LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - November 16, 2010) - Tate®, a market leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of raised access flooring solutions, supports underfloor air distribution (UFAD) as a best green solution with products that have helped more than 100 buildings achieve the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) certification.
The 100th project in the Tate portfolio of LEED-certified projects is the 147,575-square-foot California State Automobile Association (CSAA) building in Oklahoma City, Okla. This LEED Silver facility serves as the company's contact center and insurance claims operations center.
Jim Megerson, vice president of Larson Binkley, Inc., a mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering firm in Overland Park, Kansas, appreciates the flexibility that raised access floors and UFAD offer. Commenting on his experience with LEED-certified buildings that use Tate and UFAD systems, including the CSAA project and the Chevron Gulf Operations Center in Covington, La., Megerson said, "The UFAD system provides flexibility that enables building owners to adapt to changes in building functions.
"But more importantly, an UFAD system is a single building component that promotes sustainability and green building by offering multiple benefits that include energy savings, improved indoor air quality, increased occupant comfort and a pathway for wiring, cabling and air distribution. When you can use one system, component or design element to provide a variety of functions or services within a structure, it becomes a more viable and often more cost-efficient solution."
In addition to the CSAA project, Tate has provided UFAD for several prominent LEED-certified projects, including the 166,000-square-foot Great River Energy corporate headquarters in Maple Grove, Minn. This LEED Platinum project integrates a broad mix of energy savings solutions, including Tate's UFAD system, that contribute to the advancement of sustainable green building and demonstrate how easily these sustainable green technologies can be applied.
"One of the early goals for the Great River Energy project was to provide an energy efficient, healthy and flexible work environment," said Mark Lucas, manager, facilities services at Great River Energy. "Combining displacement ventilation with a raised access floor system not only lowered energy costs, but it also delivered cleaner and more oxygenated air to the breathing zone and provided a flexible floor plan that could be modified with ease. In addition, the system allows our employees to control the air in their workspaces for improved comfort and lets them enjoy more daylight and views to the outside by eliminating an overhead ducted system."
In the largest Tate project that incorporates UFAD in a LEED certified building -- the 2.1 million-square-foot LEED Platinum Bank of America Headquarters in New York City -- architect Serge Appel, associate partner at Cook + Fox Architects LLP, New York, N.Y., integrated a wide range of high-performance environmental strategies and technologies to enhance the health and productivity of building tenants, reduce waste and promote environmental sustainability.
"In addition to the sustainable benefits that UFAD brought to the project, as an architect I appreciated the fact that UFAD eliminates the need for ceiling ductwork, creating opportunities to execute a cleaner, more open design," Appel explained. "In addition, the flexibility that the combination of a raised access floor and UFAD provides was especially important to this client, because they make frequent changes to their interior office space, regularly adding, moving, combining or eliminating offices. An UFAD system makes it easy and efficient to move data and power cables as well as air diffusers to accommodate these frequent changes in layout."
Banking on the experience Tate has gained through its first 100 LEED-certified UFAD projects, architects, mechanical engineers and building owners who specify, install and use a raised access floor system continue to prefer Tate products. "I've always been pleased with Tate -- both its products and the service it offers," said Megerson. "Tate is very attuned to the entire process associated with UFAD and has the technical expertise to integrate their floor system with other building systems, including wiring, cabling and HVAC, to realize all the benefits that raised access floors deliver."
To see the complete list of 107 LEED-certified projects that used Tate raised access floors and underfloor air distribution, in addition to a map indicating the location of another 78 projects that used Tate Access Floors for wire & cable management only, please visit http://www.tateaccessfloors.com/access_leed.aspx. For more information about underfloor air distribution, visit www.tateaccessfloors.com/why/underfloor_air.aspx. Information about other Tate products and services is available at www.tateaccessfloors.com or by phone at (410) 799-4200.
ABOUT TATE®
Tate is headquartered south of Baltimore, in Jessup, Md., and is a member of the Kingspan Group of companies. Activities for Tate include research and development, manufacturing, sales, and distribution of raised access floors, with over 500 million square feet of underfloor service distribution systems installed. Tate products provide high performance and sustainable service distribution solutions in office, education, equipment/server, public space, laboratory, casinos and clean room facilities.
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Lacey Dean
Godfrey
(717) 393-3831
lldean@godfrey.com
Corporate Contact:
Scott Alwine
Tate
(410) 799-4790
scottalwine@tateaccessfloors.com