Completed in November 2019, the project demonstrates that reinventing, rather than inventing, through a rigorous progressive design and environmentally responsive ethos, can yield successful results by achieving performance-based carbon neutrality with conventional resources. Located in Memphis, Tennessee on a shared site, the project demonstrates “how” by devising three sub-projects: repurpose a 1957 building of 7,444 sf into a progressive, environmentally responsible office (663 South Cooper) by becoming carbon neutral; repurpose the adjacent 1957 building of 3,400 sf into a progressive, environmentally responsible office that would demonstrate conventional baseline standards for analytical performance comparison; and provide an economically viable model for reinventing similarly aged buildings into a Carbon Neutral Corridor that connects people, embraces design excellence, and combats climate change.

Resiliency was also critical, mitigating heightened risks for seismic activity, severe weather, a hot-humid climate and its location above the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer - the primary source for freshwater and 90% of the region’s agricultural pumped irrigation. The project remains active as a research site, generating data that is shared and applied across project scales and typologies encouraging an actionable, national dialogue among public and practice-based communities. The project is the world’s first dual-certified Zero Energy and Zero Carbon renovated building by the International Living Future Institute and features a net measured EUI of -1.3.