10B — April 26 - May 9, 2019 — Green Buildings — Owners, Developers & Managers — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
G reen B uildings
By William Amann, P.E., M&E Engineers, Inc. Unilever HQ earns awards and energy incentives
U
nilever has completed a total transformation of its North American
The building design concept was to connect five existing buildings with an impressive new atrium named the “Mar- ketplace” to encourage greater collaboration between teams and individual employees. The entire space was reimagined to support Unilever’s agile work culture with flexible work spac- es without offices or cubes and many collaborative meeting areas. The central marketplace is very open with high ceilings and a plethora of natural light. Besides receiving LEED PLATINUM Certification, the project is being recognized by NJBIA with its Good Neigh-
bor Award, and the US Green Building Council NJ Chapter will present it with the LEED Commercial Project of the Year at its Gala on May 22nd. The project has been approved by the BPU for a significant ener- gy efficiency incentive through the Pay for Performance (P4P) program. The building is also expected to achieve WELL Certification. The energy re- duction measures resulted in energy savings of 44% and the solar array provides 15% of the building energy use. The project was funded through a sale lease-back to OVG Real Estate, which is
based in The Netherlands, and Normandy Real Estate part- ners. OVG/Normandy invested additional monies into the project to improve the energy efficiency and provided Uni- lever with an “Eco Protocol”, which guarantees the maxi- mum energy consumption of the building. This is unheard of in the industry here in the United Staes. M&E Engineers provided the energy modeling and system commissioning, and was the P4P Partner for the project. The existing buildings were built in the 1960’s and had nine foot high single-pane
continuous glass, as well as un-insulated concrete walls on all sides. With the use of energy modeling, the OVG team was able to identify measures to reduce the energy use. Exist- ing walls were insulated, new double-pane high performance glazing was installed, and new decentralized high-efficiency boilers replaced the central boiler plant. OVG also incorporated the Internet of Things (IoT) into the project. An OVG subsidiary, Edge Technologies, provided a “bGRID” Smart Building network throughout the com- plex, which utilizes Bluetooth sensors to monitor and control the lighting and climate. It enables a “Google” map inside the building to navigate the various buildings. It also al- lows Unilever to provide apps for employees’ smart phones which they can use to schedule collaborative meeting spaces or a quiet space to work. On summer Fridays and other days when employees are working remotely, they can use the app to shut down certain floors or an entire building, which fur- ther reduces the energy and maintenance costs. The build- ing usage, energy and comfort data is continuously uploaded to the cloud, where data ana- lytics are used to predict and monitor the building comfort and energy performance. William Amann, P.E., LEED FELLOW is president of M&E Engineers, Inc. was demolished to make way for a horse-shoe shaped main street, flanked by two story retail and dining experiences. A high end grocer and several junior and large box retailers complement the boutique style retailers. The current phasing will include high-density residential. The planned revision to the Granite Run Mall in Media, PA looks to reinvigorate an enclosed star shaped mall that includes three anchors. Our concept was simple: split the building open to reveal outdoor circulation, provide better walking connec- tions, and a more usable park- ing field. Some of the anchors may shift to smaller footprints to maintain viability, and make room for more diversity on site. The addition of 450 multi-family apartments to the outer circula- tion ring will allow for on-site patrons and increased revenue continued from page 9B continued on page 11B RE-Visioning . . .
He adqua r - ters on i ts b e a u t i f u l c ampus i n Eng l ewo od Cl i f f s , NJ . “Project Uni- fy” consoli- dated several of its North
William Amann
American offices into a single state-of-the-art workplace. The driving force of the redevelop- ment was to utilize the space to attract and retain the work- force of the future.
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