Offices are used for a significant part of the day (a third if not more). Therefore, efficient lighting, heating, and cooling operation is essential in creating an energy efficient building. Automating these operations is one strategy to do this since someone may not remember to turn off the lights or setback the thermostat when they run to a meeting. Larger energy savings can be achieved through automation of these systems in conference rooms and classrooms due to their intermittent use. The Pound Hall 2nd Floor project took advantage of tying these systems into the building management system in all of these space types in order to maximize the project’s energy savings.

Pound Hall is a five story office building consisting of 108,270 square feet of gross floor area.  The HLS Pound Hall 2nd Floor renovation is being designed to provide office and classroom spaces for the Executive Education and PLP programs at Harvard Law School. The project scope includes renovations of approximately 9,900 square feet of space currently occupied by similar pre-renovation programs.

The project team was committed to sustainability from the onset and followed the Harvard Green Building Standards to make more informed decisions. These standards led to the inclusion of a number of progressive design strategies to meet aggressive energy targets and reduce water use without significant additional cost. The HLS Pound Hall 2nd Floor renovation achieved LEED-CI v3 Gold certification in April 2016.