This office building serves as headquarters for two major associations, the Navy League of the United States and the Associated General Contractors of America. The seven-story facility provides 212,947-square-feet of Class A offices with extensive street-level retail space and four levels of underground parking. The project site is a whole-block development directly across from the Arlington County government offices in Courthouse Plaza, and just steps away from the Courthouse Metro station. As the project necessitated land consolidation and modifications to the county’s zoning and general land use plans, the development team met extensively with various community organizations and county planning agencies before gaining County Board approval. The immediate community was especially influential in the development of the building massing and façade design.
The NLUS headquarters includes extensive conference, training and exhibition facilities, along with a briefing room that is available to the military community, a technical library and administrative areas.
The office building is particularly remarkable for its implementation of sustainable land development principles. Project developers, architects, engineers, and contractors worked closely to reduce the impact of the building on the surrounding community and increase the quality of interior environments. This project was the first major development to take advantage of Arlington County’s density credit for projects that attain a high (37 points) silver rating according to the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system. The existing structures on the site were dismantled and the new building designed, constructed and operated in an environmentally responsible manner to minimize short and long-term negative impacts on the environment. It was one of the first general use office buildings in the United States to be designed for a LEED Silver rating.
Media
“Selling Green in the Spec Office Market.” Building Design + Construction, March 2008.
