The Realities of Requirements
Swinerton Builders VP division manager Kerry Atkinson, speaking at our recent Creative Office Summit, let us in on some challenges of adaptive reuse. He's seeing some firms desire to locate within existing buildings that are below today’s standards of energy consumption. Or they want the ability to manage off-hours operations, since the building management system might be incapable of allowing sections or single floors of an existing building to operate. Or the BMS isn't in place at all to manage singular lighting and heating/cooling demands. With a full blown café, the infrastructure (which may include available power, power distribution and/or sanitation--aka drains--systems) all need to be assessed to ensure the program needs are feasible. Things like grease interceptors become problematic in placing them for regular servicing and maintenance.
