Harbor Group Intl., a leading global real estate investment firm, announced that the historic Hurt Building in Downtown Atlanta has been awarded a Gold LEED-EB certification by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
The Hurt Building is the first commercial office tower and the oldest building in Georgia to earn the prestigious LEED-EB Gold certification. LEED-EB is the USGBC’s rating system for operating and maintaining the world’s greenest, most energy-efficient, highest-performing existing building.
“Despite being nearly a century old, we are pleased that our improvements and responsible operation of the Hurt Building have been recognized for their sustainability,” says Shannon Westberg of Harbor Group Management Co., general manager of the Hurt Building. “In addition to the benefits to the environment, the benefits to tenants of going green are measurable in the form of lower operating and maintenance costs, increased worker productivity, and better overall air quality and lighting.”
Green features include:
- Water-efficient toilets and lower-use flush valves, projected to reduce the building’s fixture water consumption by 44 percent.
- A rainwater collection system used for irrigation of indoor planters and elevated outdoor gardens.
- A system for capturing condensation from air-conditioning equipment to be reutilized as cooling tower make-up water.
- Lighting retrofits with lower-wattage lamps and common area motion sensors.
- Fine-tuning HVAC-control strategies.
- Improved energy efficiency earning the EPA’s ENERGY STAR for two consecutive years with its most recent rating in excess of 90 points.
- All-encompassing recycling program, including e-waste, toners, furniture, paper, aluminum, cardboard, plastic, and glass and construction waste.
- Utilization of green contracts for janitorial work, pest control, and window cleaning.
- Preferred parking for carpoolers, hybrid vehicles, and scooters.
- 100-percent covered parking and bike rack available.
“The Hurt Building’s LEED certification demonstrates tremendous green building leadership,” says Rick Ferdrizzi, president, CEO, and founding chair, USGBC. “The green building movement offers unprecedented opportunity to respond to the most important challenges of our time, including global climate change, dependence on non-sustainable and expensive sources of energy, and threats to human health. Building operations are nearly 40 percent of the solution to the global climate-change challenge. While climate change is a global problem, innovative companies like Harbor Group Intl. are addressing it through local solutions.”
Designed in 1913 by architect Joel Hurt, the Hurt Building is one of Atlanta’s earliest skyscrapers. The 18-story, 436,340-square-foot building incorporates modern amenities within its classic architecture.
