Older buildings going Green?

You hear a lot about new high rises and their green construction practices but it was refreshing to read this article in the SF Business Times that details existing buidings that are making an effort to be LEED certified.

Existing buildings the next item on green agenda
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen
Spencer Brown

As developers market their glassy new towers to attract tenants with greener-than-thou credentials, owners of downtown's
aging office highrises are looking at how to jump on the sustainable-is-sexy bandwagon.

This week the first of those buildings, 100 Pine St., was blessed with "existing building" certification from the U.S.
Green Building Council's Leader in Energy and Environmental Design. It marked the first multi-tenant existing building
in California to receive the LEED certification.

In greening the 400,000-square-foot 1972 concrete and glass building, owners Unico Properties and Alaska Permanent Fund
overhauled the building's heating and ventilation systems, adding digital controls to improve efficiency. Low-flow
toilets cut water usage by 50 percent. Motion sensors were installed in rarely-used emergency staircases so they will
only be lit when used. Environmentally preferred cleaning products, the planting of drought-tolerant native plants and
a new system for sustainable tenant improvements rounded out the effort.

Wes Powell of Jones Lang LaSalle, the leasing agent for 100 Pine, said that while retrofitting an existing building is
more sustainable than building green from the ground up, the challenge of earning LEED-EB designation should not be
underestimated.

"The team's accomplishment with 100 Pine was the equivalent of converting a gas-guzzling SUV into a hybrid while driving
55 mph along the highway," Powell said.

The designation comes as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom prepares to sign a new green building ordinance that will
require new office buildings to meet third-party green standards set by two nonprofits, the U.S. Green Building Council
and Build It Green.

The new law will require all commercial buildings to be green by 2009 and will require a gold standard by 2010. It will
apply to new construction and major renovations of both commercial and residential buildings, as well as require that
interior build-outs of more than 25,000 square feet meet the highest green standards.

While the law does not yet target existing buildings, that is clearly an idea the city is moving toward, according to
Webcor Vice President Phil Williams, who chaired the task force that came up with the new regulations.

"We have to take a look at the legacy, how can we improve the standards of the existing stock," said Williams.
"Buildings get retrofitted all the time anyway. It's establishing a plan for where you are to where you want to be."

Even before the city forces existing buildings to become more efficient, it's likely that owners will feel pressure
from tenants to adopt more sustainable, healthier systems, Williams said. Tenants that have signed leases at the one
speculative highrise currently under construction, Tishman Speyer and Morgan Stanley's 555 Mission St., have all cited
the building's green attributes as an important factor in the leases.

"If the tenants are asking, 'Do you have a plan to get LEED existing building?', that will be a major incentive,"
said Williams. "The marketplace will drive it. The minute you lose a tenant, it will become important to you. Whether
you want to or not, you're going to have to do it to be competitive."

Besides 100 Pine St., the only other buildings in San Francisco to carry LEED-EB status are Pacific Gas & Electric's
headquarters at 245 Market St. and construction contractor Swinerton Inc.'s headquarters at 260 Townsend St., both of
which are single-tenant buildings.

San Francisco's largest landlord, Morgan Stanley, said the company is designing a LEED strategy for all of its office
holdings nationally. "I think it's fair to say that given the size and breadth of our real estate holdings, we're
focused on this as an important initiative, and will roll it out in the near future," said Kevin Saavedra, executive
director with Morgan Stanley.

Last updated: 08.04.2008 01:40 PM

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