Architecture and interior
design firm GS&C is taking the lead in forward-thinking, environmentally
conscious building practices.
The foremost example of
GS&C’s commitment to environmentally sensitive building practices is the
Lone Star corporate campus being built in Austin for high-tech company Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. Austin, Texas-based GS&C is the architect of the
865,000-square-foot campus – including four office buildings – is scheduled to
open in early 2008 on a 59-acre site in the Oak Hill area. The Lone Star campus
will let AMD consolidate its offices in the Austin area.
Tom Cornelius,
principal-in-charge at GS&C, says: “The project has taken on environmental
issues at a scale that is well beyond any of our previous projects. The support
that AMD has given us to add environmental and sustainable-design expertise to
the team is unprecedented.”
The project’s architecture,
design and engineering team is pursuing LEED Gold certification for the new AMD
campus. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building
Rating System, operated by the U.S. Green Building Council, is the nationally
accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of
high-performance green buildings. LEED Gold is the second-highest level
available in the point-based LEED rating system.
“We have made an effort to
stay true to the ideal that good design does not cost more,” Cornelius says. “However,
the reality is that this project will cost about 5 percent more to design and
build based on our decisions for building location, building systems and the
measures required to document the LEED Gold certification.”
The
price tag for the project exceeds $200 million.
Green-building standards that
Austin’s Lady
Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center
is developing in conjunction with the U.S. Green Building Council will be
patterned partly after the GS&C-designed AMD office campus in Austin.
AMD estimates green measures
being blended into the project total $11.5 million. One of those measures is an
innovative system that will collect rainwater from the roofs of the buildings.
About 360,000 gallons of the water will provide 100 percent of the site’s
irrigation. The harvested rainwater also will lower the amount of treated
city-provided water used for the campus’ cooling towers by about 12 percent, or
more than 7 million gallons per year.
“I am not aware of another
rainwater collection system or a cooling tower system accomplished at this
scale,” Cornelius says. “As our water resources become more valuable, it is
easy to see that this system will offer a return on monetary investment in
addition to its present and future environmental dividends.”
Other environmentally
sensitive features of the project include:
-
100 percent renewable energy from the Austin
Energy Green Choice program.
- 100 percent native landscaping.
- 100 percent structured parking, eliminating all
surface lots.
- Natural day lighting in all of the office
buildings, using exterior sunshades and tandem light shelves on the
interior.
- 42 percent of the 59-acre property is being
maintained in its predevelopment condition.
With guidance from the Lady Bird
Johnson Wildflower
Center, dozens of AMD
volunteers and several professional crews salvaged about 5,000 plants and
trees. Over a three-week period, the plants and trees were removed using only
hand tools. More than 60 truckloads of the plants and trees were hauled to the Wildflower Center, where they are being maintained
for replanting on the site.
“What I hope other companies can
learn from the AMD project is that an environmental response can be much more
than a political response, but can be a highly effective technical solution,
offer measurable life-cycle cost savings and ultimately have an even higher
impact on its employees than its corporate image,” Cornelius says.
For more information, visit
www.gsc-inc.com.
