Glass and Glazing Used in Constructing Atlanta's New Eco Office

Atlanta's Southface Eco Office, nick-named the "office of the future," opens today as a building constructed to use 53 percent less energy than comparable buildings. The Eco Office, which has achieved LEED® Platinum certification, was constructed by a consortium of companies using widely available off-the-shelf products, materials and technologies. Lord, Aeck & Sargent served as the project architect.

"The Eco Office demonstrates that small commercial buildings can be green and achieve high performance standards at a reasonable cost," says Southface executive director Dennis Creech. "Our building design and construction teams have collaborated to make the Eco Office one of the greenest commercial buildings in the world."

In addition to its LEED certification, the Eco Office also qualified for ENERGY STAR and EarthCraft Light Commercial certifications, and meets The 2030 Challenge launched by the non-profit group Architecture 2030.

Some of the building's features include:

Site orientation to maximize daylighting;
Louvers on the building's south and east sides to control glare, minimize solar heat gain in the summer and maximize it during the winter;
A 6.4-kilowatt photovoltaic canopy which has produced ~7 percent of the building's energy over the last 12 months; and
Electrochromic glazing to shade east-facing windows. This glazing uses a low-voltage electrical current to switch clear glass to dark while preserving views.