AMD Submits Site Development Plan For New Austin Campus
- New AMD campus is designed to achieve a Gold level Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council-
Austin, Texas -- December 13, 2005 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today submitted its site development plan to the City of Austin for a new campus to be built on 58 acres AMD has agreed to purchase in Southwest Austin. The new campus, known by the project name “AMD Lone Star,” will bring together local non-manufacturing operations currently spread across multiple locations in Austin. Spansion™, the Flash memory venture of AMD and Fujitsu Limited, will build upon AMD’s established roots in East Austin by continuing local manufacturing operations at Fab 25 on East Ben White Boulevard.
The site plan was created in collaboration with a team of leading environmental experts and incorporates the latest in green building techniques and materials. Once completed, the new campus is expected to achieve a Gold Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Gold LEED certification, which requires meeting at least 39 strictly quantified credit-based criteria, would make the new AMD campus one of the largest commercial development projects in the country to achieve such a rating and set a new standard for sustainable development.
“The AMD campus embraces new ideas and technology innovations that are unique to a campus of this size,” Craig Garcia, director of global corporate services, AMD. “This site plan represents a significant milestone in the creation of a new unified AMD Austin campus that will raise the bar for sustainable development and create a world-class corporate campus in close proximity to the majority of AMD’s local employees.”
To create the state of the art site development plan for the new campus, AMD assembled a design team consisting of Austin-based architects, engineers and ecologists and nationally known sustainable design experts. Working hand-in-hand with AMD, the team embarked on an intensive design process known as a “charrette” that developed a site plan based on three key tenets: reducing site impact, protecting water quality, and designing for sustainability.
“AMD has distinguished itself by a willingness to dig deep, ask new questions, and explore innovative strategies, some of which have not been tried before in this region on this scale,” said Gail Vittori, charrette leader and co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. “Keeping the long view in mind, the true assessment of AMD’s stewardship will be defined by the tangible and measurable results that grow out of the collaborative planning, design, and construction process underway.”
Reducing Site Impact
To minimize the footprint of the campus, AMD is voluntarily limiting the amount of impervious cover to 20 percent below the amount legally entitled for this site. This reduction in impervious cover will be achieved in part through the use of compact building configurations, limited structural footprints and the use of structured parking garages instead of surface parking lots.
The campus will consist of four office buildings, three recessed parking garages and the Lone Star Commons Building that will include an employee cafeteria, fitness center and conference space. The buildings are positioned on the site to best preserve and minimize the impact to the natural habitat based on an ecological study conducted by Dr. Steve Windhager of The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower. Development will be concentrated on approximately 33 of the available 58 acres, leaving approximately 25 acres of land undeveloped and allowing for more than 3 miles of trails to wind through the site.
“The charrette process began with an extensive on-site ecological study of the land’s soil, plants and habitats. This enabled us to locate areas that were less appropriate for building, and to cluster construction in the most appropriate areas. The result has been a design that grows out of an ecological awareness of the site,” said Steve Windhager, director of landscape restoration at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and charrette participant. “Because the charrette team was involved from the beginning and had a large voice throughout the entire design process, our contributions have had a fundamental impact on the sustainability of the overall site.”
Protecting Water Quality
AMD will voluntarily comply with the water quality control requirements of Austin’s Save Our Springs Ordinance and implement a land-based filtration method to capture and treat storm water from streets and other outdoor surfaces on the site. This water will be transported, stored and filtered using the natural geologic topography, soil composition, and native vegetation. This natural approach reduces the need for more invasive retention and treatment ponds, minimizes disruption of natural water flow over the site, and works with nature to address groundwater recharge.
In addition, an innovative rainwater harvesting system has been designed to collect 100 percent of the rainfall from the roofs and top floors of the parking garages. The rainwater will be collected in eight separate 45,000 gallon cisterns and an approximately one million-gallon storage tank located underneath one of the site’s structured parking garages. The collected rainwater will be used to irrigate the site’s 100-percent native landscaping and to supplement the potable water used in the energy-efficient evaporative cooling system designed for cooling the indoor facilities.
Designing for Sustainability
AMD’s commitment to a sustainable campus will continue long after construction is complete.
This site plan is designed to regenerate native plant populations over the course of the next ten to fifteen years. In studying the land, Dr. Windhager discovered an opportunity to restore the site to a more natural state, repairing erosion damage caused by cattle grazing and fire suppression. Through a partnership with the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, AMD will re-establish the natural recharge and filtration system provided by the soil and fibrous native grass root networks and return the site to its natural state as it existed hundreds of years ago.
AMD recently announced a new agreement with the Austin Energy GreenChoice® Program to purchase green energy derived from renewable resources that will power all AMD Austin operations for the next ten years. The new agreement extends AMD’s leadership in the use of renewable energy that started with the company’s first purchase of green energy in 2001 and makes AMD the largest private Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Power Partner in Texas. AMD will also continue the company’s nationally recognized Commute Solutions program featuring carpools, vanpools, mass transit, bicycling and telecommuting while instituting new incentives for low-emission vehicles. Employee participation in the Commute Solutions program is expected to increase at Lantana, reaching a goal of 10 percent of the employee population and further reducing traffic, air pollution and the use of fossil fuels.
The site will incorporate innovative lighting and climate systems to distribute natural light, create flexible and customizable workspaces, limit energy consumption and improve productivity. The facility will utilize recycled, rapidly renewable and simple materials with basic finishes to limit total environmental impact and reduce material waste, chemical pollutants, and maintenance waste. When the site is occupied, chemically safe cleaning solutions and an innovative pest management system will virtually eliminate the use of toxins in maintaining the campus.
To further conservation efforts, AMD and Stratus Properties have jointly committed to creating a $5 million preservation fund to protect the most sensitive recharge lands within the Edwards Aquifer watershed.
The new campus was announced in April after a more than two year search determined Lantana to be the only location in Austin to meet all of AMD’s primary search criteria, including size, presence of existing entitlements and infrastructure, and proximity to the majority of local AMD employees. The site is already zoned for commercial development by the City of Austin with existing entitlements and construction is expected to begin in March 2006.
For more information about AMD’s new campus, visit
www.amdlonestar.com.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE:AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology users, ranging from enterprises to government agencies and individual consumers. For more information, visit
www.amd.com.
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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