663 South Cooper

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

THE CATALYST

Two-thirds of the present-day building stock is projected to exist in 2040. Leveraging this enormous amount of embodied carbon is essential to climate restitution and in accomplishing carbon neutrality. When the architect/owner had outgrown their existing space in 2016, they explored building new, yet saw the opportunity to reinvent a dilapidated building as a proof-of-concept to realize a higher goal. One that sought to demonstrate that reinventing, rather than inventing, through a rigorous progressive design and environmentally responsive ethos, can yield successful results by achieving performance-based carbon neutrality with conventional resources.

THE PROJECT

Located in Memphis, Tennessee and approached with an applied research ethos, the project demonstrates how to reinvent America’s existing building stock into affordable carbon-neutral buildings. Three sub-projects were devised: repurpose a 1957 building of 7,444 sf into a progressive, environmentally responsible office by becoming carbon neutral a full decade early of the AIA2030 Commitment; repurpose the adjacent 1957 building of 3,400 sf into a progressive, environmentally responsible office that would demonstrate conventional baseline standards for analytical baseline performance comparison; and provide an economically viable model for reinventing similarly aged buildings into a Carbon Neutral Corridor that connects people, embraces design excellence, and combats climate change by reinventing existing embodied carbon. Geothermal, renewables, water mitigation, accessibility, and infrastructure improvements were opportunities to dissolve traditional barriers between the office and the street-level activity by activating and embracing public space.

RESILIENCY

The building resides within the New Madrid Seismic Zone which is the most active seismic area in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, has an elevated risk of flooding, and is impacted by increasing occurrences of severe weather events such as straight-line winds and tornados. The site sits atop the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, the primary source for freshwater and 90% of the region’s agricultural pumped irrigation, requiring the mitigation of water run-off and pollutants. The project’s most pressing challenge is mitigating the hot-humid climate, requiring a reduction in heat island effects and the most robust of passive strategies to counter the extreme effects of the sun in spring, summer, and fall. PROOF The project remains active as a research site, generating data that is shared and applied across project scales and typologies. It has been catalytic in the City of Memphis, crafting new design guidelines based on the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. Project data continues to be shared to encourage an actionable, national dialogue among public and practice-based communities with a current reach of over 40 million via platforms including the 2021 Metropolis Magazine Planet Positive Awards with recognition as the Top Winner nationally in workplace design, the 2021 Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards, a 2021 TEDx talk, and ongoing participation in research and academic studios across the country. The project achieved key US 2050 emission targets three decades early. It is the world’s first dual-certified Zero Energy and Zero Carbon renovated building by the International Living Future Institute, featuring a net measured EUI of -1.3.

Project History

When the architect/owner had outgrown its existing space in 2016, focus shifted away from initial discussions regarding building new to a reimaging of Middle America’s aging commercial corridor building stock as a conduit for 21st century community building. The design team recognized that to meet 2050 emission targets, 75% of the existing buildings – estimated at 54 billion sf – needed to be renovated and reinvented. The relocation presented an opportunity to consider scalable solutions to this challenge while contributing to resilient communities that connect people through design excellence. By providing local, specific solutions, the project could establish feasible approaches to combat climate change. This shift in conventional commercial development would foster a locally authentic, resilient, and accessible future. This project, sited in South Cooper Street’s 3-mile corridor in Memphis, Tennessee, uses a case study as a proof-of-concept: that incremental changes to connectivity, design and sustainability can be woven together to create an accessible path to connected, carbon neutral, and human-centered districts. Reuse of existing commercial fabric is integral to this idea, with buildings representing nearly 40% of the nation’s primary energy use and GHG emissions which continue to reach record highs. As a practice, this case study was an investment in the community while demonstrating and advancing carbon neutral solutions. The project began with the purchase and upcycle of two commercial buildings on Cooper Street with two varying approaches. Most recently, one a Sheet Metal Workers Union, the other an Insurance Company building. Built in tandem in the 1950s, each contributed to the neighborhood for 70 years. The architect designed for both structures to improve community connectivity through pragmatic but intentional design standards, however energy systems were built with variant approaches to test different strategies. The site was designed to give back 25% as outdoor social space by reclaiming the parking area between to the two buildings as a community courtyard that could extend to the street and engage the public sidewalk. During the design process, there was a 67% reduction of embodied carbon by sourcing low carbon products and upcycling the steel, concrete, and masonry of the existing buildings. Connectivity at all levels became a driving factor for experience: to connect the buildings to the site, and the interior to the exterior. The interior is a highly crafted space organized rigorously by locally sourced materials and products with high recycled content. The aesthetic of the exterior is meant to provide a simple canvas for light, shadow, and texture throughout each day. Not only was this project a learning laboratory to design ideas, but the buildings themselves became an ongoing teaching tool for staff, clients, and neighbors. After the first year of operation, net-zero strategies at 663 South Cooper provided more than $9,600 in annual energy savings and forecast a return on initial investment in 9.7 years proving the economic viability of the case study as a shift in conventional developer logic. With these energy investments paying dividends, the case study proves Zero Carbon districts are achievable.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: 663 South Cooper, Memphis
Architects: Archimania.
Contractor: Grinder Taber & Grinder
Engineer Mechanical: Haltom Engineering
Engineer Electrical: DePouw Engineering
Engineer Plumbing: Haltom Engineering
Engineer Geothermal: Hydro-Temp
Engineer Geotechnical: Intertek PSI
Engineer Civil: Kimley-Horn Landscape: Plants + People
Engineer Structural: Ozer Structural
Engineering Code Consultant: Code Solutions Group
Certification Consultant: Entegrity Partners
Solar Consultant: Lightwave Solar
AV Consultant + Lighting & Plug Load Controls: Audio Video Artistry