Mendocino Farms

One of the principles of sustainable development is to avoid the destruction of open land; therefore, reimagining existing spaces is one of the most environmentally conscious approaches to revitalizing a community. 

Federal Realty is adopting that mentality in the Plaza El Segundo shopping center in Southern California. Slowly but surely, they are ascribing new identities to existing retail spaces, including partnering with Mendocino Farms to craft a new office.

“The Mendocino Farms office is a great adaptive reuse story with a host of sustainability components,” Stuart MacDonald, Federal Realty’s Vice President of Regional Development, said. “This building was used for retail for so many years, and now it’s found this second life as a creative office.”

With Ware Malcomb’s architectural design, Alfa Tech’s MEP team and VCA Green’s LEED Services, Mendocino Farms employees are set up in a healthy, sustainable and intellectually stimulating work environment. 

CREDIT BREAKDOWN

LOCATION AND TRANSPORTATION

This building is within ½-mile walking distance from number of public services and other amenities.  Proximity to retail and grocery stores, cafes/restaurants, banks, hospitals, public parks, etc. reduces transportation activities and improves public health, productivity and happiness. This building is within ½-mile walking distance of various transit routes. Such easy access to these routes reduces vehicular transportation of employees and visitors to the project site, as well as their associated carbon emissions. Mendocino Farms is located within a LEED Core and Shell certified space as part of a greater plot that Federal Realty is developing, providing a more sustainable canvas to start from.

WATER EFFICIENCY

This building is tracking 35% indoor water use reduction from the calculated baseline with the installation of water-efficient fixtures at the break room and restrooms. Federal Realty has also elected to share water usage monthly with annual summaries for the first five years of this commercial building’s operations.

ENERGY AND ATMOSPHERE

Mendocino’s HVAC equipment was selected with energy performance in mind.  As designed, this building has an estimated 25% energy savings compared to similar-sized office spaces designed to minimum building code specifications. With the goal of reducing stratospheric ozone depletion, the project utilizes a condenser water system.  With this system, the use of refrigerants has been reduced and the likelihood of a refrigerant leak is very low. Equipment specified uses a minimal amount of the CFC-free refrigerant HFC-410A which has an Ozone Depletion Potential of 0 and a low global warming potential.

As a bonus, Federal Reality is offsetting 100% of their anticipated energy use for the first five years of operation at Mendocino Farms through Green-e Certified Clean Source.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

As this project was an adaptive reuse, almost the entire building structure was recycled...

For more, visit VCA Green.