The Mirabella at South Waterfront: Building Performance One Year Later

by Mitch Dec, Senior Energy Analyst

Glumac recently completed a performance study on The Mirabella Portland project, located in Portland’s South Waterfront district. The study analyzed the building's energy and water consumption relative to its design goals. The first year’s data demonstrates the Portland facility is operating 15% better than its sister facility in Seattle (located in the South Lake Union neighborhood) and 38% better than a comparable facility built  to code minimum requirements. Feedback regarding the performance has been beneficial to both the design team, led by Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects, as well as the building developer and owner, Pacific Retirement Services (PRS).

The Vision
PRS engaged the design team to deliver a minimum of a LEED Silver project. The 500,000 sf+ building consists mostly of living units for an active, retired community. It also includes assisted living facilities, healthcare-related support spaces, pools, fitness center, two commercial kitchens and below grade parking.

---

Glumac Relocates to LEED Platinum-Designed Office at the Standard Insurance Center

by Christine Hamilton, Corporate Marketing Coordinator

Glumac relocated to a new 15,150 sf, LEED Platinum-designed office space at the Standard Insurance Center at the beginning of January, 2012. Located at 900 SW Fifth Ave., Suite 1600, the office includes the entire 16th floor of the 27-story, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed 1968 building. The building is owned by Standard Insurance Company.

The Standard Insurance Center was selected in part due to its transit-central location. The downtown Portland transit mall runs on Fifth and Sixth Avenues and includes transportation options such as bus, light rail and bicycle lanes. Many Glumac employees take advantage of these eco-friendly commuting options. Glumac President Steven Straus further comments, “We appreciate the collaboration with The Standard to develop a showcase floor for their building that will achieve dramatic energy reduction and improved productivity...all in a 40-plus-year-old structure. We hope it will serve as an example to other building owners on how they can achieve both cost-effective energy retrofits and spectacular new office environments.”

---

Learn about Sustainable Engineering over Lunch

by Vera Lease, Marketing Coordinator

Glumac is thrilled to offer a variety of educational seminars and Lunch & Learns to our clients and other professionals in the A/E/C industry. Many of our presentations are registered with the AIA and USGBC, offering attendees continuing education credits.

On April 17th, 2012 Glumac teamed with Haworth and Treadwell & Rollo to provide an afternoon of continuing education seminars for industry professionals in the San Francisco area. The afternoon was highlighted with a keynote presentation about the "Living Building Challenge (LBC)," presented by LBC Ambassador and Glumac Senior Mechanical Design Engineer, Dylan Connelly. Dylan gave a broad overview of the program, including its structure and how to obtain certification or partial recognition. Central to the LBC is the fact that the program grants certification not upon design, but instead upon actual performance data, measured for at least a year. Dylan also reviewed several case studies of completed LBC projects, and discussed other projects currently pursuing certification.

---

Glumac Volunteers with Rebuilding Together

by Verna Triller, Associate

Hard at work

Every year, on the last Saturday in April, volunteers in cities all over the country participate in Rebuilding Together, a program that sponsor teams to go out into the community and refurbish homes for elderly, handicapped and generally underprivileged citizens.