“We designed this building from the inside out,” Furr says. “We started out designing an efficient floor plate for the developer that was flexible and worked with open and closed office layouts.”

Austin Commercial of Dallas is close to completing Saint Ann Court in Dallas. A rendering shows the gallery lobby. Harwood is the developer and the building will serve as Harwood International's headquarters.

A notch in the floor plates brings daylight and views deep into the interior space. The exterior features full-height glass, with a high-efficiency glazing and low-E coating. The building features a carbon-dioxide monitoring system and increased ventilation.

Gensler positioned the tower on the triangular site to take advantage of gulf breezes, which help power the building, and to decrease solar heat. The park to the southeast of the tower provides an open wind-shed for harvesting wind energy.

“In sustainable design, some of the most important decisions are made upfront about how you site and orient the building,” Furr says.

Ten vertical-access wind turbines will be installed atop the tower. A fin element, facing south-southeast, will funnel the wind past the turbines, increasing the wind speed and turbine efficiency. The turbines are expected to generate enough energy to light the building at night, but research is under way to try to quantify exactly how much the turbines will generate.

“Currently, there are only a few buildings in the world that have wind turbines built into them,” Furr says.

On the south side, an entry plaza with a fountain complements Discovery Park, and the vegetative roof on the entry pavilion acts as a visual extension of the park.

Gensler designed the building to be approximately 20% more energy efficient than a typical building. In addition to the turbines, it features a highly efficient energy-recovery unit, located near the roof. It also employs high-efficiency centrifugal chillers for cooling.

The plumbing system is approximately 40% more efficient than a traditional building and features low-flow fixtures. It also will harvest air-conditioning condensate, which will supply all of the landscaping irrigation.

Saint Ann Court Austin Commercial of Dallas expects to wrap up construction early this fall on Saint Ann Court, a $51-million, 26-story, 320,000-sq-ft office tower in Dallas, for Harwood International of Dallas.

“It’s doing surprisingly well,” says Gabriel Barbier-Mueller, founder and CEO of Harwood International.

Saint Ann Court is 75% preleased, with major tenants Amegy Bank, the Boston Consulting Group and McGuire, Craddock & Strother. It will also serve as Harwood International’s headquarters. The project represents the sixth phase of the developer’s 17-city block Harwood district in Uptown Dallas.

“Our first four office buildings were fully let and had been for quite awhile, and we had demand from tenants,” Barbier-Mueller adds.

Construction began in November 2007 on the concrete structure, which has some steel support. A 20-ft-deep, drilled-pier foundation, with slab-on-grade and beams, supports the building, which is clad in precast concrete with ribbon windows on three sides and curtain wall on the north façade.