A tower under construction in
Pittsburgh aspires to be the greenest in the world. I’ve heard
that one before, and I usually don’t buy it.
Yet the design of the 33-story PNC Financial Group
headquarters impresses because amenities come with energy-
conservation tactics that even the most ecologically oriented
companies in the U.S. have largely shunned.
Sliding wooden doors open onto a breezy porch high above
the city. Colleagues can gather to work casually in a sky-garden
atrium offering panoramic views.
Hao Ko, a senior associate and design director at
architecture firm Gensler, has fashioned what is on the outside
a rather ordinary-looking glass box.
Working with Denzil Gallagher, principal at engineering
firm Buro Happold, Ko wrapped the building in two walls. The
three-foot space between them insulates in winter and rejects
solar heat in summer, aided by automatic shades.
Windows can be used to ventilate the entire building
naturally. Staffers also can adjust the temperature with the
sliding wooden doors.
Why does PNC bother? Many experts think energy is abundant
and a lot of people think global warming is a hoax. But Gary
Saulson, the bank’s executive vice president and director of
corporate real estate for the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC),
has championed energy and resource conservation at PNC since
1998.
‘Right Thing’
PNC has been building green “not because of any mandate
but because it seemed the right thing to do,” Saulson said in
an interview. “It makes sense economically and it boosts pride
in our company.”
The bank, which has 118 LEED-rated buildings, says it has
reduced its energy budget 25 percent since 2009.
I spoke with Saulson about the way the bank uses
architecture in the pursuit of lower costs and higher
productivity.
A wood window wall in a highrise? “It can be sourced
locally,” Saulson said, and is an excellent insulator that also
makes the workplace look more informal.
“We’ve angled the building and configured the interior so
that 91 percent of it can be lit by natural light” alone, he
said. A “solar chimney” on the roof heats air, causing it to
rise, pull fresh air through the building and reduce the need
for fans.
‘Natural Light’
Aside from the substantial savings, “people like natural
ventilation, natural light and views,” Saulson said. “They
like being able to control how warm or cool their environment
is.”
The building will wrap meeting spaces around multistory
west-facing atriums stacked on top of each other. Switchbacking
stairs descend to sky gardens.
“You need a place for quiet work, to make private phone
calls. But you also need spaces for collaboration,” Saulson
said. “We want employees to be able to work in the environment
where they can be most productive, not tied to their desks.”
The $400 million tower, scheduled for 2015 completion,
won’t ostentatiously display windmills or photovoltaic panel
arrays. Neither system delivered enough power for the cost. It
will consume half the energy of a comparable structure by using
about 30 efficiency tactics.
Higher Performance
Politicians argue over the usefulness of renewables. PNC
shows that conservation delivers much higher performance at much
lower cost.
Though no government programs subsidized PNC’s effort,
strategically targeted incentives could rapidly widen the appeal
of the building’s many innovations — creating a diverse array
of jobs.
Dramatic energy savings are easier to do in new projects,
so I asked Saulson which tactics could be applied to other
buildings in the company’s 30-million-square-foot portfolio.
“We can’t rebuild our footprint, but we can take what we
learn from the tower and bring it into those buildings,” he
said.
The bank is planning a branch in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
that will produce all its energy by solar on site.
(James S. Russell writes on architecture for Muse, the arts
and culture section of Bloomberg News. He is the author of “The
Agile City.” Any opinions expressed are his own.)
Muse highlights include Rich Jaroslovsky on technology.
To contact the writer of this column:
James S. Russell in New York at
jamesrussell@earthlink.net. http://web.me.com/jscanlonrussell
To contact the editor responsible for this column:
Manuela Hoelterhoff at
mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
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