Atlantic Station: Strategic Green Development is One for One

Building Operating Management, Nov 2005

Atlanta A 500,000-square-foot office building at 171 17th Street is the first building to receive LEED certification in midtown Atlanta's ambitious mixed-use redevelopment project, Atlantic Station. The 138-acre redevelopment, situated on a rehabilitated brownfield site, will eventually include about 12 million square feet of residential, retail and office space, as well as hotels and restaurants. The goal is for every Atlantic Station building to achieve a LEED certification.

The built-to-specification office building, which is 94 percent occupied, received a Silver certification with the pilot version of USGBCs Core and Shell rating system (LEED-CS). The LEED-CS certification means that when tenants build out their space, they will also have the opportunity to certify their space with the complementary LEED for Commercial Interiors (LEED-CI) rating system.

Atlantic Station's developer, jacoby Development, is leading the way in that endeavor, says Brian Leary, vice president of design and development. In addition to plans to certify the space it occupies in the building, the company has worked with the Southface Energy Institute to develop detailed Tenant Design and Construction Guidelines that will assist future tenants in achieving a LEED-CI certification for their spaces as well.

The building's Silver certification is a result of several green strategies, including a highly reflective roof that will help mitigate Atlanta's pronounced urban heat island effect, high-performance glass on the building's exterior, and an efficient chiller plant that will supply the whole site when future buildings are built.

In fact, as the site was planned, the developers incorporated green strategies to make it easier for future buildings to be LEED certified.

These sitewide green strategies include dimming light pollution, reducing the site's stormwater runoff, building an underground parking structure to be used by the whole site and providing a fleet of electric shuttles that services the entire development and connects to Atlanta's public transit system. As future buildings are developed, documentation on these sitewide green strategies will be readily available, expediting the LEED certification process.

"We want people to understand that green is part of the way we do business," says Leary. "When you're doing something for the first time, it's tough, but the U.S. Green Building Council was very helpful."