Fluor Global Headquarters Achieves LEED Certification

Fluor Global Headquarters

Irving, TX

Completion March 2006

LEED Status        LEED NC v2.1 Certified Level LEED Rating

Building Size        136,000 s.f.

Site Size                26 acres

Project Budget   $40MM

Background        

Clayco served as the design-builder on a world headquarters in Irving, Texas, for Fluor Corporation, one of the world's largest publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance service organizations.  We are very proud of our accomplishments and the fact that the project was completed from very preliminary programming/design to final completion and move in within nine months!  This is an amazing accomplishment and a testament to the leadership of the Clayco team and management.

The team was challenged with preliminary concept design and programming completes and proposed within an overall project schedule of 11 months. The Clayco and Forum team identified critical decision dates for the design schedule, provided design solutions and Fluor reviewed and approved these solutions as they had committed. Every decision considered the sustainability impact on the building including glass selection, sun shading, day lighting, all building systems and materials, energy considerations and the construction budget.  The Forum design team was instrumental in meeting the schedule from both a design and construction standpoint and is an example of the integrated services of all our projects.

Fluor presented Clayco and Forum with numerous design challenges that required immediate attention.  Aesthetics were extremely important especially when it came to the look of the building exterior.  Concrete wall panels were required in order to get the building enclosed as fast as possible so the interior finishes could promptly start.  Forum developed several exterior cladding schemes that involved brick or native Texas limestone.  After reviewing several completed buildings in the Dallas area with Fluor that had similar cladding features, the Texas limestone was selected.

The 5,600 sf main lobby three story atrium area presented several difficult design challenges when it came to creating make-up air that is required for smoke evacuation.  There are two components required for smoke evacuation:  supply fans and an exhaust system.  The supply system was difficult because the main atrium is located in the center, away from the mechanical screen areas used for the wings.  The objective was to find an architectural solution to either add some additional screen to hide the exhaust fans or find aesthetically pleasing fans that would meet the stringent Las Colinas requirements.  The end result was Forum Studio working closely with our design-build mechanical contractor to find fans that contributed to the architecture of the building.  The other component involved make-up air that was being provided below the floor.  It was difficult to hide an area equal to 325 sf in the open lobby area.  This was a real collaborative effort between Forum Studio and Gensler.  The end result were floor grates strategically placed behind the stairwell and under an architectural bench seat with blue glass crystal blocks placed to hide the opening.  This was the most challenging design issue on the project.

Quality assurance is always important to Clayco, especially since we were hired by one of the largest construction companies in the United States to build their corporate headquarters.  Here are only a few items Clayco did to help ensure the project quality was provided:

·         Clayco hired an exterior wall consultant to do review shop drawings, assist with the glazing preconstruction meeting and perform field testing to the huge curtainwall system on the project.

·         Clayco contracted with a roof consultant to make sure the roof submittal documents were approved by an expert and the installation was completed per the manufacturer’s recommendations.

·         Before any subcontractor started work on site, a preconstruction meeting was held.  At this meeting, several things were discussed:  safety, submittals, quality assurance procedures in the field, contract, manpower, special coordination required with other subcontractors and site access.

·         Clayco has a department called Technical Services where it is their responsibility to assist the project manager in submittal review.  In addition, they spent an abundant amount of time in the field preparing field worklists.  Technical Services is also involved with MEP/FP document review as well as coordination with some owner provided FF&E items.  This department is also responsible to hire a Peer Review architect.  The Peer Review architect is hired to review our project documents and create a list of questions and comments to be addressed by our architects and engineers.  This is a huge advantage to Clayco where it is always cheaper to find problems (in advance) with the documents before they become huge problems in the field.

It was very important to Fluor that their new facility achieve LEED Certification for New Construction projects.  Fortunately the Clayco and Forum Studio/Gensler team had experience with this relatively new sustainability concept.  The project was designed and constructed to meet the certification requirements for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.  The team also worked to preserve as much natural vegetation and as many trees as possible during the construction process. 

The project was a successful collaborative effort of many team partners from the ownership team to the design and the construction team.  From the start, the team had a clear vision of what sustainable features would be achievable. 

Key Learnings

Having the client commit to design decisions early on and being able to prioritize the decision making process for the client.  A very detailed decision making matrix was developed tied very closely with the buy out and purchase of subcontractor scopes of work.  As the owner was making decisions beginning with site layouts, building exterior finish and completing with interior fit out spaces, the project schedule was able to be reduced by almost 50% below a traditional design and construction schedule and sequence.

Awards

DBIA Mid America Chapter – Design-Build Awards – 2006

Award of Merit, Best Private Sector Building Over $15 Million

Design-Build Institute of America – National Design-Build Award Competition – 2006

Design-Build Excellence Award, Private Sector Building Over $15 Million

Fluor Headquarters Features

Only 22% of the total site area was developed conserving native open areas.
Project site was in a location to take advantage of area alternative transportation measures to reduce automobile pollution; 
Project included shower and changing facilities and bicycle racks to encourage alternative transportation;
Project included sufficient parking capacity to support building tenant needs, while not exceeding local requirements;
100% of parking is structured and covered, reducing overall impervious parking surface areas.
Project included open space vegetated areas exceeding local requirements by at least 50%;
Exterior hard non-roof surfaces and the two level parking structure included high reflectance concrete materials to reduce heat island effect and overall site ambient temperature;
Exterior site lighting fixtures included use of high efficiency lamps and reflectors and controls along with full-cut fixtures and spill compliance to reduce night trespass light pollution.

Sustainable Sites LEED Point Totals = 7 / 14 possible

Water Efficiency

• High efficiency landscape irrigation systems and native landscape materials which uses 100% reclaimed water from park-wide stormwater reclamation system;
• Landscaping design incorporated 77% drought tolerant plant materials and only 13% of the site area required irrigation
• Domestic water use reduction exceeded 25% with use of high efficiency water closets, urinals and lavatories.

Water Efficiency LEED Point Totals = 3 / 5 possible

Energy and Atmosphere 

• All energy related systems were formally commissioned to meet verify proper installation and operation, training and documentation;
• Optimized energy performance was achieved to nearly 20% below baseline energy use performance through use of high efficiency HVAC systems, energy efficient lighting systems and an energy efficient building envelope; 
• HVAC system refrigerants include non-CFC based materials designed to reduce environmental impact to earth’s ozone layer and green house gasses.
• High performance glass limits heat gain while maximizing light transmittance

Energy and Atmosphere LEED Point Totals = 5  / 17 possible

Materials and Resources               

• The building owner/occupant committed to an in-house recycling program diverting recyclables from area landfills;
• During construction, over 75% of generated construction waste was also diverted from area landfills (approximately 250 tons of waste);
• More than 20% of the building materials included a high percentage of post-consumer and pre-consumer recycled content reducing reliance on new raw materials;
• More than 10% of the building materials included regionally extracted and manufactured materials to project site reducing transportation pollution and encouragement of regional commerce.

Materials and Resources LEED Point Totals = 5  / 13 possible

Indoor Environmental Quality        

• Carbon dioxide sensors and air flow sensors were installed on the HVAC systems to verify proper ventilation air is provided during occupied periods, but energy savings can be achieved when areas are unoccupied by reducing air flow requirements;
• An indoor air quality program was successfully implemented to assure air cleanliness, ductwork cleanliness and improved indoor air quality during construction and immediately prior to occupancy;
• Paints, sealants, carpets and building materials included low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) below national standards to assure additional healthy indoor work areas;
• Entryway walk off mats and specific ventilation systems and filtration was installed to further assure indoor cleanliness for all occupants of the building for the life of the building;
• Natural daylighting illumination was provided to over 90% of the building occupants to provide a connection between the indoor environment to the external environment.

Indoor Environmental Quality LEED Point Totals = 8  / 15 possible

Innovation & Design Process        

• An in-house green building educational outreach program was implemented to further educate the occupants and visitors of the benefits of green buildings and demonstrate the sustainable efforts implemented to achieve LEED certification;
• The owner/tenant agreed to implement a green housecleaning program using environmentally friendly cleaning agents, microfiber dusting products, HEPA filter vacuum systems.

Innovation & Design Process LEED Point Totals = 4  / 5 possible

Developer                                            Koll Development

Architect – Core Shell                       Forum Studio

Architect – Tenant Improvements Gensler

Structural Engineer                           Alper Audi, Inc.

Contractor                                           Clayco Design-Build

*Footnotes