A mixed-use office development in Charlottesville, Virginia is seamlessly integrated into a prominent location within the city’s historic Downtown Mall district. The stepped facade of the building helps it adjust to the contextual scale and achieve energy and water conservation, as well as the health and well-being of the occupants.
Designed by Wolf Ackerman as architect of record, with EskewDumezRipple as associate architect and interior designer, the 19,974 m2 (215,000 square meters) Center for Entrepreneurs in Development (CODE) encompasses multi-use spaces, including a strategic mix of co-working, office space, shared services and retail. The investor behind the development, a University of Virginia (UVA) graduate, wanted to give back to the community by providing a place where local innovations in information technology, clean energy and related fields could flourish into local businesses, rather than see these ideas and talents move out of the region.
He wanted a solution that straddled rural connection and urban vibrancy, where workers could open a window and feel the mountain breeze, but at the same time take advantage of the urban connections of a small town community and do it in a lower price than comparable locations in larger cities. The owner loved the vibrancy that downtown Charlottesville offered and knew that what set this place apart from larger cities was its access to nature. In his opinion, the project had to highlight and enhance both aspects.
Building the project in this particular district would reinforce the commitment to walkability, for which the city is known, and especially the urban core, but posed the challenge of integrating a project of the necessary size with the small scale of the shopping center. In response, the design team introduced a novel solution: increasing the scale from the mall toward the intersection of Main and Water Streets, then spiraling up further to meet the Water Street scale, with a cascade of usable terraces and green roofs. .
As one approaches the site, CODE is visible only as a three-story structure of a similar width to the neighboring historic half-wall buildings. The mass of the building is discovered when turning the corner, but it is set as a backdrop for a new public square.
The floor plan of the building has an irregular A-shape, drawn so that the office tower would be located at the highest level of Carrer de l’Aigua, and the commercial and co-working parts are located around ‘a triangular courtyard that opens onto the shopping centre.
CODE’s program and its stepped facade simultaneously shaped the building and created numerous connections with the environment, most noticeable in the outdoor courtyards located on each floor. A conscious decision was made to scale back the interior program to enable these terraces, which have a dual function for both sustainability and the health and well-being of the occupants. The rooftop landscape features native plants in regional soils, while providing a close and inclusive sense of nature.
Mechanical teams were strategically moved away from these decks to preserve their serenity. The rooftop landscape, beyond being a living textbook of native plants and flora, is also a vital interpreter of stormwater management. The roofs are blue roofs that absorb water like a sponge and slowly release it to drain into a large underground cistern. In times of drought, a reversal of this process occurs: water is pumped back onto the roofs to water the plants. Inside the building, low-flow fixtures in bathrooms significantly reduce water consumption compared to a typical office building.
The design team also worked with building management to create standard water fixtures throughout the building, establishing a sustainable design culture for future tenants.
The inherent shadow created by the shape of the building allows the first two floors to be more transparent, promoting the connection between users and the public. The team pushed the massing of the project to adhere to a strict 15.2 m (50 ft) window-to-window floor plate, helping to achieve natural cross-ventilation and excellent light performance. natural lighting, despite a modest window-to-wall area. proportion
Rigorous analysis and simulation designed the envelope to meet the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030 challenge for efficiency and thermal performance. The building is expected to consume one-third the amount of energy of a reference project of comparable size. Its Energy Use Intensity (EUI) reading is 26, bettering the benchmark Energy Use Index by 73 percent.
High-efficiency HVAC systems, a combination of a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) for efficiency and fresh air circulation and fan-coil units for flexibility, were implemented to allow user customization, with individual controls per area, offering tenants all the air they had. they need, but only when and where they need it.
The building is simultaneously based on passive strategies. Design analysis estimates that for 40 percent of the year, the building should require neither heating nor cooling, using systems that can support occupant comfort.
Improved wrapper performance was achieved through continuous isolation, with the wrapper created to be rigorously detailed to enable automatic shading. The orientation of the building, together with the 0.31 m (12 in) recessed windows, allows the glass to remain in the shade for more of the day and allows less heat to be transferred through them. The building design incorporated low-emission materials based on peer-reviewed research, and choices also considered the carbon emissions associated with building materials, resulting in a reduced carbon footprint during the construction The building envelope draws on the brick cladding and perforated window openings of its historic context, but is implemented with a modern rain screen to achieve high levels of insulation and thermal comfort while providing a defense in depth against water intrusion.
CODE has received a 2023 AIA National Honor Award for Architecture and a 2022 AIA Louisiana Honor Award, as well as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) v4 Platinum certification.
Other contributors to the project were Fox & Associates as structural engineer; Timmons Group as civil engineer; 2RW as a mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineer; Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect as landscape architect; DKT Lighting as lighting designer; STRUCTR Advisors as sustainability consultant; Hourigan as general contractor; and MSTB Commissioning Group as the HVAC contractor. Additionally, Thornton Tomasetti provided energy modeling.
