Rating System

LEED BD+C: New Construction

Rating System Version

v2 - LEED 2.1

Inquiry

Our building consists of four occupied floors above grade and one below. Offices and an art restoration studio-laboratory are distributed among the above-grade floors, and computer training and multi-media conference rooms are placed in the basement, which cannot have windows. Support areas are minimized on the above-grade floors and instead concentrated in the basement. Our goals included providing maximum access to views for the occupants, given that the program exceeded limitations on above-grade construction: for the four floors above grade, we achieve 98.6% view area for all spaces excluding circulation and toilets. Our question is whether the computer training and multi-media conference rooms must be considered regularly occupied or support spaces, which would bring the view area down to 87.3%-89.4%. These rooms serve those who otherwise work full-time in the view area; i.e., one might spend two hours in a room in the basement but all other hours with access to views and daylight. Moreover, these basement conference rooms are multi-media, so much of the time they are used, they require low light level; other conference rooms meant for conversation rather than presentation are placed on the upper floors and have full view access. The training room is always used for a projected presentation for people learning on computers and requires room darkening in its use. We feel we have met the intent of this credit by ensuring that everyone has an assigned place with view access so that they