Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED O+M: Existing Buildings, LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED BD+C: Schools

Rating System Version

v3 - LEED 2008, v2 - Schools 2007, v2 - LEED 2.2, v2 - LEED 2.0

Inquiry

We are designing an academic building for a university client. The building contains offices, student areas, classrooms, auditoriums and specialized labs. We have organized the building to maximize daylight throughout, however, many spaces in the building are unoccupied much of the time, when the are occupied, it is typically for a one hour duration. Credit 8.1 requires that 75% of all regularly occupied spaces have the minimum 2% day lighting factor. Regularly occupied spaces are defined as areas where workers are seated or standing as they work inside a building. Some of the specialized teaching spaces in this building are designed to accommodate sensitive audio visual recording equipment for observing and documenting student performance. Other spaces, such as the auditorium and lecture halls, are designed specifically for high tech audio visual presentations and distance learning. The AV requirements for these rooms are not compatible with ample daylight. In addition, these spaces are unoccupied much of the time, and occupants are typically only in the rooms for a one hour duration. In our opinion, these rooms do not qualify as "regularly occupied" spaces. Our building is on a sloped site so the lowest floor is built into the hill on one side. Doing this enabled us to reduce the footprint of the building and the impervious area. We grouped some of the very specialized simulation labs against the basement wall built into the hill. These labs, if they had windows, would have blackout shades drawn all the time as natural daylight would negatively impact the simulation work, observation and recording. These labs will be unused for a substantial portion of the day; when they are used, the simulation sessions typically last for two hours or less. Every regularly occupied office or student area has a window that exceeds the 2% daylight factor. There will be a group of office spaces for part time faculty. These spaces will be largely un-used except for a couple of hours on the days the part-time faculty member is in the building to teach a class and meet with students. In our opinion, these are not "regularly occupied" spaces. We want to confirm our interpretation that itinerantly occupied auditoriums, classrooms, simulation labs and part-time faculty offices are not "regularly occupied" spaces for the purposes of this credit.