Posted on 03/06/2008 2:15:57 PM PST by Clint N. Suhks
The idea of “green” buildings is a terrific marketing concept. In San Francisco, it has helped grease the political roadway for massive, view-blocking luxury condominiums, implying that building these structures is more environmentally sustaining than leaving land vacant. Few seem to care whether green buildings can be a nightmare for those having to work inside high-rise structures lacking heat or air conditioning. The new Thomas Mayne designed Federal Building at 7th and Mission Streets in San Francisco is a case in point. Lauded by the New York Times as a building that “may one day be remembered as the crowning achievement of the General Services Administration’s Design Excellence program,” what some believe is the greenest federal building in the nation’s history also likely has the worst work environment. While architectural describe the building’s “sense of airiness” as “magical,” employees view working in this heat and air-conditioning free building with the wavy concrete floors and ceilings as a nightmare.
Green but Cold
Thomas Mayne’s new George H.W. Bush Federal Building now looms over midtown San Francisco. While people have sharply divergent reactions to its unique exterior design -- I happen to like it -- the verdict on the structure’s function as a office space for federal employees is nearly unanimous: it is a disaster.
Not that architectural critics care. Bedazzled by unusual design features and its focus on energy conservation, reviews of Mayne’s latest work seem to ignore whether it fulfills its functional role as a federal office building.
Based on what I have been told, it clearly does not.
The first fact about the building that may cause surprise is its lack of air conditioning or heat. According to Mayne, “a bike rack and air conditioning get you the same point. I’d much rather see BTU and CO2 requirements and let the professional community solve the problem.”
I apparently lack sufficient understanding of green technology, as it does not seem that a bike rack would “get you to the same point” in terms of keeping workers cool. In the real world on the 15th floor of the Federal Building, workers seek to relieve the heat by opening windows, which not only sends papers flying, but, depending on their proximity to the opening, makes creating a stable temperature for all workers near impossible.
When I spoke with a Labor Department worker at the building (who noted that she is encountering the type of bad work conditions that her agency is supposed to enforce against), she confirmed what might have been an urban legend: that some employees must use umbrellas to keep the sun out of their cubicles.
The lack of internal climate controls has left some workers too cold and others too hot. A happy medium has proved elusive. And while the managers’ offices do have heat and air conditioning -- a two-tiered approach fitting in a building named for Bush -- the “green” design apparently has messed with the effectiveness of these systems, leaving these top staff as physically uncomfortable as the line workers.
Dysfunctional Elevators
According to my source, architect Mayne has stated that federal office workers do not get enough exercise. To address this, he installed elevators in the building that only stop at every third floor. This requires employees to walk up or down one or two flights of metal stairs.
Persons with physical disabilities who cannot use stairs can use a separate elevator that stops at every floor. The foreseeable result is that employees seeking to avoid stairs use the disabled access elevator, leaving this car crammed with people and making the ride to the top extremely slow.
I am told that when the freight elevator is out of service, deliveries must use the disabled access elevator. It seems only a matter of time until a disabled worker sues the General Services Administration for providing inadequate disabled elevator access in the building.
Missing Cafeteria
Mayne’s desire to get workers walking may have impacted his decision to locate the employee cafeteria across the street from the building. Employees are not happy about having to leave the building just to get a sandwich, and were allegedly told that the building would include an on-site café.
But as is clear with every aspect of this testament to green buildings, this project was more a science experiment than a place designed to enhance worker productivity.
No LEED Approval
Green building advocates will no doubt argue that the Federal Building is a bad example, as it failed to secure LEED approval. (hehehe...) According to its website, The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.
Mayne noted that "I wasn't arrogant, but I was confident — I just assumed we had the platinum rating. All of a sudden we went through LEED and it wasn't working."
But the project’s failure to satisfy LEED’s scoring system is not the problem. Rather, it is that the federal government spent millions over budget to create a building that does not provide a minimally satisfactory work environment.
And the project’s huge cost overruns and functional inadequacies have apparently been ignored solely due to excitement over its “Green” stature.
ASHRAE requires air changes, how is this achieved?
They should rename this the Albert Arnold Gore Federal Building.
PBS is running its typical Watermelon propganda shows and this bulding was featured as a wonderful example of a sustainable future. What a white elephant!!! I doubt PBS will show a program detailing what it is actually like working in this building.
I don’t know what that is?
I don’t have a problem with federal workers working in unheated and un airconditioned buildings.
This sounds like it will provide a lot of work for OSHA, EEOC, workers’ com, etc. - a winner all around.
OK, I’m a federal employee in San Francisco, and while I think all this “green” stuff is stupid, I did work in a building without A/C in San Francisco from 1994-2006 (it was an ancient Federal Building by U.N. Plaza, now vacant as it prepares for retrofitting), and it was just fine.
Fact is, San Francisco really doesn’t need A/C; it just really rarely gets warm there. The few warm days we had, we’d turn on a fan. (Like twice in 10 years.)
No heat, though? That would be pretty miserable (although it doesn’t get REALLY cold in SF either). I’d be bringing in my portable heater for sure.
San Francisco is really, really messed up and sad.
My, my. How very Soviet!
managers are the same everywhere
The EEOC will be investigating what floor you work on...
With few exceptions, I’ll bet that engineering talent and liberal leanings are inversely related. This building is a superb example of....heck, I don’t even know what to say here that doesn’t involve multiple 4-letter words. Gads, folks, let’s do like they did in Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe and just send the libs off on their own ship to a pristine planet...upon which they’ll all die for lack of ability to produce anything....even food.
Well, the architect is correct in noting that most federal employees are obese and need to get more exercise.
But federal employees are a very graying and disabled group (more will retire next year than in any year so far in history, and in 2010 there will be even more), and I can’t see many of my coworkers being physically able to climb stairs (sad, I know).
But didn’t the architect of the infamously failed public housing project, Pruitt-Igoe, also have elevators that stopped every 3rd floor, with an unintended effect of increased crime and urination?
When you need to rely on them for something in a timely manner, you will. What do you imagine this environment will do to productivity?
See how the libs make the world a better place? They know what’s best for you. So much so that they will force sh1tty solutions down your throat, and lie to you along the way. End justifies the means.
What a sh1t building. They could be a green building with a central heat/air conditioning system.
But it is typical of all (and I mean ALL) liberal programs. First talk about how great it’s going to be. Lie to people when they bring up concerns to shut them up and placate them. Spend an absolute crapload of money building an awful building that has terrible sales appeal, the people hate working in it, make once-easy, often-done things much harder to do, and in some areas the building has unusable work spaces, and ultimately fail to attain the goal of a green building.
Of course, they will do it again, but ‘fund it properly’ this time. Forking morons.
Should this disaster be of any surprise to anyone? San Freakcisco is run by radical commie leftist liberals. Anything they touch turns to ****. All based on copious quantities of taxpayer dollars, of course. The libs of SF, should be real proud of themselves and the criminal idiots they have in office there. Start with Newsome.
OH MY!!!!! This is just too funny.
The consequences of Moonbattry is endless.
They asked for it, and now they can live with it. However uncomfortable. Couldn’t happen in a better place.
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