Page 16 - RC19 EDGE Spring All - final-2 - hi res

Intelligent Buidlings

THE UNISPHERE:

LARGEST COMMERCIAL NET ZERO

BUILDING IN THE UNITED STATES

THOMAS KAUFMAN
Associate Director, Corporate Real Estate
United Therapeutics

nited Therapeutics (UT) is a publicly
traded biotech company with a mission
to develop treatments for rare diseases.
UT has an overarching commitment to
U environmental sustainability, which is
reflected in the design and operations of our facilities. It
strives to create practical, beautiful and inspiring spaces
for employees to do their incredibly important work. UT zero facilities, the Unisphere is located within an urban
views its buildings as physical manifestations of its val- environment, with very limited space to place solar arrays.
ues, and there is no better example than the Unisphere. Additionally, the site is surrounded by high rise buildings,
It is designed to be site net zero energy, meaning that creating significant shading and further limiting solar pro-
the building generates enough renewable energy onsite duction. The mid-Atlantic climate, with intensely humid
to offset 100% of the energy that it consumes over the summers and relatively cold winters created additional
course of the year. At 135,000 square feet, it is the larg- challenges.
est commercial net zero building in the United States.
In order to surmount these challenges, the net zero goal
To achieve the net zero goal, the facility includes various was made paramount during the design and construction
sustainable features including 3,000 photovoltaic pan- phases. Every design decision was made within the con-
els, geo-exchange wells, a high-performance curtainwall text of how it would impact the energy performance of
with electrochromic glazing, an earth-coupled heating/ the building. This was only possible via a highly integrated
cooling system, an automated natural ventilation system, design team, often led by the mechanical engineer.
daylight harvesting, and a thermal pool. Other features
include green roof terraces that help reduce rainwater During early planning stages, it became clear that the
run-off, electric car charging stations, and eco-friendly net zero mission would live and die with the Building
furniture. Automation System (BAS). The BAS integrates seven dif-
ferent systems (power monitoring, lighting control, data
The location of the Unisphere proved to be very chal- analytics, electrochromic glass control, geothermal optimi-
lenging for the net zero mission. Unlike many other net zation, an interactive sustainability visualization and the

14

RC19 EDGE Spring All but Covers - final - 19APR.indd 14 4/19/19 3:16 PM