LOS ANGELES-The PacMutual Campus in Downtown Los Angeles has received LEED-Platinum certification from the US Green Building Council. The campus is the oldest building in Southern California and the first in the city to hold the green title. The building offsets 100% of energy through clean energy credits, reduces 32% of indoor water consumption and 63% of employees travel to work through alternative modes of transportation, like public transit.

"We wanted to show that a building's age wasn't a limiting factor towards achieving a high-level of sustainability," says Nelson Rising, CEO of Rising Realty Partners, the owner of the PacMutual Campus. The 460,000-square-foot PacMutual Campus was built in 1908 with two additions: the Sentry Building in 1921 and the Carriage House in 1926. The original 1908 building was named the Clock Tower.

"Los Angeles seems to be leading the nation in breathing new life into old buildings. PacMutual's tenants are joining a growing wave of corporate citizens who are the driving force behind this urban renaissance," says Mark Huppert, senior director of the Preservation Green Lab at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Only six other buildings in Los Angeles County hold the LEED-Platinum certification, the highest green ranking for buildings.

Since Rising Realty Partners purchased the campus in 2012, it has performed a series of major renovations, concentrating on adding open-concept creative office space as well as promoting sustainability and green practices. "This project clearly illustrates that preservation and sustainability go hand in hand. It's a great achievement, and it's a great model for historic places throughout Los Angeles," says Linda Dishman, executive director of the L.A. Conservancy. The building scored in the 91 percentile for energy efficiency.

The downtown market is one of the few areas of Los Angeles with historic properties. Last month the Ace Hotel opened in the former United Artists Building, a historic landmark. Some believe the opening of the hotel may be the catalyst to the redevelopment in downtown's historic core.

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Kelsi Maree Borland

Kelsi Maree Borland is a freelance journalist and magazine writer based in Los Angeles, California. For more than 5 years, she has extensively reported on the commercial real estate industry, covering major deals across all commercial asset classes, investment strategy and capital markets trends, market commentary, economic trends and new technologies disrupting and revolutionizing the industry. Her work appears daily on GlobeSt.com and regularly in Real Estate Forum Magazine. As a magazine writer, she covers lifestyle and travel trends. Her work has appeared in Angeleno, Los Angeles Magazine, Travel and Leisure and more.

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