Empire State Building... LEED Gold?! Revit?!

"New York’s famous Empire State Building is pursing LEED Gold certification with a goal of reducing annual energy consumption by an impressive 38%.

Planned improvements include an ambitious replacement of the building’s entire window system, an upgrade of heating and cooling plants and the integration of a smart lighting system. The $13.2MM project will provide an estimated annual energy savings of $4.4MM, yielding a three-year payback on investment.

The following video summarizes the project and includes interviews with the building’s owner, Anthony E. Malkin, and Scott Horst, EVP of LEED with the USGBC.

Thanks to LEEDBlogger.com for the post.

Hmmm... So I wonder what "Energy Analysis Program" they will use to submit documentation for certification...

Well after some research I found a few interesting links regarding this matter:

• Johnson Controls, Inc. Empire State Building Project Page
• "Design Tools" Page of Project Website

So It appears they are using eQuest? How interesting considering eQuest and Revit are second cousins! See this PDF to see what I mean.

The Program AGi32 is also included on that page. Below is a quote directly from the AGi32 forums:

"Right now, AGi32 is limited (according to its own "import" dialog) to importing .dwg and .dxf files (or AGi32's own proprietary .AGI files). So, it would be possible to do some movement from Revit via dwg/dxf, but not a direct import."

So if the Architect uses Revit than the lighting consultant will not have to do any modeling. Ultimately, reducing money, time, and errors, and increasing accuracy, efficiency, and happines ;).