According to Steven Litt of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the city’s historic Higbee Building on Public Square, former home of the beloved Higbee’s department store, “symbolizes everything that once was glorious about downtown.” KeyBank’s green renovation of three floors of the building retains much of that classic charm while showcasing what the future of Cleveland’s downtown could be.
The 221,000-square-foot renovation, led by Vocon, is based on the “mobile workspace” concept; it provides hoteling stations, shared offices and a number of collaborative work areas to over 1,000 employees, all while maintaining historic features such as the original elevator lobbies, decorative columns and full-height plaster ceilings. A “Main Street” concept ties together the north and south ends of the office and allows for easier navigation of the expansive floor plates.
| Top 10 LEED Projects of 2011 | ||
| 1 | Cooper Carry Offices | LEED-CI Platinum |
| Atlanta, GA | ||
| 2 | Pratt’s Myrtle Hall | LEED-NC gold |
| New York, NY | ||
| 3 | KeyBank Higbee Building | LEED-CI gold |
| Cleveland, OH | ||
| 4 | San Francisco International Airport Terminal 2 | LEED-CI gold |
| San Francisco, CA | ||
| 5 | Adam Clayton Powell Paideia Academy | LEED gold for schools |
| Chicago, IL | ||
| 6 | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee | LEED-NC gold |
| Chattanooga, TN | ||
| 7 | Arlington Free Clinic | LEED-CI gold |
| Arlington, VA | ||
| 8 | Patrick Heath Public Library | LEED-NC Gold |
| Boerne, TX | ||
| 9 | Stylex Showroom | LEED-ci Silver |
| Chicago, IL | ||
| 10 | Andaz 5th Avenue | LEED silver |
| New York, NY | ||
| Back to Main Article | ||
The new location is also packed with sustainable features. The design team moved perimeter offices toward the center of the floor plate to allow increased light into the space, and controls in all regularly occupied work spaces within 15 feet of the perimeter automatically reduce lighting during daylight hours. Fully adjustable task and undercabinet lighting in work stations further reduces the need for ambient lighting, resulting in a 16.5 percent reduction of lighting power density below standard.
Efficient plumbing fixtures have decreased water usage by 37 percent, while an efficient HVAC system, equipped with CO2 sensors and outdoor air monitoring systems, has increased ventilation by 30 percent. KeyBank has also agreed to purchase 100 percent of the office’s electricity from renewable power sources.
The renovation project received extra points, including an Innovation credit, for diverting over 95 percent of on-site generated construction waste from the landfill. Over 77 percent of the total building materials content was manufactured within 500 miles of the project site, and over 27 percent of the building materials, including furniture, were manufactured with recycled content.
“This renovation represents KeyBank’s commitment to strengthen our community’s core in the most environmentally responsible ways possible,” says Henry Meyer, KeyCorp’s CEO. “It enhances one of the most historic buildings in the heart of downtown, it leverages Tower City Center’s existing
transportation hub and allows hundreds of our employees to enjoy the growing sense of excitement connected to the area’s ongoing economic development.”