CHICAGO--Epstein has designed a new, 91,200-sf corporate headquarters/produce distribution facility in the old Union Stockyards complex for Testa Produce, Inc.
This facility, which broke ground on February 12, is anticipating becoming the first LEED Platinum
industrial facility of its kind in the United States.
Sustainable features in the new building include a 167-foot-tall wind
turbine that will provide power to the facility, and a variety of
landscape, solar and water conservation features.
Among the many sustainable features of the building, in addition to the
wind turbine, is a vegetated green roof which will cover approximately
50 percent of the net roof area. The green roof will help prevent storm
water runoff and will be also be formed and sculpted to give the
building a unique green identity. The green roof slopes down and spills
over the edge to become a green wall at the front of the building.
The facility also is being built on an old brown field site at 4555 S.
Racine Avenue that was home to a number of meat processing facilities
that were demolished some years ago.
Other features to minimize and recycle storm water runoff from the roof
include a cistern to capture and reuse rainwater and permeable pavers
that drain into “bio-swales,” or live wetlands, which also will capture
and cleanse storm water runoff.
The site is actually designed to require no significant irrigation
beyond plant establishment and watering will be necessary only in times
of severe drought. This sustainable feature is accomplished through a
landscape design which utilizes native plant species that do not require
continual irrigation.
Employees will have a green experience both outside and inside the
building. Workers will actually enter the facility by walking through
one of several vegetated green walls.
Solar energy will be utilized in two distinct ways. Solar collectors
will provide heated water that will provide the domestic hot water for
all of the showers, sinks and sanitation. In addition, not only will
skylights be used to provide natural ambient lighting, which has been
shown to improve worker morale and productivity, but a solar tracking
system will adjust the ambient lighting based on the sun’s position in
the sky at a given time.
The 13-acre project includes 15,200 sf of Class A office space and a 76,000-sf distribution center containing a 7,600-sf 0° freezer, 24,700 sf of cooler space, approximately 5,000 sft of dry warehouse and approximately 38 truck dock positions on two refrigerated cross docks.
Epstein
www.epsteinglobal.com
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