Roshek Building Earns LEED Platinum Certification

 
The historic Roshek Building, centerpiece of downtown Dubuque, Iowa’s sustainable redevelopment, recently received the US Green Building Council’s highest LEED Platinum Certification.

evolveEA, coordinated the project team’s approach that combined sustainable development, green building and historic preservation to galvanize redevelopment in historic downtown Dubuque. Having successfully managed over 30 LEED certifications, The Roshek Building is our first platinum project and also the first platinum certification in the Dubuque—a city increasingly known for its strong commitment to sustainability since 2006.
The first Platinum Historic Rehabilitation project in Iowa, the Roshek Building is the fifth building in Iowa to achieve platinum. Only a handful of Historic Rehabilitation projects in the nation have received Platinum certification, a rare and significant accomplishment.
This project shows how effective public private partnership focused on sustainable redevelopment can dramatically turn around declining small towns and cities…even during a national recession. Over 30 organizations spearheaded by the Roshek Building nonprofit owner Dubuque Initiative, developer contractor Gronen Properties, and major tenant IBM Corporation have demonstrated how sustainable redevelopment can dramatically improve employment opportunities, repair historic town fabric, and reduce our environmental footprint while breathing new life into both a town and the surrounding region.
— evolveEA principal, Marc Mondor AIA, USGBC LEED Faculty
The project leveraged the City of Dubuque’s commitment to sustainability to convince IBM to locate a new Technology Services Delivery Center into the underutilized Roshek Department Store Building. In addition, Dubuque became the first North American demonstration city for IBM’s Smart Cities Initiative. The historic restoration of the nine story tower upgraded the energy efficiency of the building walls, windows, roof and mechanical systems while preserving the character and detailed facade of the landmark structure. Interior spaces were upgraded to maximize daylight, views, thermal comfort, ventilation and the use of healthy green materials. Over 130,00 SF of high quality office space was provided for IBM.  In addition 10,000 SF of ground floor commercial space and 63,000 SF of office space, some of which is leased to non-profit and start-up businesses at below market rates, was renovated. The project cost is $45 million and generated 2540 new jobs with an anticipated regional impact of over $1.6 billion in business growth over the first 10 years of operation.
The Roshek Building LEED Platinum Certification demonstrates that sustainable projects pursuing triple bottom line approaches that simultaneously improve economy, equity and environment are succeeding to revitalize our communities, protect our environment and restore our economy.
To learn more about the project, please visit our project pages for The Roshek Building and the IBM Technology Service Center.