Page 44 - Designing for Zero Carbon - Case Studies of All-Electric Buildings

CASE STUDY NO. 2
MAKERS QUARTER BLOCK D OFFICE BUILDING
(Opposite Page)
Rendering of ultimate buildout of Makers Quarter (outlined in red). Block D Office Building is circled in yellow. (Courtesy of BNIM)
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Designing for Zero Carbon: Volume 1
Design Process and Low-Energy, Zero-Carbon Design Strategies
As with all such speculative building projects, the design process was driven by the projected fi- nancial outcomes, namely the balancing of estimated costs with the return-on-investment (ROI). The project team also factored in the now-adopted goal to achieve the LEED-Platinum and net- zero-energy certifications, which was seen as a factor in increasing the ROI though construction costs might be slightly higher. In fact, this proved to be correct, as the developer successfully negotiated two tenant leases during construction, with the remaining office space almost entirely leased shortly after completion of construction in 2018.
The prospect of the LEED-Platinum certification was also a factor in obtaining the initial financ- ing for the project, which can be difficult for a project with a “ground lease”. (The Navarro family retained ownership of the land at Block D.) Combined with the quick leasing of the building’s tenant space, this confirmed that the project’s financial performance met all of the original invest- ment goals.
Planning Concept and General Design Considerations
Pursuit of the zero-carbon designation required that the building be all-electric. Natural gas was available in the street adjacent to Block D, but the BNIM design team had proposed an all-elec- tric design, which would eventually mean zero-carbon operation.
The constraints on the design included a relatively small site, which made it challenging to maxi- mize the leasable area in the building within the planning requirements for this location in the city. Fortunately, these requirements did not include on-site parking, eliminating the high cost of cre- ating basement parking levels. A second aspect of the San Diego planning code is that outdoor space such as balconies is not counted toward the assignable floor area of the building. This allowed the development of indoor-outdoor tenant suites, which fit with the mild year-round San Diego climate and the preferences of many of the building’s targeted tenants—entrepreneurs, start-up firms, technology companies and artists.
The net result was that the building could be planned with the maximum rentable space within the site’s buildable envelope as defined by the code.