Historic Building Targets LEED, WELL, and Zero Carbon
After sitting vacant for 25 years, the historic Stearns & Foster Building in Cincinnati, Ohio, was revitalized by Pepper Construction to become the home of their new headquarters. Constructed in 1912, the 3-story, 23,000 SF office building was extensively renovated to focus on energy efficiency and occupant health and wellness. By incorporating sustainable design strategies while preserving the building’s historical integrity, this project transformed the building into an impressive net zero energy and zero carbon office space.
Project At A Glance
Size: 23,000 Square Feet
Cost: Undisclosed
Completed: 2023
Baseline Energy Use: 70 EUI
Modeled Energy Use: 31 EUI
Performed Energy Use: 29 EUI
Carbon Reduction: 122 MTCO2e Annually
Renewable Energy: 214 kw
Geothermal Piping: 2.40 Miles
Historic Building – Adaptive Reuse
The Challenges
Deliver a net zero energy and zero carbon office building
Meet State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) requirements to qualify for historical tax credits
Achieve WELL certification for enhanced occupant health and wellness
This is a huge accomplishment and a testament to what Pepper can do as a company when working with the right design partners.
Susan Heinking
Senior VP, High Performance and Sustainable Construction
The Solutions
Given the building’s age, condition, and State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) requirements, this project required significant unconventional thinking to achieve net zero energy. CMTA utilized several high-performance strategies to enhance energy efficiency, particularly by improving the building envelope. Despite historical preservation constraints that limited envelope treatments on the existing structure, CMTA succeeded in optimizing roof insulation and building air sealing to reduce building envelope loads. Through extensive detailing and testing, the building ultimately tested at 0.25 CFM at 75 Pascals, significantly reducing air infiltration and boosting energy efficiency.
Additionally, CMTA designed a highly efficient geothermal HVAC system that runs 300-foot vertical loops underneath the parking lot. The geothermal system also supplies a radiant floor heating system in the adjacent garage, providing an efficient and cost-effective heating solution for Pepper Construction’s tool storage and staging areas. Complementing these systems, the facility features a 214 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) array to offset its annual energy consumption. As the array produces more energy than the building consumes on an annual basis, this building is one of the oldest structures in the world to achieve net zero energy.
Optimizing indoor air quality and thermal comfort were also top priorities for Pepper Construction to ensure the well-being of building occupants. Due to the building’s location between two major highways, air quality was particularly important. To address this, CMTA integrated a sorbent ventilation technology with the dedicated outside air unit to remove contaminants generated by building materials, carpet, and furniture, while also reducing the intake of outside air polluted by exhaust from highways (ozone), CO₂, and smoke. Sensor readings installed in the DOAS’s relief air stream have consistently shown that the building’s indoor air quality is superior to the air outside, showcasing the effectiveness of this innovative approach.
Zero Carbon Office Building
This project not only creates a healthy, inviting, and comfortable working environment but also demonstrates the transformative impact of historic renovations on environmental sustainability. By choosing to renovate the existing structure, the project successfully avoided an estimated 600 metric tons of CO₂e emissions from upfront embodied carbon—equivalent to taking 143 cars off the road for an entire year.
Beyond these initial emissions savings, the project’s energy efficiency and electrification improvements are projected to save an additional 122 metric tons of CO₂e emissions annually. Over a span of 50 years, the combined efforts in reducing both operational and upfront embodied carbon result in nearly a 95% decrease in emissions compared to a standard baseline building, underscoring the long-term environmental benefits of historic renovation and adaptive reuse projects.
Historic Preservation & Innovative Design
The SHPO had stringent aesthetic requirements regarding the visibility of the HVAC system from street level. This posed a significant design challenge, as it prohibited placing ductwork in the front half of the building. To comply with these requirements, CMTA installed hydronic cassettes, painted to match the ceiling and strategically positioned away from windows to ensure they were not visible from the street. These units effectively met the zoning, noise criteria, and aesthetic demands in a space that maintains a completely open floor plan.
The Results
Pepper Construction’s adaptive reuse of the historic Stearns & Foster Building demonstrates that historic preservation can be successfully integrated with energy efficiency, sustainability, and health and wellness goals. Though designed to operate at 31 EUI, the building surpassed expectations by operating at 29.2 EUI—a 66% reduction from a baseline building. The renovated building not only eliminates 122 metric tons of CO2e per year, but it also saves Pepper Construction an average of $40,000 in annual utility costs.
CMTA was proud to partner with Pepper Construction to transform this landmark into a zero energy, zero carbon, and healthy office space—revitalizing an important part of Lockland's heritage.
This building is designed to provide ‘real world’ operating data to CMTA engineers. This will enable our engineers to demonstrate the effectiveness of our system design decisions to clients.
Tony Hans
CMTA Vice President and National Director of Sustainable Projects - Real World Operating Data
The total team effort that went into the success of the 300 Building Project was both inspiring and gratifying. Not only did this project redefine the work environment for state agencies, but it set the standard and established the value of the P3 delivery method for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
