Whirlpool Riverview Campus Phase III Certified LEED-NC Gold

Earlier this week we received some great news from the United States Green Building Council that the 93,000 square foot Third Phase of the Whirlpool Riverview Campus in Benton Harbor, Michigan has been certified LEED-NC Gold. For this phase and the entire 270,000 square foot three-building campus, Epstein was the architect of record, MEP/FP engineer, structural engineer and LEED consultant.

The Riverview Campus development, which began in 2010, has allowed Whirlpool to improve productivity, operations, energy efficiency, and the overall employee experience. The buildings were designed as an open office environment in which to promote collaboration and idea-sharing amongst Whirlpool employees. These changes also allowed Whirlpool the ability to reduce its operating costs, and provide greater flexibility to adjust to changing business and staffing needs.

(The 110,000 square foot Phase I was completed in May of 2012 and received LEED-NC Platinum certification. Phase II (77,000 square feet) was completed in 2013 and received LEED-NC Gold certification)

Epstein was part of a developer-led Design-Build team that included Pizzuti Development, from Columbus, Ohio; Pepper Construction, also from Columbus; Arquitectonica, the design architect, from Miami and New York; and Interior Architects, the interior designer, from Chicago.

Some of the sustainable design features/achievements of the Third Phase of the Whirlpool Riverview Campus include:

• A mechanical system which uses equipment that minimizes the emission of compounds that contribute to ozone depletion and global climate change through the use of low refrigerants.
• An estimated 155.75 kGal annual potable water savings achieved through use of high-efficiency/low-flow plumbing fixtures.
• Projected energy use savings of 23.85% in comparison to ASHRAE 90.1-2007 baseline.
• 1,196.68 of construction waste generated in the construction of the building was diverted from ending up in a landfill.

• A site design that includes rain gardens to help improve the quality of stormwater leaving the site and landscaping designed to require no permanent irrigation, thus significantly reducing potable water usage.
• The office interior has high indoor air quality, this was achieved by using low-emitting products and materials then followed by air testing to verify a high level of indoor environmental quality.

Whirlpools LEED certification marks our 55th project in which Epstein has either helped design, engineer and/or provided sustainability consulting.

Lastly, this seven-year, multi-building project could not have achieved Whirlpools operational and sustainability goals without the incredible efforts of these key members of the Epstein design, engineering and consulting team Michael Damore, Tom Scheckelhoff, John Robertson, Chris Macko, Liz Roberts, Paul Valente, Joe Romano, Raveesh Varma, Tom Suarez, Ryan Lezcano, Deraa Dike, Stu White, Laura Flores, Brad Hartig, Martin Barenbaum, Sheya Finkelstein, Yan Weng, Maxie Suero, Paula Padilla-Bozyk, & Renata Pajerska. Congratulations team!