2008 Building Excellence in Boise Awards

The Planning & Development Services Department honored five building owners for their outstanding achievements to improve building safety, accessibility or sustainability in the City of Boise. Keeping the built environment safe, accessible for all and ultimately sustainable are elements of a liveable community.

Mayor Dave Bieter challenged Planning & Development Services to expand its role from just "keeping bad things from happening" to find ways to "make good things happen" in Boise. This new award program recognize people who make "good things" happen in our community and help make Boise the most livable city in the country. 

Winners were selected based on nominations from PDS staff with ultimate selection being made by the PDS Director and Building Director. The awards were presented at the Boise Chapter of the Building Owners and Managers Association meeting. The award winners included:

Outstanding Fire and Life Safety Upgrade

• The Boise Plaza Building (formerly known as the Boise Cascade Building) for Outstanding Fire and Life Safety Upgrade, accepted by Scott Schonherr on behalf of Rafanelli and Nahas. Rafanelli and Nahas recently completed a 12 million remodel on the structure which included installing fire sprinklers through out the structure, asbestos removal and addition of new fire proofing, adding a new fire pump, updating smoke evacuation system and revamping lighting system. The remodel also included a lobby entrance relocation, handrail modifications to the plaza area and several green building upgrades. Rafanelli and Nahas anticipates applying for silver LEED certification in the near future.

Fire/Life-Safety Upgrades to an Existing Building

• The Vista Village Shopping Center for Excellence in Fire/Life-Safety Upgrades to an Existing Building, accepted by Donna Day-Jacobs on behalf of Day Realty. Vista Village recently completed an extensive remodel to the facades of the shopping mall, demolished and rebuilt tenant space and installed a fire sprinkler system through out the structure.

Accessibility Upgrades to an Existing Building

• The US Bank Plaza for Excellence in Accessibility upgrades to an Existing Building, accepted by Liz Fitzgerald on behalf of UNICO. Over the last four years UNICO has upgraded the restrooms on 17 floors to make them more accessible to its customers without decreasing the number of fixtures available to the public. This represents a serious commitment by UNICO to accessibility because the remodel of each restroom costs between $20,000 to $30,000. In addition to this upgrade, UNICO has also completed green building upgrades in this buildings and has achieved an Energy Star rating for this building.

Excellence in Green Building Construction

• The Insight Architects Building for Excellence in Green Building Construction, accepted by Russ Phillips and Dana Kauffman, owners. The Insight Architects Building was constructed in 2004 and showcases green building techniques for the firm's clients wanting to see green building techniques in real life application. After four years of operation, Insight Architects estimate that they save 50% on their utilities by the choices they made with orientation of the building on the site, extensive use of "day-lighting" techniques, maintenance of existing shade trees, selection and use of high efficiency "low e" windows, strategically angled awnings and blinds and other passive energy saving techniques. This building is currently under consideration for silver LEED certification.
• The Falcon Building for excellence in green building construction, accepted by Velma Morrison and Justin Wilkerson, on behalf of the Velma Morrison Foundation. The building has recently undergone an extensive remodel to the exterior plaza area and the interior finishes have all been redone. Numerous green building techniques have been utilized through out the building including a ground water based cooling system, installation of high efficiency lighting systems, use of "light harvesting" techniques to bring natural light to various parts of the building, and installation of foam insulation to increase the energy efficiency of the building envelope to an R-34 level which allowed reduction of the windows by 40%. The building is also piped for geothermal based heating system in anticipation of future expansion of Boise City's geothermal system. This building is expected to receive a gold level LEED certification.