Providing Sustainable Design for the Credit Human Building in San Antonio, Texas
The Tetra Tech High Performance Buildings Group provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting, and energy design elements for the core and shell of the Credit Human Building, which comprises 16,400 square feet of retail space and 312,000 square feet of office space.
The Credit Human Building is an extension of Silver Ventures’ Pearl District in downtown San Antonio. This multitenant boutique office building consists of an 8-story tower, a 4-story tower on top of 4 levels of parking, and a street level with storefronts, courtyards, and walkways that include heavily treed and active and beautiful landscaped areas. The building feels like it is part of the living environment in which it resides and generates a living relationship to its neighbors.
A 371,000 square feet structured parking garage features one level of below-grade parking and four additional parking levels to accommodate 1,038 parking spaces.
All building systems and components are state-of-the-art, representing forward thinking in quality office environments. There are multiple sustainable design features, including a geothermal loop; water cooled variable refrigerant flow; a solar photovoltaic system; rainwater and condensate water collection and reuse systems; and radiant heating and cooling. The building also is designed to operate at a 20 Energy Use Intensity, and the 3,000-panel solar photovoltaic system’s 1-megawatt capacity meets 40 percent of annual electricity demand. The building stores more than 100,000 gallons of rain and condensate for treatment and reuse, with city recycled water backup. The system supplies 100 percent of the toilet, urinal, landscape, and cooling tower water makeup demand, with an estimated total site domestic water offset of 4 million gallons per year as compared to code-minimum plumbing fixtures and cooling towers.
Building facade image courtesy of Dror Baldinger
Aerial image courtesy of Autodesk