Evo & Pierce - West Rosslyn East

The Highlands: West Rosslyn is a multifamily residential complex located in Arlington, Virginia. The master site consists of two LEED v4 projects and in total 1,162,419 square feet of residential space, including 884 dwelling units, 42,052 square feet of retail space, and 17,900 square feet of space allocated to the fire station.

The overarching goal of the project team was to design a community with an exceptional user experience. In addition to comfort and accessibility, tenants in this market demand sustainable designs and practices within their buildings.

The design team explored a wide range of strategies to use less materials and prioritize manufacturers who report their enviornmental impacts. By using high-strength concrete in the columns, the team was able to decrease the column size, which uses less material and increases the area of programmable space. To fully capture the embodied carbon emissions of the highest impact material, the team worked with their concrete supplier, Vulcan, to generate EPDs for most of their mix designs. Many of Vulcan’s mixes use more slag than the NRMCA Eastern Benchmark and Carbon Cure Technology to reduce the quantity of cement while maintaining strength.

In addition to the structure and enclosure materials evaluated in the Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment, the team also considered all permanently installed interior materials to achieve the Procurement of Low Carbon Construction Materials pilot credit. Through these embodied carbon analyses, the project team was able to comprehensively review the building's carbon performance and contribute data for benchmarking.

To reduce operational carbon emissions, the design teams emplored a variety of high impact strategies, such as designing a high performance envelope including improved window and roof U-values; Energy Star appliances to minimize internal loads; VRF systems in condos; water-source heat pumps served by high efficiency condensing boilers; and decoupled ventilation to allow local apartment system fans to cycle on and off. The project exceeded minimum energy code requirements and essentially designed buildings several years ahead of the then current code requirements. To ensure MEP systems continue to operate efficiently, the building will be recommissioned after 10 months of occupancy and energy usage data will be continuously tracked through the Energy Star Portfolio Manager.

To encourage tenants to reduce their carbon emissions from transportation, the project has provided several reserved parking spaces with access to EV charging stations or EV plug in outlets.