Story

Core Construction Office Building
Las Vegas, NV

Core Construction is a family owned national construction company and founded in 1937 by Otto Baum, a German immigrant. Otto's name in German translates to tree and at a trees center is its strength and so, Core Construction was born. Now, a nationally family owned construction company, Core approached Carpenter Sellers Architects to design their Las Vegas headquarters as a tenant of the proposed Fire Mesa Office Building. During our initial conversation, we learned that family is important and the owner/ president initially wanted the building to have a residential or "home away from home" feel. As we did further research into their company and during our fist design charrette, we discussed Core's missions, values and goals. Integrity, quality workmanship, teamwork, responsibility and innovation are characteristics that we felt should be translated into architecture in a way that expresses construction. As their thoughts about the new building began to evolve to express the values of their company, so did our concepts.

The client's mission and imbedded characteristics are portrayed in their company logo by the color green and the core of a tree. These characteristics were used as inspiration and articulated by expressing: construction details, exposed materials, a healthy working environment, sustainable design concepts and blatant use of the color green. Since the client would be also the builder, the experience of translating concepts and ideas into construction methods and details became a very exciting process and journey for  everyone. The idea of "home" never left our thoughts and became a goal to design spaces that offer comforts through healthy environments. As a result, we have designed a 13,000 s.f. single-story building that employed natural daylight and acoustical attenuation to all offices with increased fresh air exchanges and low VOC materials that are available locally. The site utilizes pervious concrete and is shaded by large trees and a photovoltaic car port canopy. As a goal, the building strived to be simple and straight forward in its spatial organization, solar shading and massing, but have details and materials that declare coordination and collaboration. The sustainable aspects of the project continually evolved until we had a project that is now targeting LEED Gold.

Sustainable aspects

• Oriented along the north/south axis
• Local materials
• Natural daylight
• Panelized roof system with clip ends
• Fresh air intake
• A/B light switches
• Low VOC paint
• Recycled & low VOC carpeting
• Recycled glass tile flooring
• Recycled blue jean insulation
• 15 kw photovoltaic array provides 15,000 watts of power (it is estimated that 15 - 20% of energy requirements at peak capacity will be provided by the sun)
• Photovoltaic array on top of car canopy provides shade for vehicles
• Sidewalk demolition provided the opportunity to crush concrete and use as landscape rocks
• Pervious concrete in the parking area to recharge ground water
• 125 sf recycling area in the break room