| LEED Rating System: | LEED for New Construction |
| LEED Rating Version: | 3.0 |
| Certification Level: | Gold |
| Month Completed: | 06 |
| Year Completed: | 2016 |
| Client (School/Department): | HBS |
Project Highlights
- 36% percent indoor water savings compared to an Energy Policy Act of 1992 baseline
- 57% percent of site area that is vegetated open space
- 37% percent reduction in total building energy costs compared to ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007
- 54% percent reduction in annual potable water used for landscape irrigation
- 100% percent of workspaces have individual lighting controls
- 36% percent decrease in the volume of stormwater runoff from a 2-year 24-hour design storm
Project Summary
The Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center (Chao Center) serves as a “Gateway” building to the HBS Executive Education precinct and provides sustainable dining, meeting, learning, and office spaces meeting HBS’s emerging needs. The resulting design supports the necessities of the Executive Education program and features state-of-the-art practices in technology and sustainability. Comprising approximately 87,000 GSF across three stories, the building delivers a central Hub for Executive Education participants and the larger Harvard community to collaborate, learn, dine together, and build relationships. The project makes meaningful physical and symbolic connections with the historic HBS campus, completes the Executive Education Quad, and creates spaces that reflect the contemporary mission of the Executive Education programs and HBS.
The project team applied an integrated approach to sustainable design, which incorporated environmental strategies that influenced all aspects of the building’s design. The site and landscape were designed to create a comfortable outdoor environment and reduce the use of potable water for irrigation. The energy efficient lighting system creates well-lit places for students and staff while also reducing energy consumption. The high efficiency HVAC system provides comfort, high indoor air quality, user controls, and energy conservation, while the plumbing design strategy conserves potable water use. The project design will achieve LEED Gold certification in 2017.