We moved into our new office building at 201 N. Milpas Street at the end of October 2010. This new building provides us with more space, our own parking lot, and the opportunity to remodel and add many more green features than were here originally. (See list of green features below.)
Green Features Found in Allen Associates’ New Office:
1) Energy Efficiency:
- Icynene insulation in the roof rafters and fiberglass Insulation added to the existing exterior walls where previously there was none.
- Ten new sola tubes provide natural light throughout the office reducing the need for supplemental electric lighting.
- New high efficiency LED Lights.
- Fluorescent under-cabinet lighting was installed with individual controls at each work station. These lights are also on a timer in case lights are left on inadvertently.
- Eight energy efficient fluorescent panel lights with light diffusers were reused from our old office.
- The 5 kW solar photovoltaic system was moved from our old office and installed on our new building’s roof after a new Title 24 reflective roof was installed.
- A new Energy Star refrigerator (Kitchen Aid) is in the kitchen
2) Water Saving Features:
- Water saving dual flush toilets are used in both the men’s and women’s bathrooms. In addition, the men’s bathroom features a Sloan water-free urinal.
- A water and energy efficient water system provides drinking water in the kitchen. This unit uses two filtration technologies – reverse osmosis and a carbon filter.
- We have installed a drought tolerant landscape in the parking lot.
3) Sustainable Materials:
- The floors throughout the entry, conference room and plan room are made of reclaimed oak fencing from Kentucky. These oak floors were finished with Rubio Monocoat, a no- VOC hard wax.
- The floor underlayment is a Sika AcouBond -System – a proprietary specially slotted foam mat and SikaBond®-T53, a permanently elastic, sound dampening adhesive.
- An epoxy grout was used on the interior tile floors in the kitchen, rear hallway and bathrooms that requires minimal maintenance and no sealing. (Product: CEG Lite)
- The exterior tiles at the front and rear entry are composed of durable concrete with varying amounts of recycled content which qualifies them for LEED points. They were manufactured by Arto Brick in Gardena, CA with regionally sourced raw materials and are recyclable.
- Instead of paper towels, both restrooms have electric air hand dryers
- New cabinets in the plan check room, kitchen and bathroom were made with renewable woods and low-VOC finishes (Canyon Creek)
- Rather than becoming firewood, a locally urban-salvaged black acacia tree was made into our conference room table
- Material reuse: The existing cedar entry door was re-used and re-finished. Sustainably harvested bamboo cabinets, custom built for our previous office, are being reused in the new office. In addition, we are reusing the Lyptus wood entry desk, Richlite plan table, Dakota Burl Sunflower board, and laminate desktops from the old office.