Our Bay Area Portfolio is Growing!
Photo by Noah Boyer on Unsplash
Golden State Eco-Warriors
ArchEcology has been expanding into Northern California thanks to a couple of our awesome clients. Over the last year we’ve been growing our expertise in the regulations and programs governing green development in California. Title 24 (T24), CalGreen, and Build It Green all bring new codes, checklists and inspection requirements, in addition to LEED requirements.
There is a recognition by the USGBC that the California standards go far further than typical codes and requirements, prompting them to issue an Alternative Compliance Path (ACP) that allows nonresidential projects that comply with CalGreen 2016 requirements to automatically comply with related LEED v4 credits. More detail on the 12 Prerequisites and 6 credits that are eligible can be found at https://www.usgbc.org/green-codes.
Similarly, LEED will accept Title 24 performance modeling results for Optimize Energy credits, as a means of streamlining energy modeling efforts. However, the use of T24 results for LEED should be evaluated on a project by project basis, as there are opportunities to demonstrate energy savings for LEED that do not appear in basic T24 compliance.
1721 Webster in Oakland, CA. Rendering courtesy of Holland Partner Group.
California Projects
We’ve been working with development teams on several projects in the Bay Area under both LEED NC 2009 and LEED v4. Holland Partner Group in joint ventures with NASH Communities is developing:
24th and Harrison, a premium high-rise mixed use project just a block north of Lake Merritt with 405 luxury apartments and 60,000 sf of retail and restaurant space is currently in the LEED review process
1717 Webster, a 27-story tower with 205 units and office and retail space achieved LEED 2009 Silver in 2021
24th & Waverly, is 16 stories with 331 residential units and groundfloor retail space and is pursuing LEED v4 Silver
Another project is a senior housing development. SRM Development’s South Main Living Styles in Milpitas which achieved LEED NC 2009 Silver in 2021. This interesting project offers an array of resident amenities and a focus on assisted living and memory care.
South Main Senior Housing in Milpitas, CA. Image courtesy of SRM Development.
New Energy Modeling Requirements
Energy modeling for Title-24 compliance can be challenging as there are very few energy analysis computer programs approved by CA Energy Commission that can be used to demonstrate compliance under the performance approach. The programs approved for Title-24 2016 Standards (Commercial) include:
CBECC-Com
IES VE
EnergyPro
ArchEcology uses CBECC-Com for Title-24 compliance energy models. CBECC-Com provides a graphical user interface and performs energy simulations using the EnergyPlus Simulation Engine. It is capable of generating the standard design model as well as compliance forms and other reports to demonstrate the building’s compliance. The software can be used in combination with OpenStudio to create a detailed geometry and get more accurate results.