As climate change continues to become more prevalent in the public eye, it is the responsibility of every person to make small changes in their life to combat this global problem. This senior thesis project is aimed to research and design various elements of the building that can be implemented immediately, meaning that all technologies are currently used. This report will investigate the use of vegetative roofing, insulated concrete sandwich panels, radiant solar collectors, as well as the structural elements as green building materials.

North Mountain IMS Medical Office Building is a 123,000 square foot medical office building located in Phoenix, Arizona. The building reaches a height of 56’ and consists of three supported office floors and a surgical center on the ground floor. The structural system is entirely precast concrete, featuring shear walls as the lateral load resisting system.

All redesign considerations for this project have the underlying theme of sustainability. The building was redesigned as ordinary steel moment frames which greatly reduced the structure weight. A vegetative roof is proposed as well as increasing thermal efficiency of the building enclosure. Impacts to the mechanical system because of these design changes are discussed.

The resulting research shows that small changes can have a significant impact on the overall environmental footprint of the building. However, making these changes require certain sacrifices to be made to other aspects of the building design and construction.

User Note:

Note: While great efforts have been taken to provide accurate and complete information on the pages of CPEP, please be aware that the information contained herewith is considered a work-in-progress for this thesis project. Modifications and changes related to the original building designs and construction methodologies for this senior thesis project are solely the interpretation of Kate Feato. Changes and discrepancies in no way imply that the original design contained errors or was flawed. Differing assumptions, code references, requirements, and methodologies have been incorporated into this thesis project; therefore, investigation results may vary from the original design.