Corporate Headquarters LEED Platinum

CENTERBROOK, Conn. – The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has certified as LEED Platinum an office renovation and remodeling project in Toledo, Ohio, designed by Centerbrook in collaboration with Duket Architects Planners of Toledo. LEED Platinum is the Council’s highest designation for sustainable building. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and the USGBC is the foremost program for rating the design, construction and operation of green buildings nationwide.

Partner Chad Floyd, FAIA, and Project Manager Andrew Santaniello, AIA, led Centerbrook’s team in the extensive makeover of the existing headquarters of Health Care REIT, Inc., a national real estate investment trust listed on the New York Stock Exchange and included in the S&P 500. Of the 212 LEED certified commercial projects in Ohio, Health Care REIT is only the ninth to garner the Platinum rating. Only six percent of all LEED certified buildings attain the Platinum rating.

“The client’s commitment to this effort was quite remarkable from start to finish,” Floyd said. “Health Care REIT went the extra mile, for example, incorporating extensive telecommunications technologies into the building that will enable its employees nationwide to meet regularly and remotely, obviating the need for travel that consumes both time and energy.” He added that achieving LEED Platinum for the renovation of an existing building is considerably more demanding than it is for new construction.

Design features of the project include a green roof system, extensive natural lighting through the strategic placement of windows and skylights, solar photovoltaic array, retention pond, thermal storage, use of FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) wood throughout, automated building controls, real-time energy metering, solar thermal panels, and a comprehensive recycling program.

The building’s key energy efficiencies are:

– 32 percent reduction in energy consumption

– 40 percent reduction in water usage

– 100 percent reduction in potable water for irrigation

– 78 percent of construction waste diverted from landfills

– 20 percent of all electricity consumed is supplied by on-site solar arrays

– 84 percent of space receives natural light

The renovations provide abundant meeting areas, open individual offices, a kitchen and café, numerous conference rooms, teleconference room, fitness center, auditorium, a reconfigured landscape, and a water retention pond. Some existing exterior walls were replaced with two-story glass walls to provide views of the 163-acre campus as well as natural lighting. Two monumental stairways were created to lead from the first to the second floor.

The remodeled headquarters is home to 100 of the firm’s nearly 240 employees nationwide. Health Care REIT, Inc. has been at the forefront of senior living and health care real estate since it was founded in 1970. Its nearly $8 billion portfolio spans the spectrum of health care real estate, including senior living communities, medical office buildings, inpatient and outpatient medical centers and life science facilities.

[Welltower]