Quite possibly the worst designed office building?

[Queasy]

D'oh

Green but Cold

Thomas Mayne?s new George H.W. Bush Federal Building now looms over midtown San Francisco. While people have sharply divergent reactions to its unique exterior design -- I happen to like it -- the verdict on the structure?s function as a office space for federal employees is nearly unanimous: it is a disaster.

Not that architectural critics care. Bedazzled by unusual design features and its focus on energy conservation, reviews of Mayne?s latest work seem to ignore whether it fulfills its functional role as a federal office building.

Based on what I have been told, it clearly does not.

The first fact about the building that may cause surprise is its lack of air conditioning or heat. According to Mayne, ?a bike rack and air conditioning get you the same point. I?d much rather see BTU and CO2 requirements and let the professional community solve the problem.?

I apparently lack sufficient understanding of green technology, as it does not seem that a bike rack would ?get you to the same point? in terms of keeping workers cool. In the real world on the 15th floor of the Federal Building, workers seek to relieve the heat by opening windows, which not only sends papers flying, but, depending on their proximity to the opening, makes creating a stable temperature for all workers near impossible.

When I spoke with a Labor Department worker at the building (who noted that she is encountering the type of bad work conditions that her agency is supposed to enforce against), she confirmed what might have been an urban legend: that some employees must use umbrellas to keep the sun out of their cubicles.

The lack of internal climate controls has left some workers too cold and others too hot. A happy medium has proved elusive. And while the managers? offices do have heat and air conditioning -- a two-tiered approach fitting in a building named for Bush -- the ?green? design apparently has messed with the effectiveness of these systems, leaving these top staff as physically uncomfortable as the line workers.

Dysfunctional Elevators

According to my source, architect Mayne has stated that federal office workers do not get enough exercise. To address this, he installed elevators in the building that only stop at every third floor. This requires employees to walk up or down one or two flights of metal stairs.

Persons with physical disabilities who cannot use stairs can use a separate elevator that stops at every floor. The foreseeable result is that employees seeking to avoid stairs use the disabled access elevator, leaving this car crammed with people and making the ride to the top extremely slow.

I am told that when the freight elevator is out of service, deliveries must use the disabled access elevator. It seems only a matter of time until a disabled worker sues the General Services Administration for providing inadequate disabled elevator access in the building.

Missing Cafeteria

Mayne?s desire to get workers walking may have impacted his decision to locate the employee cafeteria across the street from the building. Employees are not happy about having to leave the building just to get a sandwich, and were allegedly told that the building would include an on-site café.

But as is clear with every aspect of this testament to green buildings, this project was more a science experiment than a place designed to enhance worker productivity.

No LEED Approval

Green building advocates will no doubt argue that the Federal Building is a bad example, as it failed to secure LEED approval. According to its website, The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System? encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

Mayne noted that "I wasn't arrogant, but I was confident ? I just assumed we had the platinum rating. All of a sudden we went through LEED and it wasn't working."

But the project?s failure to satisfy LEED?s scoring system is not the problem. Rather, it is that the federal government spent millions over budget to create a building that does not provide a minimally satisfactory work environment.

And the project?s huge cost overruns and functional inadequacies have apparently been ignored solely due to excitement over its ?Green? stature.

And I thought my new office was bad when we were going through AC problems (it is really nice overall otherwise).

 

[Anubis]

thats pretty much the stupidest building ive ever heard of

 

[Mo0o]

This designer seems like an idiot

 

[Nitemare]

You'd have to pay me alot of money to work in that shithole

 

[Atomic Playboy]

That building looks like it's about to topple over. Sounds like it too.

 

[Ballatician]

Hahah, wow

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

How about a three story building on a large campus that has no stairs or non-freight elevators on the inside of the building? Picture an open floor plan like a supermarket converted to labs and offices on each floor. Oh yeah, it was purpose built.

 

[Epic Fail]

How bad will the George W Bush building be?

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
How about a three story building on a large campus that has no stairs or non-freight elevators on the inside of the building? Picture an open floor plan like a supermarket converted to labs and offices on each floor. Oh yeah, it was purpose built.

umm what?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
How about a three story building on a large campus that has no stairs or non-freight elevators on the inside of the building? Picture an open floor plan like a supermarket converted to labs and offices on each floor. Oh yeah, it was purpose built.

No stairs or public elevators? So the only way to move between floors is the freight elevators? Somehow I don't believe that.

 

[cruzer]

I saw the short documentary of this building on PBS. Mayne walked the crew through the building before it opened and I have to admit that he was quite skilled at talking it up which is probably how he got the project approved in the first place. Without the need for air ducting, much of the walls and ceiling are bare grey concrete reminiscent of the subway station in the movie "Total Recall".
I didn't know about the elevator situation though - that sucks! Just what we need is more disgruntled federal workers.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
How about a three story building on a large campus that has no stairs or non-freight elevators on the inside of the building? Picture an open floor plan like a supermarket converted to labs and offices on each floor. Oh yeah, it was purpose built.

No stairs or public elevators? So the only way to move between floors is the freight elevators? Somehow I don't believe that.

Oh there are stairs, on the outside of the building, open to the sky with no cover from wind, rain or, sun. Handicapped folk get to ride the freight elevator.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
That building looks like it's about to topple over. Sounds like it too.

yeah it looks like crap.

what a waste of money. you know damn well they are going to fix the elevators and AC heatingproblem.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: yamadakun
How bad will the George W Bush building be?

Indeed. The building is suited to its name.

I like the author's reaction to the bike rack comment. "ummm...what?"

 

[uhohs]

what a horrible architect/designer.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: yamadakun
How bad will the George W Bush building be?

Heh. I don't think an ultra-liberal environmentally conscious town like San Fran will allow a building to be named George W Bush. I'm honestly surprised they named a building H W Bush there.

A building named after W would probably end up in a place like Texas where it would probably be designed with a little more practicality in mind.

 

[Bacstar]

Does that building remind anyone of the Jawa's Sandcrawler from Star Wars?


Hey...they should probably give that building to Al Gore and his Carbon Credit Trading Co...

 

[Engraver]

That building looks like a really crappy PC case.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
That building looks like it's about to topple over. Sounds like it too.

yeah it looks like crap.

what a waste of money. you know damn well they are going to fix the elevators and AC heatingproblem.

...and that's not going to be cheap!

 

[Squisher]

Sounds like the same greenthink that went into the new CAFE standards.



EDIT: btw - it looks like there's already a crack in it.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: Bacstar
Does that building remind anyone of the Jawa's Sandcrawler from Star Wars?

THAT'S what it reminded me of. I couldn't place it when I first saw it, but I knew I had seen it before. It's a sandcrawler!

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: Bacstar
Does that building remind anyone of the Jawa's Sandcrawler from Star Wars?

THAT'S what it reminded me of. I couldn't place it when I first saw it, but I knew I had seen it before. It's a sandcrawler!

Those blast points are too accurate for sand people....