Post-Occupancy Presidio: How lighting and energy design goals compare to performance for the Thoreau Center for Sustainability

Margot McDonald, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo

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Published by: American Solar Energy Society. Publisher website: http://www.ases.org/.

Abstract

The National Park Service was intent on creating a model "green" development at the decommissioned Presidio military base in San Francisco. Two local firms, Community Equity Builders and Tanner Leddy Maytum Stacy (TLMS) Architects forged a partnership which led to one of the first successful historic rehabilitation since the base conversion. Their efforts transformed the turn-of- the-century Letterman Hospital into the Thoreau Center for Sustainability where energy and resource conservation are at the forefront of the building design and operation. The building complex, now occupied for over two years, has been well-documented as a green building and historic rehabilitation project but without the benefits of a post-occupancy evaluation. This study examines the occupied building in three important areas -- daylighting, electric lighting, and thermal comfort -- in order to assess the actual building environmental performance. Results of the first phase of the post-occupancy study, a lighting and thermal comfort user survey, are presented in this paper.