Guidelines for Sustainable Building Design: Recommendations from the Presidio of San Francisco Energy Efficiency Design Charrette

In 1994, the Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers organized a two-day design charrette for energy efficient redevelopment of buildings by the National Park Service (NPS) at the Presidio Army Base. This event brought together engineers, researchers, historical architects, government officials, and students in a participatory environment to apply their experience to creating guidelines for sustainable redesign of Presidio buildings.

The venue for the charette was a representative barracks building located in the Main Post area. Examination of this building allowed development of ideas both for the building and for the remainder of the facilities. The charrette was organized into a committee structure including: steering, measurement and monitoring, modeling, building envelope and historic preservation (architectural), HVAC and controls, lighting, presentation. Prior to the charrette itself, the modeling and measurement/monitoring committee developed substantial baseline data for the other committees. A systems-oriented approach was initiated through interaction between the committees and later through coordination of the committee reports in an ad hoc integration exercise.

The information developed in the charrette, combined with experience gained by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Applications Team in subsequent actual Presidio design assistance for the NPS, forms the basis for this report. Synergism with historical preservation considerations is emphasized. It is hoped that this document will contribute to the sustainable development of the Presidio and provide an advanced view of facility design which emphasizes optimization, an interdisciplinary integrated systems approach and interaction between phases of design.