Rackspace Converts Vacant Shopping Mall Into LEED Gold Headquarters

IT company Rackspace recently renovated an abandoned mall into their new corporate headquarters - and earned a LEED Gold rating in the process. Below are some comments from Inhabitat. You can also see more pictures at their post here.

So far, Rackspace has redesigned over 230,000 square feet within the 1.2 million square foot mall, with more development to come. During demolition, Rackspace recycled over 1,900 tons of concrete, metal, wood and other materials. At the same time, the company sent over six trailer loads of recovered building materials including doors, windows and fixtures, to Habitat for Humanity.

The redesigned interior is ultra-green, too. Showers installed inside the building encourage employees to bike or walk to work, natural lighting pours in through skylights, lighting can be controlled at individual workstations, and the company’s irrigation system only uses recycled water collected through a cistern near the main entrance. It’s a brilliant reuse for an abandoned shopping mall — now we hope that Rackspace will green up its nine data centers accordingly.

9009 Carothers - Crescent Resources

Little's DC and Charlotte offices are teaming up to assist Crescent in developing conceptual master plan and architectural solutions for Crescent's 9009 Carothers site in Nashville, TN. Crescent's intent is to create marketing materials in pursuit of development showcasing their committment to sustainability integrated with a high quality, and customer focused design approach. Eddie, Bo, and Rugel collaborated on assisting Crescent with their efforts. Our concept focuses on creating a series of green public spaces that thread through the site and help to organize and connect the existing buildings with the new. Visitors and employees park their vehicles and traverse these landscaped outdoor rooms on their way to work. Carefully designed and allocated covered walkway canopies will provide shelter during inclement weather so as to contribute to to design of the parks and plazas. The architectural facades will be articulated to maximize solar orientation and visual connectivity to the green public spaces. For the 10 story office building option we would also consider a green roof as part of the sustainable design approach.

Phipps Tower - Atlanta, Georgia

The renderings at the top depict the final configuration of the Phipps Tower project in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia.

DESCRIPTION

Context:

Phipps Tower establishes itself as a premier address in the Buckhead Community, one of the most prestigious locactions in the the Southeast.
The project is prominently situated at the intersection of Lenox Road and Phipps Boulevard. Rising gracefully adjacent to Phipps Plaza Mall, this twenty four story, glass tower presents timeless proportions and infuses a contemporary edge in its simplicity and sophisticated elegance. At the south facing main entrance plaza, guests and tenants alike are invited to gather for events, and socials, or engage in the wonderful public garden for respite. This public green space becomes a focal point in the vicinity receiving pedestrian activity from the neighboring business, hospitality, and retail venues. The front facade glass lobby blurs the line between inside and out as softly curving marble walls frame the lobby and introduce all to the prominent business address in Buckhead.

Building:

The Phipps Tower project has been registered with the U.S. Green Building Council seeking LEED Certification. The building will be industry recognized for utilizing energy conservation and sustainable design strategies that include:

· High performance, energy efficient insulated glazing coupled with the long facades oriented facing north and south to maximize the benefits of natural daylight.
· Energy efficient building M.E.P. systems minimizing utility consumption.
· Utilization of Green Power.
· Sustainable Sites practices.
· Water efficient landscaping.
· Construcation waste management.
· Indoor environmental quality control
· Energy and Atmosphere – Measurement & Verification , Base building.

RENTABLE SQUARE FEET 475,000 rentable square feet.

AVERAGE FLOOR SIZE 25,000 rentable square feet.

EXTERIOR SKIN

Custom curtainwall with 1” high performance insulated glazing accented at the main entry with stone and aluminum columns

INTERIOR LOBBY

Polished “Crema Marfil” marble floors and walls accented by stainless steel bands frame Etimoe, quartered sliced millwork panels. The elevator portals are carved out of the millwork panels and utilize stainless steel and marble to create a strong sense of entry.

The project site contruction has broken ground this month. Project is scheduled to complete construction in 2009.

Founder Credit Union (Additional images)

This project merited the posting of additional information shedding a little more background on Little's process to get to this point.

Founders Credit Union presented us with a great opportunity to capitalize on a primary goal of our Design Methodology, that is to implement a multidisciplinary approach to practice from inception of the project development process. Our team emphasized a holistic approach to design incorporating sustainable design strategies that very much depended on the expertise and full collaboration of our client, and all of our members representing, Architecture, Land Development, Interior, and Engineering.

This presentation is part of Little's package put together to solicit client approval and sign-off of our Visioning phase. It will provide a strong foundation for our project development as we proceed.