| Featuring a striking glass curtain wall façade, the new 140,000 square foot building is the crown jewel in Irvine’s Impac Center, near the intersection of Jamboree and MacArthur, serving to enclose and unite the campus as it creates a central public plaza; an extension of both the work and recreational environment. The plaza’s radial design, highlighted with a café and wifi-enabled work/casual recreation areas, reflects the progressive contemporary environment sought out by young professionals to foster collaboration and exploration, and provides an opportunity for the business community to improve interactivity.
Slated for LEED Platinum Certification, the building will be one of only 26 commercial office buildings in Southern California to achieve this distinction to date.
As inviting as it is functional, the four-story curtain wall cuts into the attached three story glass box, creating a roof garden, integrating both forms and providing an invigorating outdoor work/play space that overlooks the enhanced plaza on one side, and provide views out to the neighboring wetlands on the other. The reflective single pane high performance glazing allowed the building to still achieve the energy performance necessary for LEED Platinum. This simultaneously lowers the weight of the system from a typical insulated glass panel, and in turn, lowers the weight of steel and cost of the building. The reflective glass above gives privacy to the occupants while the clear glazing below draws the public in and establishes a connection to the plaza.
Beneath the glass structure is a parking level; where the foundation of the commitment to sustainability begins. With more than 75 bike spaces, 24 EV (Electronic Vehicle) spaces and rows of Carpool and Clean Air spaces, tenants and guests become part of the successful healthy transformation of the built environment.
Extending beyond LEED requirements, all the teams on the project worked toward the goals of the Living Building Challenge, a green building certification program that defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today, and acts to diminish the gap between current limits and ideal solutions. All materials that went into the building construction were reviewed for their impact on occupant health and well-being, not just within the building itself, but their complete life cycle. From their potential impact in manufacturing, into their future reusability and bio-degradation, ensuring the health and safety at all stages. Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the ‘greenest’ anywhere, and will serve as role models for others that follow. |
