Example Project: Caltrans District 7
In 2004 the State of California took possession of a new Headquarters building for Caltrans District 7. The building also houses the offices of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. The 13-story structure was a design-build project with over 750,000 feet of office space and parking for more than a thousand cars. The building contains 52 bathrooms with 450 sinks and 700 toilets. Total value of the work was $165 million.
Regulatory Background
The District 7 project was subject to a number of environmental/conservation requirements in addition to those of local building codes and the design specification. This situation is becoming very common in large scale construction, particularly under public works contracts. The applicable specifications required compliance with:
1. California’s Excellence in Public Buildings Program (EIPB)
2. Governor’s Executive Order S-20-04
3. U.S. Green Building Council LEED Silver objective
It should be noted that these requirements are not compounding or competitive but mutually reinforcing—many of them being call-outs or references to the others. For example, California’s Excellence in Public Buildings Program (EIPB) incorporates the LEED rating system and other similar initiatives, and any State of California building project is required to conform to EO S-20-04, which in turn refers explicitly to LEED certifications. This being the case, the simplest path to follow is to conform to LEED’s current standard.
An examination of the project from the standpoint of a bidding contractor reveals nothing in the way of end-use plumbing significantly different from non-green installations. The mechanical contractor installed the following fixtures and appliances in the Caltrans building:
Dexter urinals type K-5016-ET, Kohler Kingston toilet bowls type K4330; Kohler Caxton sinks type K2210. Faucets are Zurn Aquasense “A” battery-powered. Showerheads are Delta Cambridge pressure-balancing 11T5-333.
In most green projects, and especially those undertaken under LEED guidance and review, the project manager or prime contractor will assume responsibility for compliance with the documentation requirements under LEED or similar standards. What this means is that the satisfaction of these requirements is no more complex or daunting than the ordinary run of documentation; the installing contractor merely follows the customary path of obtaining specified hardware, then installs according to code and accepted practice, maintaining ordinary documentation of these milestones along the way.
In terms of operation, LEED requirements may be considered a completion requirement for the subcontractor and a documentation requirement for the prime or construction manager. For that matter, most of what constitutes LEED requirements occurs in the design phase—in the choice of spec and material. At the installation end, very little is different than in non-green construction.
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