Retrofitting Office Buildings to Be Green and Energy-Efficient

Optimizing Building Performance, Tenant Satisfaction, and Financial Return

Leanne Tobias

• Publisher: Urban Land Institute
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780874201963
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Durabilité en architecture

Aimed at real estate industry professionals, developers, and investors, this guidebook fully explains the best practices and methods for retrofitting an existing office building to be green—increasing the efficiency of resource use while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment. Covering numerous eco-friendly systems, this reference demonstrates how green features are definitely worth the investments they require. Case study examples of projects that have incorporated these aspects as well as how they were constructed are included.

Case Studies

545 Madison Avenue, NEW YORK, NEW YORK

1801 McGill College, MONTREAL, CANADA

Adobe Towers, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

The Christman Building, LANSING, MICHIGAN

HOK Office, HONG KONG, CHINA

Joseph Vance Building, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

McDonald’s Campus Office Building, OAKBROOK, ILLINOIS

Morgan Lovell Headquarters, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

One Beacon Street, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Shui On Land Headquarters, SHANGHAI, CHINA

Transwestern Regional Headquarters, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Trevor Pearcey House, CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA

WRT Offices, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

The combination of spectrally selective low-E windows and thermally broken window frames achieves a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency over the insulating properties of the curtain wall.

CASE STUDY • DAVID A. SIGMAN AND STEVE VITOFF

545 Madison Avenue

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

A newly renovated, 17-story, Class A, trophy office building that features a distinctive glass curtain wall, 545 Madison Avenue is situated in Manhattan’s exclusive Plaza District. The Plaza District, long ranked as Manhattan’s most lucrative commercial and retail venue, is a square zone running uptown from East 47th Street to East 65th Street. The Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and Fifth Avenue share the district’s western border, and the East River serves as its eastern boundary.

Standing on the site of the former home of 1912 Nobel Peace Prize winner and U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root, 545 Madison Avenue was constructed in 1955. It was acquired in November 2006 through a 75-year ground lease transaction by LCOR, a national real estate development and investment firm based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. Exemplifying the company’s corporate commitment to sustainable development, LCOR completed a gut rehabilitation of the property under the guidelines of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Core & Shell (LEED-CS) system. The project received Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council without resorting to expensive, untested, or exotic technologies.

Selected sustainable aspects of 545 Madison Avenue include the following:

SITE SELECTION. The building is located on a dense, urban site with superior transportation access and connectivity. By facilitating walking and mass transit use, project siting is environmentally friendly.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY. LCOR incorporated an array of energy-efficient features into the design, and the building will be commissioned and operated under strict, energy-related protocols.

INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY. Elements include low-emitting finishes, high-efficiency filters, high rates of outside air, and ample daylight.

ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSIDERED MATERIALS. LCOR made extensive use of recycled and locally manufactured materials, and recycled the waste generated during construction.

CONTEXT AND OWNERSHIP OBJECTIVES

LCOR’s interest in renovating 545 Madison Avenue reflected its interest in optimizing floor layouts and usable tenant space and upgrading the property’s market appeal. The building had been constructed in accordance with zoning laws in effect in 1955, which resulted in inefficient floor plates with oddly shaped setbacks that made office layouts difficult. The building was also underbuilt by approximately 2,400 zoning square feet.

Building Information

LCOR began gut rehabilitation of the building in March 2007 with Bovis Lend Lease serving as construction manager. The aging, half-century-old structure was stripped to its skeletal frame. Utilizing current zoning rules, the zoning floor area was redistributed from lower floors to higher floors where rental values are greater, and the setbacks were filled in to result in more rectilinear floor plates. A penthouse was added at the top of the building. The property’s modern, floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall—which replaced 1950s blonde brickwork and uninsulated aluminum-strip windows—was custom-made by a specialty glass manufacturer in Pennsylvania. The distinctive, nine-foot, clear glass windows are highly rare in commercial office buildings. The renovation was completed for occupancy in the late fall of 2008.

LCOR had budgeted hard costs equaling approximately $40 million. Adding lease-up and carrying costs, the overall project cost was about $90 million. The office tower’s gross size of 141,583 square feet (13,153 square meters) includes net rentable area measuring 132,301 square feet (12,291 square meters). In addition to the office space above, 545 Madison’s ground floor and cellar house 7,080 square feet (658 square meters) of retail space. The penthouse has 897 square feet (83 square meters). Floor plates range from 6,200 to 9,300 rentable square feet (576 to 864 square meters).

The building stands on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue at the corner of East 55th Street, along one of America’s most lucrative commercial real estate venues. The property extends 50 feet (15.2 meters) along Madison Avenue and 125 feet (38.1 meters) along East 55th Street. Central Park is nearby and neighbors include Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Oceana, and the St. Regis Hotel, surroundings which add to the appeal of 545 Madison Avenue.

Richemont North America, a European holding company controlling many upscale brands, leases the building’s 7,080 square feet (657.8 square meters) of retail space, which offers a total of 150 feet (13.9 meters) of total window frontage on Madison Avenue and 55th Street. CB Richard Ellis represented LCOR in closing a ten-year lease at $600 per square foot ($55.74 per square meter). The upscale British brand Alfred Dunhill relocated to the site from 711 Fifth Avenue, and Richemont established the first East Coast outlet for Officine Panerai, a leading Italian luxury watchmaker in a small portion of the retail space.

Ownership Objectives

LCOR’s target tenants were elite, boutique financial services companies and law firms that desired prime, full-floor space in a contemporary, high-end office building located in a first-class Manhattan business district. LCOR characterized the transformation of the outdated building as a “Cinderella story” of renewal. The full-scale renovation represented a value-added strategy because the prior structure had been commanding some of the lowest rents in a highly upscale area.

The new building’s lengthy list of amenities includes such elements as floor-to-ceiling windows, individually controlled heating and air-conditioning systems, full-floor identity, and premium concierge services, complemented by views of one of Manhattan’s most esteemed streets and its stunning skyline. Common area interiors were designed to be compatible with a Class A tenant base. Finishes included a combination of Pietra Cardosa smooth stone, California maple burlwood veneer panels, and Moncervetto marble in the lobby, as well as five-star, hotel-like restrooms with porcelain enamel and marble. Underscoring the building’s high-end character, the developer commissioned Willard Boepple, an internationally recognized artist and sculptor, to create a modernist sculpture series for the lobby.

Why LCOR Decided To Go Green

LCOR attributes its decision to seek LEED certification for 545 Madison Avenue to at least four factors:

• THE COMPANY’S CORPORATE CULTURE,
• BENEFITS RELATING TO FINANCING and prospective sale price,
• THE STEADY EXPANSION OF SUSTAINABILITY regulations in New York City and around the country, and
• THE MARKETING BENEFITS of a building with green features.

CORPORATE CULTURE

LCOR prides itself on a long-time corporate emphasis on industry practices that are sensitive to the environment. The firm supports its commitment to sustainability by acting as a responsible builder and a responsible consumer of energy and other natural resources, by guiding new development toward existing urban and suburban centers, and by serving as a strong advocate of mixed-use developments with greater density, particularly at transit hubs—which are able to support greater densities more efficiently. Before renovating 545 Madison Avenue, the company had undertaken several other sustainable projects, including the 1.3 million-square-foot (120,774-square-meter) Ted Weiss Federal Building in Manhattan; the 2.5 million-square-foot (203,000-square-meter) U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia; and the mixed-use North Bethesda Center in North Bethesda, Maryland.

FINANCING RELATED-BENEFITS

Green design has rapidly emerged as a virtual requirement in real estate equity finan...