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Citicorp Plaza Awarded Energy Star Status

The one thing everyone associated with the commercial property industry can agree on is that most buildings are dynamic and exist in a state of constant change. This month’s feature story epitomizes that fact.

In 1988, the Chief Engineer Magazine featured a story about a relatively new (constructed in 1981), three building complex residing in the O’Hare corridor, along Interstate 90 on Chicago’s northwest side. At the time, development in the area and in the adjacent suburb of Rosemont was at near fever pitch as buildings grew seemingly overnight to meet the demand for office space near the Airport but away from the congestion of Chicago’s Loop.

In 1988, a growing banking concern called Citigroup served as the anchor tenant inside the buildings at 8410, 8420, and 8430 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Just one year later, in 1989, Citibank would become the largest issuer of credit cards in the World. By 1992, Citibank N.A. would become the largest bank in the United States and would be serving clients from branches in over 90 countries throughout the world.

Twenty-one years later, when we recently revisited those three buildings, it was difficult to find anything that resembled what we had found or written about back in 1988. We did, however, find someone - Walter C. Dobson, the Chief Engineer of the complex - who was still at the engineering helm of the massive facility, steering a course for the new owners of Citicorp Plaza that will help it meet the demands of a new economy well into the 21st Century.

Ironically, at the time of our visit, Citigroup had just acknowledged more bad economic news and speculation was circulating financial blogs that without additional government funding, the giant banking concern could be facing some form of restructuring. We quickly learned from Dobson that through the years, Citigroup had actually reduced its presence within the facility and now occupied only about twenty percent of the property’s leasable space.

Parkway Properties, Inc., a REIT headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, purchased Citicorp Plaza in 2008 and, under the banner of Parkway Realty Services, manages the three-building, 637,486 leasable square-foot facility. And as Dobson explained, the company made it clear from the start that energy conservation and a commitment to a green facility environment were major priorities at Parkway.

Chief Dobson introduced us to Property Manager Greg O’Neal and his assistant, Martin Huttenlocker. It was Huttenlocker, we learned, who took the lead in establishing an energy conservation program in the facility with a target of having the facility awarded Energy Star Winning status by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The entire engineering crew went to work installing compact fluorescent lighting in all public areas, Dobson told us. The low voltage lighting not only saved more than two-thirds on electrical use, it also brought the heat load down, allowing the facility to save on cooling costs as well as lighting cost.

Next, the crew went to work on changing motors in the facility from traditional constant speed to variable speed. This added to energy savings and impressed the people at the EPA enough to issue the Energy Star award to the facility last year.

The three buildings are heated primarily through baseboard perimeter electrical heat and load tempered air from interior ventilation.

Three York chillers located in the basement of the 8420 building produce the chilled water for cooling all three buildings. Two chillers are rated at 700 tons and one is rated at 400 tons. Chilled water is circulated through pipes that run through the walls of the campus breezeways, connecting all three buildings.

Plans are now underway for installation of the facility’s first computerized building automation system. At present, computerized controls operate each major piece of equipment but no system has ever been installed that will tie all of the facility’s equipment into one programmable operating system.

Engineers in the facility still take readings of all major equipment and record results on clipboards found in the mechanical rooms throughout the facility.

Our tour of the mechanical spaces in the facility left us very impressed with the immaculate condition of all the equipment as well as the back of the house space. Dobson pointed out to us how he had converted to newer, higher efficiency filters, which allowed for the elimination of pre-filters in the ventilation system and greatly lowered cost while improving air quality.

A modernization program had taken place upon the elevator systems that was completed last year and each building is equipped with Schindler, four traction elevators operating at 350 fpm with capacity ratings of 2,500 lbs. The new computerized controls anticipate load and greatly improve upon call time for tenants.

Two restaurants on the lower level of the facility accommodate tenants, as will a new exercise and fitness center being constructed by Parkway, as an added amenity for tenants in the building.

All construction in the building is reviewed and approved by the engineering staff and it is clear that the building engineers play a role in every aspect of building operations.

Dobson explained how spare motors are kept on hand to facilitate immediate replacement in the event of outages. By keeping a replacement component on hand, the tenants in the facility have never been troubled by an equipment breakdown of any long duration.

It was clear by the end of our tour of the facility that the only thing remaining constant at the Citicorp Plaza facility was the “state of change” occurring within the buildings.

While the amount of change that has taken place over the past twenty-one years left us very impressed, the list of plans that Dobson related to us left us even more impressed for the facility’s future.

It is more than clear that the three buildings we visited are truly jewels within Chicago’s northwest side that have a bright and illustrious future ahead of them. Thanks to the efforts of their engineering staff and the leadership of Walter Dobson, we know we will back around in another twenty years or so to record yet another chapter in the life of this amazing facility.

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