The American Institute of Architects and its Committee on the Environment has selected 355 11th Street: The Matarozzi/Pelsinger Multi-Use Building in San Francisco as the inaugural recipient of the Top Ten Plus. The award recognizes one past AIA COTE Top Ten Projects Award recipient which has quantifiable metrics that demonstrate the true impact the sustainable design has achieved.
355 11th Street, by Aidlin Darling Design, was recognized as a 2010 AIA/COTE Top Ten Project Award recipient. It is a LEED-NC Gold adaptive reuse of a historic and previously derelict turn-of-the-century industrial building which includes a LEED-CI Platinum restaurant on the ground floor.
While solar energy harvesting, a green roof, and natural ventilation make the largest quantitative impact on the building’s overall sustainability, it’s the new exterior skin that provided the most fertile territory to merge sustainability with architectural design. The metal skin is perforated with fields of small holes that allow light and air to pass through new operable windows hidden beyond. The perforated skin mitigates solar heat gain while enabling cross-ventilation of the interior.
The list of reasons the project has achieved this inaugural award is indeed lengthy. For example, the generous daylight and passive cooling of the building has resulted in less than expected energy use. To be precise, 103.3 percent of the energy being used by the office spaces is being produced on site.
More on the project and its many sustainable features is available on the AIA website.
PHOTO: Courtesy of AIA; Photo credit: Matthew Millman.