BlueCross Headquarters Earns LEED Gold

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — BlueCross BlueShield’s headquarters in Tennessee, which includes 950,000 square feet of office space, recently received LEED Gold certification.
 
Bob Worthington, chief strategy officer for BlueCross, said the company always had the desire to incorporate certain sustainable design attributes into the new corporate campus.
 
“Our master planning goals always included sustainability, innovation and wellness,” Worthington said. “That translates into not only better controlling cost and increased efficiency, but it also means transforming our work environment to better meet the needs of our employees, members and the healthcare community.”
 
The campus is designed to reduce energy costs by more than 20 percent compared to conventional buildings, saving about $265,000 annually. It is expected save about 20 million gallons of water per year through the use of efficient plumbing fixtures, a water-efficient irrigation system and low water-use plants.
 
The facility also improves indoor air quality for employees with an underfloor air-distribution system and ventilation rates set at 30 percent higher than required by code, according to company officials.
 
The campus decreases storm-water runoff by 15 percent, and reduces global warming impacts and ozone depletion through the use of an efficient cooling system that doesn?t use ozone depleting chemicals, according to the company.
 
The architectural firms involved in the project were Duda/Paine, headquartered in Durham, N.C.; HKS in Dallas; Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Artech Design Group; and Atlanta’s Tvsdesign.
 
Also partnered in the design team wee HGOR, a planning and landscaping design firm out of Atlanta, with a local partnership from Sawyer Landscaping.
 
Green Building Services in Portland, Ore., served as the LEED consultant on
the project. Skanska, EMJ Corp. and H.J. Russell & Company served as the construction management team. Jones Lang LaSalle, formerly The Staubach Company, a national real estate consulting firm, served as the project manager for the entire building process.