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New office expansion achieves maximum LEED points in 'water efficiency' and 'innovation in design' categories
FXFOWLE’s design for the SAP Americas Headquarters Expansion is an example of how high-quality integrated design can be successfully applied to all components of a commercial project – from establishing a
collaborative team and design process to developing synergies
between site, systems, product selection, and program – to create a high-performance green building. SAP Americas’ Headquarters Expansion serves as an example for how integrated architectural design can yield a collaborative, environmentally sustainable workplace. The building achieved LEED Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and received the maximum LEED points in the water efficiency and innovation in design categories.
SAP Americas required an expansion to their existing headquarters that would act as a natural outgrowth of the company’s holistic and strategic corporate focus on sustainability. The expansion building creates a collaborative, inspirational work environment for the company’s regional employees while allowing for incremental growth. As the world's leading provider of business software - offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses - the new complex reflects the company’s strong global image, technological innovation, and environmental consciousness.
Located in a suburban area outside Philadelphia, the expansion building responds to its surrounding 110-acre site the existing building, topography, vegetation, and views and the importance to enhance and preserve these resources. The building’s curved form is nestled organically along the land’s grade and acts as the basis for integrated sustainable design strategies. A large grove of Chestnut trees, a threatened species, was conserved on the site by shaping the building around wooded areas.
A four-storey, glass-enclosed atrium serves as the building’s circulation spine and venue for corporate meetings and social gatherings. The atrium, shaded by a brise soleil and enriched with a fieldstone wall at the base, imparts a sense of serenity and connection to natural elements. Calibrated sustainable strategies to increase the building’s energy efficiency include geothermal wells, a triple-glazed curtain wall, ice storage system and green roofs.
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