Monday LEEDoff: HSBC’s Gold Headquarters Tower in Mexico City
Stephen Del Percio
Checking in at #8 on the CoStar Group’s list of the top ten green real estate stories of 2007 was the commitment that a number of banks demonstrated to sustainable building and operations during the course of last year. When we presented the list to you earlier this month, gbNYC noted the green efforts of a number of banks here in the New York City area, including JPMorganChase, PNC Bank, and Bank of America. Not to be outdone, HSBC Bank announced last week that its Headquarters Tower on the Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City has earned the first LEED Gold rating in Latin America. The 400,000-square-foot, twenty-four-story project earned a 2007 National Interiors Award and top honors for Corporate Interior Design from the Mexican Interior Design Association. HSBC purchased the building back in 2002 after merging with a local Mexico City bank called Bital. HOK subsequently redesigned the building’s façade and interiors, implementing a number of sustainable design strategies that included extensive interior daylighting, a 4,000-square-foot green roof, a graywater treatment plant, low-VOC carpeting, GreenGuard-certified furniture from Knoll, Herman Miller, and Haworth, employee bike racks. The project is easily accessible to Mexico City’s mass transit network and is HSBC’s twenty-second to earn LEED certification.
