Austin’s Tallest Tower Earns LEED Platinum Certification

Indeed Tower. Image courtesy of Kilroy Realty

Indeed Tower, Austin’s tallest office building, has achieved LEED v4 Core & Shell (CS) Platinum certification. The 730,000-square-foot property earned 82 points from the USGBS, which makes the tower only the second-largest LEED v4 CS project in the country and the fifth-largest LEED v4 CS project globally.

READ ALSO: Top 10 LEED-Certified Buildings in Austin in 2020

Trammell Crow and MSD Capital LP developed the Class AA building and entered into a definite agreement to sell the asset to Kilroy Realty Corp. back in June. Expected to close in the third quarter, the $580 million transaction will be one of the largest office deals of the year.

Occupying a whole city block at the intersection of 6th and Colorado streets within the metro’s CBD, the tower features 21 floors of office space, 12 levels of above-grade parking and five levels of below-grade parking. Additionally, the project includes some 35,000 square feet of the adaptive-reused historic Claudia Taylor Johnson post office building and 17,000 square feet of outdoor green space.

Designed to Be Green

Indeed Tower consists of two distinct formations, an eastern portion with high-performance glazing and a western portion with clad in glass sunshades to reduce peak heat gain and glare. Also, the office floors feature intentionally proportioned floorplates to maximize space planning, penetration of natural light and views.

The most important sustainable features of the project include:

• A reduction of the annual energy costs by 14 percent; moreover, the project has also been designed to cut down peak energy use by almost 22 percent and offset 100 percent of core and shell power with offsite renewables;
• 30 percent reduction of potable water through low flow plumbing fixtures and ENERGY STAR appliances, saving 1.5 million gallons of water annually
• 20 percent reduction of embodied carbon through reuse of existing structure and other material design optimizations
• 85 percent rainwater management onsite and 100 percent outdoor water use from non-potable sources

Indeed Tower has also received Austin Energy Green Building’s strict 4-star rating and is expecting Fitwel’s 1-star certification.