The PNC Financial Services Group hopes to exceed LEED Platinum requirements along with promoting a healthy indoor workplace with its latest development – the Tower at PNC Plaza. Located in downtown Pittsburgh on the corner of Fifth and Wood Streets, the building will be approximately 800,00 gross sq.ft (74,322 sq.mt) in size with a construction budget of approximately US$240 million. The “breathing” design created by architecture firm Gensler moves away from the traditional closed air-conditioned environment and has the lofty aim of becoming the greenest skyscraper in the world.
Site clearance and development began in the spring of 2012 and completion is scheduled for summer 2015. The Tower will stand with the PNC HQ at PNC Plaza, which also boasts one of the largest green walls in the U.S.
Employees in the 33 floor glass tower will be able to access daylight and fresh air, an experience which Gensler design director Hao Ko recognizes is much more of a European design feature then has been incorporated into current U.S. skyscrapers. Workspace in European buildings is often located near windows, allowing employees to work for more of the year with natural daylight. The PNC Tower design recognizes that the Pittsburgh climate can also provide increased levels of natural light onto the floorspace along with improved regulation of temperatures for much of the year without using traditional, energy-intensive HVAC systems. The Tower hopes to achieve this by using a double-skin facade consisting of two panes of glass separated by an enclosed cavity which will allow external air inside. The facade will feature operable doors and windows that admit fresh air into the building during optimal conditions, which is effectively when the building is “breathing.” A solar chimney is another component of the structures passive system: it pulls air in through the open windows, rather than sucking air out as usually occurs in a high rise building, the air then travels across the floors, is heated and exhaled through the roof shaft.
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