The Gensler-designed San Diego offices of independent financial services company LPL Financial recently earned LEED Platinum certification, the highest LEED certification level, for its interior design and construction. The new space, believed to be the largest net-zero energy commercial office building in the country, embodies the balance between sustainability- and human-centered design.
Prior to their new home, LPL employees were spread across eight separate buildings, due largely to its acquisition-minded culture and growth over the years. The new 13-story vertical campus was LPL Financial’s first chance to craft its own space.
“This project’s exploration and discovery phase was extremely time-intensive and test-heavy,” said project lead Holly Christian, Senior Associate Design Director. “We had an opportunity to test and evaluate what worked with their culture and what didn’t.”
As a result, Ms. Christian said the design process seemed to mirror LPL’s way of working.
“The design and prototyping process and how we went about finding the right solutions almost seemed to stem from the company’s financial culture, with a very analytical, study-type focus.”
The design team shaped its strategies from this early consulting work, which included metrics pulled from seat sensor studies, surveys and focus group workshops with employees at all levels. The 415,000 square foot office, completed in April 2014, is flush with amenities and spaces that reflect the client’s commitments to both wellness and sustainability.
The first and second floors of the building serve as the welcome, receiving and amenity hub, and include a fitness center, health clinic, lounges, farm-to-table-like café, and a large outdoor courtyard grounds with walking paths. The second floor serves as a conference center accommodates large (15+) conferencing and training objectives, and a variety of 12-and-under conference spaces reside on each office floor.
Each of the 1,600+ LPL employees uses a custom sit-stand workstation, and the space has a 1-3 private office- to- workstation ratio. Every private office and conference room has a full height floor-to-ceiling whiteboard.
And while the project’s LEED scorecard boasts excellent sustainability stats, the design also embraces the human element. 94.55% of occupants are able to make lighting controls adjustments to suit their individual task needs and preferences; 99.56% of occupants can make thermal controls adjustments to suit their individual needs and preferences; and 94.83% of all regularly occupied spaces have direct line of sight views to the outdoors.
The design team pursued a streamlined, unfussy approach to aesthetics in the space and chose a color palette of cool blues and whites with pop accent hues of yellow, orange and green.
“We focused the aesthetics on functionality and what makes sense,” said Ms. Christian. “The most important element was to showcase the location in San Diego and celebrate the views. We chose basic materials to display in a very structured, elegant way, rather than a lot of frills and fancy materials.”
LPL Financial leadership pushes a sustainable workplace message in its company culture with employee education on recycling, onsite composting and carpooling; to help deliver that message, much of the branding throughout the space displays health and sustainability facts promoting healthy choices.
As certification organizations increasingly look to provide all-inclusive sustainability and wellbeing programs, designers and architects must learn to adapt their work to create agile, adaptable work environments that don’t skimp on performance, wellbeing, efficiency, and aesthetics, branding and company culture. Gensler’s work at LPL Financial provides a covetable balance of each of these elements.
LPL Financial’s LEED Scorecard Highlights:
>39.04% reduction in potable water use
>100% and 71.82% reductions in site landscaping and irrigation systems potable water usage for irrigation and total water usage for irrigation, respectively
>52.46% reduction in lighting power density from that allowed by code
>87.25% of the project’s connected lighting load installed with occupancy sensors
>77.68% of the on-site generated construction waste diverted from landfill
>19.41% of the total building materials content, by value, manufactured using recycled materials
>67.62% of the wood-based building materials that are certified in accordance with the principles and criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
>94.55% of occupants with lighting controls enabled to be able to make adjustments to suit individual task needs and preferences
>99.56% of the tenant occupants with enabled thermal controls to be able to make adjustments to suit individual needs and preferences
>94.83% of all regularly occupied spaces with direct line of sight views to the outdoors