Adaptive Reuse and LEED

This week the ULI Richmond Young Leader Group had the event "ULI Richmond - YLG Goes Retro: Adaptive Reuse Gone Green" held at Moseley Architects new offices in Richmond.  Included in the presentation were Sandra Leibowitz Earley, AIA, LEED AP, Principal at Sustainable Design Consultants; Bryna Dunn, AICP, LEED AP, Vice President and Director of Environmental Planning & Research at Moseley Architects; and Blue Crump, Principal at cityspace Solar presented on adaptive reuse and LEED.

The idea of taking something and re-purposing it is not new, but working with federal and local agencies to incorporate appropriate tax credits and achieving LEED certification is cumbersome to say the least.    These historic tax credits usually require that many of the building components be left in place, while LEED wants the most efficient materials to be used.  LEED does give credit (SSc3) if the site is a brownfiled that is remediated  (we environmental scientists like it when that happens).  There maybe more, but I'm not a LEED experet, yet...

In any event this new office space showcases that with an appropriate level of effort we can revitalize our existing buildings and find new uses for them.  It is a hope that as LEED becomes even more main stream tax credit programs will allow greater flexibility to reuse and repurpose these facilities.