Alamo Architects

The owner and his assistant

This LEED Silver building is quite interesting in that it attained its LEED status by using many of the materials that where already on the site. The previous owner was using it as a furniture manufacture and storage warehouse. There was a lot of concrete on the site that the Alamo group reused as planters, conversation pieces and a wall around the parking lot. As one of the components that the United Stated Green Building Council (USGBC) measures is the weight of the wasted material, this weight saving earned them many points toward LEED.

The building is clad in steel cladding, considered to be longer life than traditional wooden or chipboard siding. Powering the office cubicles in the spaces required a cable tray for the power and data lines as the floor, one slab of concrete, was kept and reused. Much of the gates and other metal objects on the site where used in the planters for climbing plants to use. This was another weight saving toward the LEED certification.

The reason that they decided to do this project as a LEED silver one was that they felt the market was moving toward green building standards and they wanted to "walk the talk" This was their first green building, they have subsequently built many green buildings for clients.

One lesson learned was that the decision to go green if made early, during the planning phase lowers costs and frustration. They did not make the decision early enough for their own building, and feel that they would have attained a Gold rating if they had done so sooner.

The site is small enough that they did not have to include any kind of storm water detention facility. they did however include a rain water catchment barrel. This only gets 50% of the rain that falls on the building, but is supplemented with the air conditioner condensation. This is surprisingly high at 70 Gallons per day for a 150 ton unit. Many industrial units can generate much more water than one would assume. This water is used to water the plants on the site.

The net effect for them is good in terms of lowered operating costs. They enjoy 20% lower cost on utilities than their last office space despite the larger size of this site.

LEED certification pays off it would seem.

LEED silver!