News

Two Green Additions to the California Skyline

San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, August 17, 2009

In July Brightworks received notification from the U.S. Green Building Council that two of its condominium projects in California were awarded LEED Silver certification: Arterra Condominiums in San Francisco and the Evo Condominiums in Los Angeles. Arterra is the first LEED Certified Condominium in San Francisco, and Evo’s certification completes the three building South Group green housing redevelopment in downtown LA.

Arterra Condominiums in San Francisco, CA

The Silver Certified Arterra Condominium project is located at the very northern end of the Mission Bay Redevelopment area of San Francisco. The building is a sleek, mixed-use complex with 269 residential units in total. The project achieved a 20% annual reduction in energy use when compared with a conventional building and saved over 40% in annual water usage, with an additional reduction of over 50% in water used for landscaping. By locating the project in an urban area that was previously developed, the team was able to emphasize and promote walkable connections to the existing community and numerous transportation alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles such as public transit, bicycles and low-emitting and fuel efficient vehicles.

Residential and commercial tenants of the Arterra building will enjoy healthy indoor spaces made with recycled content, regional materials and low emissions of harmful VOCs. Views of the city are available from 90% of the building’s regularly occupied spaces, and lighting and thermal comfort controls are available for occupants to increase occupant well-being and save energy within the building.

Evo Condominiums in Los Angeles, CA

The Silver Certified Evo Condominiums in downtown Los Angeles is the final project of the three-building South Group redevelopment, the first highrise residential building project in downtown Los Angeles in 30 years, and LA’s first green residential development. The project’s strategies focused on promoting building efficiency alongside an extremely high resident quality of life. Extensive views of the surrounding area and natural daylighting are available for building residents, as well as individually controllable lighting and heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls for occupant comfort and to contribute to over all building energy savings. The sum of Evo’s integrated strategies for energy use reduction led to a savings of over 30% in annual energy use when compared with a conventional building. The project also used substantial amounts of recycled and regional materials to preserve virgin resources and cut down on the carbon impacts of material transport, and diverted over 75% percent of its construction waste from area landfills.