The goal was to transform a 1960's windowless Bank of America building into a high-performance building. Trained in the US Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the design team applied the principals of the three ‘R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle. Structural inspection of the building before purchase affirmed that it had ‘good bones’ that could withstand the transformation.

Cutting large wall openings was a challenging task; the added skylight and window penetrations, as well as the age of the building, made it necessary to do a significant seismic retrofit. New steel posts, beams and concrete piers and below-ground grade beams were installed. The original concrete bank vault became a stabilizing feature for the seismic upgrade.

The ability to re-use existing materials was important to the project. The rock façade from the existing exterior of the building was used in the landscaping. The existing parking area was excessive and was reduced and converted to landscape. The soil under the landscape is cooler than soil below asphalt or other hard surfaces. Thus, once the asphalt was removed, the increased landscape was suitable for routing the underground piping for the ground source heat pump. 

The straw storm waddle used in erosion control was used as mulch in the landscape area. The landscape captures a large percentage of the sites storm water for irrigation and filtration prior to entering the city storm water system. Additional water conservation is achieved by planting drought tolerant vegetation.