At a cursory glance, the high-rise under construction at 600 Brickell Avenue might seem to be just another in a long line of sleekly modern downtown Miami office towers.
But 600 Brickell is no ordinary building. From its heat-repelling skin to its ultra-efficient mechanical guts, the 540-foot tower stands as a bravura demonstration of the latest and highest standards of environmentally friendly building design. It also happens to be the new face of big commercial construction in South Florida.
The tower combines gee-whiz technology and advanced materials energy-saving reflective roofs and air-conditioning systems, and lights that adjust themselves as daylight streams in through clear, heat-dispersing windows with some old-school ideas. Rainwater and AC condensation are collected to feed fountains and irrigate trees and landscaping, and its garage features bicycle racks. The tower even has its own recycling center in the basement.
This comprehensive package of eco-features has earned 600 Brickell the first of two phases in Foram Groups Brickell World Plaza project the highest initial grade in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green-building certification program, which recognizes projects that use less energy and water and produce less in waste and harmful emissions than conventional structures.
While its the first building in South Florida to be pre-certified as LEED Platinum, its far from the first to win green-building honors.
In a region where the habitual response to the climate has been to crank up the AC, environmentally responsible construction has rapidly gone from fad to firmly established, if not virtually mandatory.
Just in the past four years, 98 civic and commercial buildings and interiors ranging from schools to community centers, retail stores and new and retrofitted office buildings have been LEED certified, with scores more in the pipeline. For many big developers in Miami, LEED certification is no longer just an option: The citys Miami 21 zoning overhaul, which went into effect last year, requires large buildings in and around downtown, as well as civic and park buildings, to be certified for LEED silver.
The trend was pioneered by colleges, public and private schools and government agencies that adopted LEED certification as a requirement for all major construction and renovation projects. But it has now been embraced in a big way by large commercial developers and the corporate tenants they serve, especially in the highly competitive Class A office market. Developers and leasing agents say upscale buildings that cant boast LEED certification suddenly find themselves at a distinct disadvantage.
Engineering and architectural firms, meanwhile, have scrambled to get their professionals trained in LEED design to keep abreast of the competition.
Its unbelievable how much the world has changed in three years, said William Holly, who developed Miamis first LEED-certified new office tower, the 14-story Miami Green building next to the Douglas Road Metrorail station in Coral Gables in 2008, only to lose it in the real-estate crash.
At the time everybody was laughing, said Holly, who as a Cushman & Wakefield vice president is now renting out the building and is wrapping up leases for several floors. Now many national and international brokers are saying that in the very near future you will not be considered a Class A building if you arent green, if youre not LEED-certified.
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