Butler Square Refresh

ArchKey/Parsons Electric Achieves ESG & Renewable Energy Savings at Historic Multi-Tenant Commercial Building

Situated in the heart of the Warehouse District in Minneapolis, MN, Butler Square is a century-old multi-tenant commercial building. In 2015, the facility underwent renovations to update the historic 9-story office complex. A longtime primary electrical and technologies contractor with Butler Square, the ArchKey team was called upon to complete the renovation in accordance with the facility’s ESG goals to reduce environmental impact while continuing to fully support their tenant’s business and operational needs.

Renovation work on this 650,000 square foot building contained 30,000 square feet of communal space including the main floor entrance, conference rooms, restrooms, and second floor private tenant lounge which featured a spiral staircase. During kick-off, the project team identified three primary objectives for the project:

Use lighting to help make the space feel more welcoming, highlight key focal points throughout, and achieve more energy efficiency.
Optimize the space for connectivity while maximizing the mobility and interactivity of its tenants.
Find sustainable ways to modernize and enhance the space, enriching the lives of its users.

Scope of Work

As a first step, our electrical team replaced all first and second floor corridor atrium lighting. By updating the existing fluorescent and high-pressure sodium with energy efficient LEDs, our team was able to cut energy usage in half. LEDs, which last considerably longer than fluorescent lighting, also use half the wattage – consuming about 6 watts of power versus 14 watts of power fluorescent use. Additionally, our team installed occupancy sensors – keeping energy use to a minimum when space was not in use.

To provide a welcoming feel to the space, the team added power to the new stage and integral step, rail lighting to the circular staircase, and conference rooms. Color changing spotlights were incorporated as focal points on the artwork, the glider features in the front atrium, and into the public restrooms – all of which can be controlled by the building management through a phone app.

ArchKey Technologies team next tackled creating a collaborative conference room space that would encourage connectivity and interaction with all users – whether in-person or remote. The team designed and installed wireless, audio, and sound components to the conference space including:

Wireless connectivity allowing the presenter to move freely throughout the room with a lapel or handheld microphone and wireless device controller.
The use of 86″ large visual display screens to provide a large, clear image and immersive visual component to presentations.
A wall mounted tracking camera to share live video feed from the conference space for remote users connected on WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other streaming platforms.
AVB beam tracking microphones and speakers to mask background noise and pick-up audio from anywhere within the room for clearer communication between in-person and remote attendees.
Installation of a Crestron wireless control panel to schedule meetings and book the conference room on their own using the large display screen.

One final component included the use of occupancy sensors to trigger the audio visual and wireless systems ensuring that when the space is not occupied, the energy use in the room is minimal.

The facility, recognized as the first century-old multi-tenant commercial building in the world to achieve LEED-EB O&M, was successful in reducing their environmental impact going on to become a LEED Silver Certified Building.