Green Office Case Study

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Green Office Building Case Study One and Two Potomac Yard was a project that represented what was to be one of the first “green” new speculative office building projects in the Washington, D.C. area. Construction of the project started in 2004 and was completed in 2006. Many lessons were learned during the course of this project. The project team learned that project goals should be set at the project inception and that strategies should be documented and stated at the beginning of the project. These minimal concepts would have helped to control costs and given the people involved in the project more clarity on what needed to be done. Complications were present at the start of the One and Two Potomac Yard project. Environmental concerns about the risk of contamination were existent at the beginning of the project. The Environmental Protection Agency erased the environmental concerns by issuing no further action letters. Security measures were compromised to complete the project. Security measures and Arlington’s Urban Design Guidelines conflicted with one another. Arlington’s Urban Design Guidelines required active streetscapes and no setbacks. Security guidelines required setbacks of 50 to 100 feet. New urbanism promotes multiple pedestrian and vehicular access points to buildings. Security guidelines and most government buildings require limited and controlled access points. Because of these conflicting standards, changes had to be made to the design. I personally would have made the decision to not compromise security guidelines if that decision was mine to be made. I liked all the ideas associated with this project expect for compromising the security guidelines to conform with Arlington’s Urban Design Guidelines. Overall, the project was a success. The main objective was to complete the construction of One and Two Potomac Yard.
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