 million tons of waste diversion by 2030.

EXISTING BUILDING MARKET

Approximately 61 percent of all construction projects are retrofit projects 20.
Current market trends suggest that building owners and managers will invest an estimated $960 billion between now and 2023 on greening their existing built infrastructure. It is possible that these estimates could be surpassed in the event of unexpected gains in the US or global economy, if an international climate change agreement is reached or if more positive local policy developments encourage the green building market to grow in new and currently unexpected ways.
This year, the green share of the largest non-residential retrofit and renovation activity will more than triple, growing to 25-33 percent of the activity by value..
Firms that completed green building retrofit projects report:

Decrease in operating costs: over one year, 9 percent; over five years,13 percent
Expected increase in asset valuation according to building owners: 4 percent
Number of years until payback is expected: 7

88 percent of Building Information Modelling (BIM) users surveyed who are not currently using Green BIM expects that within two years their firms will use BIM on a green retrofit project
One billion square feet of buildings are demolished and replaced with new construction each year.
In February 2015, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported that energy consumption by the U.S. Federal Government had reached its lowest level since at least 1975. Lowering energy usage of its buildings (30 percent reduction in total energy use, 65 percent reduction in fossil fuel use) was a key component of reaching this historic accomplishment, and due to the United State’s Federal Government’s status as the world’s number one user of LEED, it is safe to say that LEED buildings played an integral role in helping the federal government to reach this goal.

BUILDING PERFORMANCE

A review of data from 195 LEED projects found:

The buildings are in the top 11th percentile in the U.S. in terms of energy usage
Have an average ENERGY STAR score of 89 points (out of 100)
Have a 57 percent lower Source Energy Use Intensity than the national average (as reported through EPA Portfolio Manager)

The majority of the buildings were office or retail, avg. 254,000 sf, certified under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance rating system

An analysis of LEED projects in the San Francisco Bay area found:

More than half achieved LEED Gold (52 percent of the projects)
Projects certified under LEED for New Construction exceed ASHRAE standard 90.1 (1999, 2004, or 2007) by 25 percent
Projects certified under the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance have ENERGY STAR score of 88 points (out of 100).

An analysis of 7,100 projects certified under LEED for New Construction found27:

92.2 percent are improving energy performance by 10.5 percent
89 percent are improving energy performance by 14 percent

Industry Sectors with the Highest Penetration of Green Building

Education
Health care
Commercial/Office

What’s Driving Green Building?
These factors are driving dramatic green building market growth:

Strong market demand
High cost savings for business and tax payers
Public health gains from green buildings
Steady gains in the percentage of large, non-residential commercial or institutional projects that are green
Federal, state and municipal mandates and policies
Increased property values
Low rental vacancy rates for LEED-certified buildings

Investment-grade office space demand slowed down in the first quarter of 2015, with around 6.3 million sqft of Grade an office space getting absorbed across leading cities of the country. Transaction activity was dominated by the National Capital Region (NCR), Bangalore and Chennai. Special Economic Zone (SEZ) developments in Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune also saw traction during Q1 2015. The market saw slow transaction activity and a low level of new completions in the first quarter; and leading cities continued to experience caution from corporate occupiers in the first three months of the year. Most investments by PE groups in the sector during the period were structured debt deals, with a preference for residential projects or well-leased commercial projects. Land and/or development sites for residential and mixed-use projects in the peripheral locations of leading cities also attracted investor attention.

Since business sentiment had recovered slightly towards the end of 2015, it is expected to improve further following the General Elections results. Market demand is likely to pick up gradually. Occupiers will remain focused on optimal space utilization and cost savings. Peripheral and decentralized locations such as the NCR's Gurgaon and Bangalore's Whitefield will continue to experience strong demand. Office space occupiers from selected sectors such as IT/ITeS will cautiously expand, but only in small to medium sized spaces. Larger size requirements will likely remain limited to a few back-office expansions and consolidations alone.

Occupiers in the IT/ITeS, financial services, engineering, manufacturing, telecommunications and pharmaceuticals sectors will drive office demand. Back office space will continue to see high demand, while front office take-up will remain comparatively limited. The bulk of leasing activity will likely take place in peripheral and secondary locations—such as Gurgaon in the NCR, Whitefield and the Outer Ring Road in Bangalore, Lower Parel in Mumbai, and the secondary business districts of Chennai and Hyderabad. Significant supply of fresh office space expected to reach completion in the coming months is likely to push up vacancy levels, however, keeping rental values range bound.

Even before the outset of design and construction of the Lewis and Clark State Office Building, the mission was clear: create a green office building and certify it to the highest level of LEED without overtaxing the credulity of the taxpayers in the “Show-Me States.” The modest budget, $18.1 million, was provided by the Missouri state legislature before the tenant, the Department of Natural Resources, had even put the sustainability goals on the table. But it was the writing on the wall that crystallized the building’s environmental goals.

“When we were interviewing for the project, we spent one afternoon in the state Capitol building reading inscriptions that are carved into a particular wall about the natural resources of the state,” says architect Steve McDowell, FAIA, of BNIM Architects. “We read about the minerals, animals, plants, rivers—all the natural things that were important to the character and nature of Missouri,” he says. “We thought we were already committed to the green agenda, but looking back at what was important to the founders and early citizens of the state influenced how deeply we held those values through the project.” That commitment was nurtured from the beginning of the process, when BNIM organized a design charrette that involved more than 100 people, representing all parties involved in the project”.

Not far from where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on their exploration of the American West in 1804, the building is a stone’s throw from the Missouri River. The 120,000-square-foot structure extends about 350 feet along the east-west axis, and only 70 feet from north to south, a ratio that was calculated to reduce energy costs and maximize interior daylight.
Choosing the site was integral to the project. “We started with some sites that we felt were unsuitable, because they were set out in the suburbs, for example, so we challenged our client to look for a more urban site,” says Kimberly Hickson, AIA, one of the project managers for BNIM. The state came back with 17 sites, including the one that was eventually chosen.
Constructed on the 144-acre site of the former Jefferson City Correctional Facility, eight blocks from downtown, the office building is one piece of an ambitious mixed-use urban redevelopment project. It took the place of a former women’s prison, with bricks from the prison being used for a number of interior surfaces.

In a landscape design based on xeriscape principles, indigenous grasses, shrubs, and trees have thrived despite a dry first year. Vegetated bioswales and topography that encourages stormwater infiltration help meet a goal of keeping runoff out of the municipal stormwater system. The landscaping is not without maintenance needs, but they are considerably less than in a conventional landscape. “We pull weeds from it. It has been mowed once,” says Dan Walker, director of the general services program for the Department of Natural Resources, who represented the tenant throughout design and construction. Nature trails around the site and reaching toward the river are planned.

Green features extend from the outside into the building. A 50,000-gallon cistern collects rainwater from the roof, which is filtered and used in flushing toilets. The system conserved 405,000 gallons in its first 13 months. One hundred and sixty-eight photovoltaic panels produce 21.5 kilowatts of power, or 2.5 percent of the building’s needs. Thanks in large part to a well-planned daylighting system and the careful design of the heating and cooling system, the building is predicted to use less than half of the energy of a comparable ASHRAE base model.

The narrow aspect ratio of the building, solar orientation, and both interior and exterior light shelves help daylight penetrate deep into the office space. Employees enjoy access to views and daylight at workstations that are located around the perimeter. Enclosed rooms are generally situated at the core. Many of the windows are operable, providing natural ventilation. Although the daylighting scheme went through computer modeling by ENSAR Group, which has since merged with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Green Development Services, during part of the winter a gap between the interior canvas light shelves and the glazing causes glare in some workstations. A miscommunication with the fabricator led to the mistake, which wasn’t present in models, and the problem is being fixed in time for next winter.

The building design also keeps employees active. Amenities such as changing rooms and showers were created largely for those who bike to work, but also encourage occupants to exercise. A number of people jog during their lunch breaks, according to Walker, and some walk downtown for meetings. Nearly everyone uses the prominent and attractive stairs in the central atrium.
Although all of these features reduce operating costs and increase occupant satisfaction, the building team was still concerned that its construction budget would lead to compromises. At one point, the state balked at buying the low-emissivity glass specified by the architect, so the firm ran an energy model with a lower-cost alternative. “We found that we could spend the money on glass or we could spend it on a bigger mechanical system,” Hickson says, noting that the mechanical system would add energy and maintenance costs over the long run. The glass stayed. The engineer performed a similar analysis on the building’s aspect ratio when the client wanted a boxier profile; again, the analysis confirmed the efficiency of the design.

The project used an integrated design process, but owing to the requirements of competitive bidding, a contractor wasn’t involved early on. “I guess we were all somewhat nervous at the bid opening,” says Hickson. “We didn’t really know where it would fall.” The team received a low bid from a trusted contractor, although one without experience in green building. The contractor worked hard to meet the sustainability goals and helped the team gain LEED points in construction waste recycling and recycled content of materials, at a time when the project was on the edge of achieving Platinum. “There was a lesson there,” says Laura Lesniewski, AIA, BNIM’s project manager during the construction phase. “If you have someone who’s interested in learning, he doesn’t need to have prior experience.”

Despite the project’s impressive achievement in the LEED rating system, the team gave up points along the way. It procured lumber from Missouri’s only certified sustainable forest for the atrium, but for the roof structure, which uses exposed glued laminated beams, the team couldn’t locate a product with certified content. It also hoped to earn a point for reducing the urban heat island effect with reflective roofing, but the emissivity level of the roof left them a fraction short of the requirement.
The team went to extra lengths to achieve some points, such as using furniture that meets indoor air quality (IAQ) standards. State agencies are required to purchase furniture manufactured through prison inmate vocational programs, so the team brought its sustainability agenda to the prisons, working to help them achieve Green guard Indoor Air Quality listing for its furniture.
“The building performs well and our occupants are extremely happy from the perspective of IAQ, lighting, and heating and cooling,” says Walker. Several occupants have reported better health in this building after having sinus problems in previous buildings, he adds. Walker has also noted reduced absenteeism, an observation the department plans to investigate by examining employment records.

By all accounts, the success of the project was based on the commitment to sustainability by the key members of the team. Built on budget, the building is also meeting financial performance expectations over the long term. “We did life-cycle costing on every aspect of the building, and so far things are on schedule,” says Walker.

It’s no secret that Google is a fun, fresh company, with tonnes of money, and dedicated employees, and part of the secret behind these employees is the awesome offices that they work from. Google put a lot of time and money into making the perfect work environment, mixing business with pleasure so that the staff can relax and refuel during their breaks. Google thrives of creativity and that thought has very much gone into the reasoning behind the designs of their offices, providing every employee with a space for them to be creative.

There’s a rule at Google that nobody is allowed to be more than 100 meters away from food, so you’ll find kitchens everywhere, as well as an awesome cafeteria where every employee is fed three times a day, for free. If you think that the offices are over the top and far too big, then at least you won’t have to spend all your time walking everywhere as you can just take the slide or fireman’s pole around the building. If all of that’s not enough for you, and you really want somewhere quiet to relax and get away from work, there’s always the library or aquarium.

How The Designer Behind Aaron Schock's Office Caught The Attention Of Capitol Hill

It's not easy to get hold of Annie Brahler, the designer behind what might be the most famous office on Capitol Hill. The founder of Euro Trash, a design and import company that specializes in "the time-worn imperfections of the past," Brahler is a busy woman. When we first spoke by phone this week, she was caught in a snow storm, driving home from work. During our second conversation, she was in the middle of an install, often politely excusing herself to speak with a colleague or an electrician who was on site.

3D Power thinks that the onslaught of press attention surrounding Brahler's so-called "Downton Abbey" re-design of Rep. Aaron Schock's (R-Ill.) office has not slowed her down in the least.
Brahler's work snared the political world's interest this week when The Washington Post published a widely discussed story on Schock's office, located in the House of Representatives' Rayburn Office Building. One of the congressman's employees told the Post that the unusual decor had been inspired by the well-known British period drama. But Brahler is quick to point out that "Downton Abbey" was not the model for her design. True, her company is known for its vintage aesthetic, but Brahler is more likely to raid the dusty corners of a flea market than the shelves of a pricey antique dealer. The stuffy Crawleys would probably not approve.

Of course, we at 3D Power do believe that Brahler wasn't designing for an aristocratic family, but rather for one of the youngest Republican congressmen, an up-and-coming lawmaker who understands the power of Instagram and can recite the immortal words of Taylor Swift. Brahler had designed Schock's previous office as well, and knew that only an office drenched in red, accented by bits of gold and white, would do.

Peek at the below photographs of Schock's recently completed office and you'll see the ornate frames that line the walls, paired with carefully arranged pheasant feathers and presidential portraits. A vintage glass table rests atop two golden eagles with their wings spread. A bust of Lincoln lingers in a corner. The details -- from leather-bound books to precariously stacked teacups to retro coins -- were collected over several months' planning, but installed in just four days.

3D Power appreciates the real inspiration behind her creation, what it's like to hunt for furniture in Congress and the improbable wonder that is plywood.