CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--When developer Urban Offerings, Inc. of El Segundo, CA, acquired a 1956 vintage bow truss industrial building in the Culver City area of Los Angeles in 2007 to renovate it for adaptive creative office space, the company envisioned an even greater concurrent challenge: to make an existing building energy sustainable. Both goals were achieved, the company reports. Urban Offerings and its partner, Meridian Group Ltd. of Los Angeles, have completed their renovation of the 28,000-square-foot building located at 3641 Holdrege Ave. Concurrently, Urban Offerings announces that it has received a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for core and shell renovation, the second highest sustainability designation awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. Stating that the LEED Gold certification was a “team recognition,” Nucich praised lead consultant Zinner Consultants of Santa Monica, CA, general contractor Oltmans Construction Co. of Whittier, CA, and architect Lynch/Eisinger/Design (LED) of New York, NY. “The major challenges in achieving LEED Gold were associated with accomplishing the required energy efficiency with the creation of two new 20-foot glass walls. The Douglas Fir vertical screens hang over the glass walls to provide the necessary solar shading, while the cool roof as designed by Independent Roofing Consultants provides the necessary R Values in achieving the required energy efficiency for the building,” Nucich said. He emphasized that the “cool roof system” reflects the sun’s heat. “This also allowed us to retain the architectural integrity of the original bow truss roof system. It is a beautiful structural and architectural feature virtually impossible to re-create today cost-wise,” Nucich said. Other elements contributing to the LEED Gold designation, according to Oltmans Construction Co., include a building material decision that reduces heat island effect by utilizing light colored concrete and shading elements, water use reduction through low-flow restroom fixtures, the absence of automatic landscape irrigation, draught tolerant plants, a contract for renewable energy to provide a minimum 70 percent of the building’s power for a period of two years, recycled or reused non-hazardous construction and demolition water, and skylights and windows to achieve natural daylight in seven percent of the building’s occupied areas.
