The hottest and freshest shopping center renovation to hit the Bay Area retail scene is Northgate Mall in San Rafael. Celebrating its grand opening Thursday November 12, 2009, Northgate Mall will show off its clerestory atrium, new food court, and Oak Tree Plaza exterior portion of the mall.
Kohl's celebrated its grand opening at Northgate on September 30, 2009, replacing the Mervyns that closed earlier in the year.
Macerich, the owner and operator of Northgate, has paid special attention to the rebuilding of the mall to today's "green" standards. In fact, Macerich is in process of obtaining the coveted LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for its efforts to use sustainable building practices (Macerich, 2009).
What is LEED?
According to the U.S Green Building Council:
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. (U.S. Green Building Council, 2009, Para. 1).
Macerich has taken an important step towards the future with something almost unknown in the mall world... sustainability. Who has not heard of paving paradise to put up a parking lot? Yet, by paying special attention to building practices and obtaining LEED certification, Macerich is showing us that malls are not so bad after all.
I for one applaud Macerich for "going green." Shop Northgate.
Scott
See some pre-renovation photos at my guide to Northgate Mall.
References
Macerich (2009). Social Responsibility: Sustainability. Retrieved November 02, 2009, from http://www.macerich.com/?n=sustainability_highlights
U.S. Green Building Council (2009). Intro - What LEED Is. Retrieved November 02, 2009, from http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1988
1 comment:
Great designs and concept.Rebuilding the Northgate Mall with intent of making it an greener building will be ensure the facility will be more energy efficient and healthier. Good luck obtaining the LEED certification. Hopefully it will be Gold level or higher LEED certified.
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