Qatar’s Ultimate LEED Dream Team

by Jonathan McGaha | April 30, 2014 12:00 am

Recently, I was asked: “Have you ever had the opportunity to assemble and work with a LEED dream team?” I was cautious to answer this question because I have had the opportunity to work with great teams all over the world, and each one is unique and without the help of each of those teams, the associated buildings would never have been certified. Without any disrespect to any of those who contributed to those past successes, I would like to tell a story about an amazing project.

In 2007, my firm was asked to join a design team for a design competition for the student housing complex located in Education City, Qatar. At the time, there were no LEED certified buildings in the country of Qatar and only one or two certified buildings in the Gulf Region. One of the strongest components to our team’s submission was a keen focus on sustainability, and unlike other competitors, our team communicated a strategy for how we would deliver these 12 buildings in the desert and achieve LEED certification.

During the judging process, the team was asked what level of certification it could reach. After a series of long discussions regarding the risk and challenges to the project and LEED certification, the team determined that a Platinum level certification could be achieved. At the end of the competition, our team emerged as the winner. Now it was time to put the winning strategy to work.

The project consisted of 12 buildings that included two resident community centers, four resident halls and six apartment buildings. The Middle East culture does not allow comingling of unmarried males and females, so a duplication of each building type was necessary. The project, now called Hamad Bin Khalifa University Housing Complex, consists of two residential campuses (six buildings for the male students and six buildings for female students). These two campuses are located within the master campus, known as Education City, and are approximately a 1/2-mile apart from one another.

Members of the delivery team seemed to come from every corner of the world, from Washington to Singapore, the U.S. to Australia and all points in between. Each team member was committed to delivering 12 Platinum buildings. This was despite the fact that the team was culturally diverse, work was being performed in 10 time zones simultaneously, the construction management team was completely unfamiliar with LEED, the supplier base had never been asked to document a LEED project, and we were working inside of a country that had no existing infrastructure to support construction and demolition recycling.

The roster positions of members making up the delivery team were pretty much the same as any other design-bid-build delivery. However, unlike other projects, this project required the concept design and representative renderings truly reflect the finished product. This owner would not tolerate design changes that would affect the appearance of the building after the concept design had been accepted by the owner.

It was critical for each member to understand the importance of working in an integrated manner. As the concept drawings were created, the team made sure to provide a true reflection of what the finished project would look like in the drawings and models. Our landscape architect made sure to indicate native plantings and utilization of micro detention basins. Initial verification was required to estimate the amount of solar and/or wind technology that would be needed to maximize renewable energy credits. Size and location of window openings also had to be analyzed to reflect a building that could achieve natural daylight and unobstructed views to the outdoors.

The project proceeded through design, and at the conclusion, it was ready for contractor tender. Due to many circumstances, the procurement of the construction services lagged the completed design by almost 18 months. By the time the contractor had been retained, much of the design team had been disbanded. Regardless of the timeline, our team was fortunate to select a contractor that demonstrated a commitment to LEED and a willingness to learn what had to be done to properly document the prerequisites and credits defined by LEED.

The construction of 12 buildings on two site locations is already a complex task. Because these 12 buildings were seeking a Platinum level certification, the construction became even more complex. Innovation and a keen understanding of the LEED requirements aided the team in the utilization of the USGBC’s Multiple Building and Campus Application Guide for many of the Sustainable Sites credits. The individual energy model created for each building established the baseline energy use. Once the baseline energy use was defined for these buildings, the design team worked together, combining architectural elements with state-of-the-art MEP systems to create a building that is designed to be 45 percent more efficient than the base-modeled building.

Greenbuild 2013, held in Philadelphia last October, served as the location where the founding chairman and CEO of the USGBC, Rick Fedrizzi, announced to the sustainable community that our team had successfully delivered the Qatar Foundation project.

The team’s success could be marked by the 12 Platinum certifications on its own. However, this team looked for other tangible signs of success beyond the LEED rating system. These include the following:

• These buildings were the first Platinum buildings in Qatar and represent the highest concentration of LEED platinum buildings used for higher education housing anywhere in the world.
• Thanks to the success of this project, the Qatar now has a recycling program for construction and demolition waste.
• Lessons learned through the submittal and review process of the six buildings located on the female campus allowed for the review of the six male housing buildings to be returned with no comments or supplemental documentation required.
• Qatar Foundation now mandates LEED Gold for each new building erected on campus.

Because of the project team’s efforts, Qatar is now extremely focused on LEED and other environmentally friendly aspects. No other project I have worked on has been such an inspiration to an entire country, making me believe that the project team assembled to create the Qatar Foundation Student Housing Complex was truly a LEED dream team.

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Thomas Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the construction industry and noted expert on sustainability, is the general manager of St. Louis-based Vertegy. His recent book, “Guide to LEED 2009: Estimating and Preconstruction Strategies,” provides step-by-step information about the LEED 2009 for New Construction process. To learn more about Vertegy or Thomas’ new book, visit www.vertegyconsultants.com[1] for more information.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/qatars-ultimate-leed-dream-team/

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