Is it possible to design a market-rate, zero carbon emissions office building in St. Louis? A dedicated team led by HOK and our friends at The Weidt Group decided to find out. The exciting news is that though a variety of conditions — from the climate to the cheap electricity — made St. Louis a challenging location, the answer is YES! And the design process will transfer to most North American cities.
We’ll share details about the design and process …
This is a report on the zero emissions building design charrette that took place on September 17. HOK and The Weidt Group participants in San Francisco, Toronto, St. Louis, Berkeley, Calif., and Minneapolis saved carbon emissions from air travel by using Cisco Telepresence Technology, Polyvision THUNDER Express, WebEx and HOK’s Advanced Collaboration Rooms to meet virtually.
The team designing the a zero carbon emissions office building has made lots of progress since my last ZEB post. With the final meeting fast-approaching and an affordable carbon-free solution on the horizon, it’s time to crank out some posts to catch you up on what they’ve been up to.
Finally, a Focus on the Building …
The second zero emissions building design charrette took place July 23 in The Weidt Group’s naturally daylit offices in a Minneapolis suburb. The brainstorm team included five designers from each firm, with combined expertise in energy and daylighting modeling, architecture, engineering and integrated design. Click here to see the agenda.
The team began by restating its goal: To design a 150,000-200,000-square-foot, high-end speculative office building in St. Louis that is a zero emissions building (ZEB). The group also wants to document a process that could potentially change the way they design buildings.
HOK Sustainable Design Director Mary Ann Lazarus clarified the team’s definition of a zero emissions building: …
One of the challenges for the zero emissions office building design team will be to maximize use of daylighting. At last Thursday’s design charrette in The Weidt Group’s offices in Minnetonka, Minn., the team experienced a living lab of naturally lit space – an office that uses virtually no electric lights.
The Weidt Group’s general office area (no electric lights, north-facing windows):
“The key for getting the daylighting back into the space is the upper portion of glazing, the area above the ductwork,” says The Weidt Group energy analyst Chris Baker. “The higher the top of the window, the deeper you can get light into the space. The other key is …
We’re going to keep documenting the efforts of the zero emissions office building design team on this blog. You’ll find out along with the team whether they can meet their ambitious goal of creating a zero emissions design for a typical St. Louis office building.
Yesterday a group of HOK designers from St. Louis, Chicago and Toronto converged in Minneapolis to meet with our project partners from The Weidt Group, who are providing energy and daylight modeling for the effort. It was an amazing, eye-opening day, and we’ll have a full report next week.
Until then, here’s HOK Sustainable Design Practice Leader Tim Gaidis doing a couple of “Before” and “After” stand-ups at the airport in Minneapolis.
7:30 AM: Minutes After Arriving in …
What does it take to design a net zero emissions office building? Because few of our clients are currently considering carbon neutrality in their projects, an HOK team — with help from some wonderful friends — is designing one through a series of virtual charrettes.
In response to Architecture 2030’s challenge to the global architecture and building community, HOK has committed to designing all buildings to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030.
The idea for the charrette is the brainchild of HOK Chairman Bill Valentine, who wants the firm’s people to gain the knowledge and experience required to design zero emissions buildings. This vision is being turned into reality …
