How Houston lives, works, and plays has forever changed with the addition of 1550 on the Green. Located in Houston’s Central Business District. this $225 million, 28-story work of art and innovation provides its Class-A commercial tenants with posh amenities, scenic views, and a sustainable fresh air-flow system that rivals all others. The building features a tenant-only rooftop conference center, outdoor space on multiple floors, a fitness center designed by Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, and top-of-the-line security features, among many others.
Discovery Green, Houston’s 12-acre city park, creates the ultimate backdrop and front yard to this gleaming mammoth. When not engaging with the amenities in 1550 on the Green, tenants can take in the flowering gardens, changing art exhibits, or simply find a bench by the lake to soak in the serenity this oasis in a concrete jungle creates.
Spanning three city blocks, this first phase of Discovery West is a collection of six towers that curve as they steadily rise to 450 feet in the sky. Walter P Moore provided structural engineering services for this project. Unlike most structures of its kind, the core containing elevators and restrooms, resides on the side of each tower, providing multiple added benefits to its tenants. First, oversized windows allow light to penetrate non-traditional areas like the elevator lobbies and restrooms. Next, unobstructed open floorplates allow for more natural light to seep deeper into each level than conventional floorplate designs. Finally, the side-core design allows each tower to breathe, utilizing new technology in air-handling that distributes 30% more fresh air than similar office buildings.
Sustainability and our impact on embodied carbon were also taken to a whole new level with 1550 on the Green. Walter P Moore collaborated with Skanska Commercial Development to build upon the lessons the team learned on our previous project, Bank of America Tower. Our team performed a Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA) during early design phases to identify “hot spots” of C02 emission and identify areas of design improvement. The team focused optimization strategies on the floor and foundation systems. The design team then used their past local experience knowledge to establish environmental requirements for concrete mix designs. This allowed the project to achieve the embodied carbon impact reduction threshold required in the then LEED V 4.1 Building Lifecycle Impact Reduction credit. At the time Construction Documents were issued, mix-specific Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) were not available in Houston. However, the team advocated within the market and the ready-mix supplier responded, developing mix specific EPDs for all mixes that were used on the project. The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) was employed to combine this information with the as-built bill of materials to develop a final embodied carbon estimate. To date, 1550 on the Green has achieved LEED® Platinum, WiredScore® Platinum, and WELL Platinum certifications, is seeking a Fitwel® certification, and boasts 60% reduced embodied carbon.