Last month, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA International) held its Annual Conference and Office Building Show in Denver. BOMA was founded in 1907 and is considered the oldest and largest professional trade association in its field. Its members include developers, owners, managers leasing brokers and corporate and asset managers. Every year it holds The Office Building of the Year (TOBY) contest. This year, out of 14 prize-winning categories, green buildings won four of the awards.
One of these buildings is the 56-story Time Warner Center located at Columbus Circle. Winner of the "over one million square feet" category, this complex has been designed to use 35 percent less energy than the energy code portion of New York State’s building code requires. Time Warner estimates that through its green building initiatives, building operating costs will be reduced by as much as 25 percent.
Some of the guidelines incorporated into the building’s construction include improving indoor air quality and using materials low in off-gassing toxic chemicals. Although the Time Warner Center was originally designed and built with state-of-the-art practices in order to conserve energy and utilize non-toxic materials, the building was not LEED certified, and is now working towards a20LEED-EB rating.
While cost and environmental savings are an important factor of a corporation’s choice to go with the green approach, the best part of this story is that the real estate industry is also recognizing from within its own ranks the necessity and value of moving in this direction.
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