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Ample windows and a large internal atrium provide daylight to more than 1,800 city employees who work in the Webb Municipal Building. Studies have shown that worker productivity can improve by as much as 34 percent in buildings that provide access to daylight, outdoor views, thermal comfort and high indoor air quality. Photo Credit: Ryan Nisogi.
Webb Municipal Building
The Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building is located at 201 W. Colfax Avenue in the Civic Center Historic District in downtown Denver. Constructed in 2002, the 12-story, 698,000-square-foot facility is home to more than 40 city agencies.
The building was developed for the City and County of Denver by Mile High Development, LLC, and designed by David Owen Tryba Architects and RNL Design, who received a 2003 Merit Award from the Denver Chapter of The American Institute of Architects for the project. It has numerous sustainable features, such as efficient mechanical systems, low-impact materials, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and access to daylight and views.
Its unique, boat-shaped design provides visual intrigue and serves as a core architectural element that enhances the building's energy efficiency and workplace dynamics.
It has a southwestern solar exposure and a predominately glass exterior comprised of low-emissivity, double-pane glass with insulated frames. These help minimize heat gain and loss while decreasing electricity needs. Private offices are located in the center of the building, and work stations with low-height partitions and glass inserts are located around the exterior. This open configuration allows natural light to penetrate into most areas and enhances employee interaction.
Low-energy compact fluorescent task lighting, occupancy sensors, and LED exit signs can be found throughout the building. Instead of traditional air conditioning, the building is a part of Xcel Energy's district chilled water loop. Steam-based hot water exchangers are used during the months that the building requires heat. To maintain indoor air quality, approximately 20 percent outside air is exchanged and circulated by the ventilation system.
The building is also located near public transportation and features a three-story, 236,000 square-foot underground parking garage with 100 bike lockers. On its lower level, there's an employee fitness center complete with showers and changing rooms.
The Webb Municipal Building is both Energy Star® and LEED-EB® Gold certified, a recognition obtained in 2007 following a pilot project to certify Denver's first city facility under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings program.
The LEED-EB high-performance rating system applies to green building operations and maintenance. It evaluates criteria related to a building's location, exterior maintenance, water and energy efficiency, material and resource use, indoor environmental quality, occupancy comfort, and sustainability innovations.
To achieve the Gold rating, Denver's Facilities Planning and Management Division, in conjunction with Transwestern, the building's management company, conducted a performance and waste stream analysis and made inexpensive green operational and maintenance changes, including:
- Enhancing recycling systems and increasing recycling rates from 23 percent to 56 percent with single-stream, desk-side recycling for paper, plastic, aluminum, cardboard, electronic waste, batteries, and compact fluorescent light bulbs.
- Purchasing products with reduced environmental impacts such as recycled-content office paper and furniture.
- Using nontoxic cleaning products, recycled-content janitorial products and low-impact pest management practices.
- Implementing use of low-impact construction materials, construction waste recycling and indoor air quality management best practices.
- Ensuring function of building systems and improving energy efficiency in building operations.
- Switching the snow melt product from magnesium chloride to calcium chloride, a nontoxic product and is not harmful to animals, doesn't kill vegetation, and doesn't contaminate water.
- Adopting a purchasing policy requiring that all new paints, adhesives, caulks, sealants, and carpets contain only low amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building is one of only five LEED-EB Gold certified buildings in Denver, and one of 38 such buildings nationwide. The facility serves as a model for Greenprint Denver's action agenda, and many of the best practices it incorporates will be applied at other city facilities.
IN-DEPTH:
- Learn more about the Webb Municipal Building.
- View the Webb Building's LEED certificate (57K PDF).
- Read about the building's Energy Star® features.
- View Mile High Development, LLC's developer's profile.
- Visit the designers, David Owen Tryba Architects and RNL Design.
