Jonathan Levi Architects and Stantec Team Up
Federal office building lobby
Andover, MA – A team of Boston architects has helped a refurbished and redesigned federal office building achieve the second-highest rating for sustainable design from the US Green Building Council. The Andover building has earned LEED® Gold certification.
Led by Jonathan Levi Architects and Jonathan Levi , this gut renovation of the approximately 400,000sf 1960s-era building creates a modern workplace that encourages the creation, retention and productivity of its 1,800-person workforce.
In addition to reorganizing the interior of the building to replace a maze of isolating cubicles with more collaborative “boulevards” and a multi-functional lobby and training complex, the new design incorporates a number of sustainable design elements.
The building’s envelope works with nature to aggressively control heat loss and gain by making use of insulated glass windows, oversized skylights and automatic daylight dimming systems, and low-flow plumbing fixtures have reduced potable water use by 32%. Furthermore, 95% of the original building material was maintained, repurposed, or recycled on the redesign.
The building’s crowning sustainable achievement, however, is its geothermal well system – one of the largest in the northeast. With 384 separate 500-foot wells, the system produces an ample amount of green energy, significantly reducing its carbon footprint.
With this system and other energy-saving features, the building uses no fossil fuels for heating, cooling or hot water, and energy consumption has been cut by more than half.
