The Arthur M. Blank Family Office received LEED Gold Certification in 2004
It was still dark that morning and I wasn’t sure where I was heading… but the directions said to take a right onto Howell Mill Road and that The Arthur M. Blank Family Office was up the hill at the 3rd driveway on the left. I turned into the driveway passing through magnificent stone gates to behold a shadowy silhouette of a stately French-styled Chateau reminiscent of something from the Loire Valley rather than an office building inside the Atlanta perimeter. “Wow”, was all I could think. I could vaguely pick out the figure of a man standing at the front of the drive by a neatly manicured flower bed and rolled down my window to find out where I should park. It turns out that he was the very hands-on facility manager, Jay Lanning, our host for the meeting. He was waiting there to personally direct us into the parking deck tucked-under the building. I pulled up next to Christy Jellets from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens getting out of her mini-van and we walked together into the lower level elevator lobby marveling at the indoor waterfall with mosaic-tiled background. The rest of the incredible finishes of this space where our IFMA FM Breakfast Networking Meeting was being held were equally impressive. We were guided into a salon off the main reception that could have doubled for a classic 14th century morning room where we waited for the rest of the meeting attendees to arrive. Once everyone was assembled, Jay lead us on a guided tour of the highlights of the complex including a library, a conference room with a round Camelot-styled table, and a grand ballroom meeting space which will be the venue for the March Atlanta Chapter of IFMA monthly meeting. As we walked throughout the space, we learned about how sustainable design was interwoven into the amazing selection of materials and building systems including the green cleaning program – proving that building green can, indeed, be beautiful and cost effective.
For those of you who have not yet had the opportunity to attend one of the newest meeting formats that the Atlanta Chapter of IFMA is offering to FM professionals, this is the one venue that you don’t want to miss. Attendees network with other professional members to discuss topics ranging from sustainability to building operational protocols.
The next meeting is scheduled for March 24th at Invesco from 7-8:30am and is limited to 20 professional members. We will tour another great space and share how Atlanta facility managers are implementing green building design.
To sign up for the next FM Networking Series:
https://www.ifmaatlanta.org/events-view.html?id=29
For more information on The Arthur M. Blank Family Office LEED Gold Certification:
http://www.blankfoundation.org/leed/index.html#features
Video of the building construction and features:
