A high quality environment to unite city workers and public services

Minneapolis Public Service Building

Minneapolis, MN, USA

The Minneapolis Public Service Building is a multipurpose office building on a city owned site near the existing city hall.

The new 370,245ft² facility consolidates several city departments and public service spaces and serves as a centralized campus environment, combining public and private areas at the street and skyway levels. The secure upper floors provide open-plan offices with associated break out spaces to promote collaboration between departments. 

The client is striving for LEED Gold accreditation, so a number of environmentally conscious design features have been incorporated.

Systems needed to be individually designed for each department, while offering future flexibility.

Efficient features include electric radiator systems, a 30% reduction in interior lighting power density (LPD), and an energy efficient chilled beam cooling system.

Challenge

Early engagement with the numerous stakeholders on this project was key in designing MEP engineering and security strategies that meet the multitude of different requirements in a building of this nature. The client appointed a crime lab specialist who was pivotal in recommending high level specifications for the laboratory and ballistics areas that we integrated into our engineering design, as well as collaborating to balance Minnesota Building Code requirements with codes for a variety of different national institutes. 

Solution

The project is targeting LEED Gold certification and incorporates high performance design strategies such as electric radiator systems, a 30% reduction in interior lighting power density (LPD), and an energy efficient chilled beam cooling system – a first for the City of Minneapolis.

The structural engineering approach strives for a balance of efficiency and flexibility, allowing for potential future expansion and upgrades. Key structural features included prominent full building cantilevers at Level 3 to emphasize the ground level public space; a fully glazed perimeter and a punctuated facade with terraces; internal ‘floating’ signature staircases; and hanging walkways.

Value

Buro Happold’s extensive energy analysis shows the proposed building uses 25.9% reduced energy and 22.4% in energy cost savings compared to a ASHRAE 90.1-2010 baseline building. The proposed building also utilizes a 92.1 kW PV system which covers an additional 2.4% cost.