Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction, LEED ID+C: Commercial Interiors, LEED BD+C: Core and Shell, LEED BD+C: Schools

Rating System Version

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

Inquiry

The LEED for Core & Shell reference guide states that credit EQ8.2 "may be eligible for exemplary performance. however, there is no prescribed threshold for determination of exemplary performance." We are proposing a quantitative performance standard for measuring availability of views beyond the standard of EQ8.2. The project under consideration is a 27-story office tower in a downtown location with floor to ceiling glazing and no party walls. The current metric requires a direct line of sight to vision glazing from 90% of the occupied floor, so making an incremental improvement to that metric (i.e. to 95% of the floor) does not in our opinion constitute sufficient improvement for an exemplary credit. We propose that instead exemplary views be measured by improved view quality, specifically: 1. Spaces that have multiple lines of sight to vision glazing in different directions (at least 120 degrees apart) have significantly higher quality views than those without. We propose that an ID credit for exemplary views be granted if, in addition to achieving EQ8.2, 90% of all regularly occupied areas can show separate lines of sight to vision glazing at 120 degree angles to each other. 2. Spaces closer to windows have higher quality views that fill more of the field of vision than spaces that rely on distant windows for minor views to the outside. We propose that an ID credit for exemplary views be granted if, in addition to achieving EQ8.2, 90% of all regularly occupied areas are within three times the window head height of vision glazing. 3. It might also be reasonable to require demonstration of both metrics to ensure that an ID credit is being granted for truly exemplary projects. Do the proposed metric warrant a likely exemplary performance credit?