Salas O'Brien News

At Salas O’Brien, we love supporting companies that are locally grown but have a big regional impact and share our ethos for hard work and integrity. McCoy’s Building Supply is just such a company, and we were thrilled to partner with McCoy’s in designing its corporate headquarters.

The Highland Sam J. Racadio Library and Environmental Learning Center unites the best in academic and hands-on educational experiences, and our engineers’ mechanical, electrical, and plumbing expertise helped bring it all together.

In any industry, the safety and efficiency of engineered production processes have a major impact on the bottom line. In the food and beverage industry, there’s a lot more than money at stake. Even the slightest production errors can radically affect consumer health and safety, and public trust, once lost, is difficult to regain. The Salas O’Brien team is passionate about community well-being, and we’re proud to promote product quality and compliance through our work for this vital industry.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) began in 1993 with the singular mission of promoting sustainability in the building industry. This passion led to the creation of what has become the world’s most widely respected and utilized green building rating system: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Since the system’s inaugural year at the turn of the century, LEED has been part of more than 92,000 projects in over 165 countries and territories across the world—and its impact on the community, the environment, and building-owner costs is nothing short of revolutionary.

A LEED certification from the USGBC is more than just an environmental stamp of approval—it’s a recognition of exceptional design that will translate into energy and operational cost savings and improved quality of life for building occupants. Research also shows that these quality and cost benefits attract tenants and lead to higher property sale value.

Commissioning plays a big role in achieving the level of design sophistication LEED requires, and as top U.S. commissioning firm with extensive LEED experience, Salas O’Brien has both the training and the track record to guide clients through the complex process.

To Salas O’Brien clients, the word “commissioning” means energy savings, lowered operating costs, and optimal environments—but a lot goes on behind the scenes to achieve these amazing results.  The field is constantly evolving, so having a trustworthy, communicative expert by your side through the process will make all the difference.

Sophisticated property owners aim to construct a building as economically as possible, and for good reason. Financial pressure is intense.

But yet, over a 30-year span, a building’s utility, maintenance, service, and system replacement costs can run between 50 to 80% of the facility’s total cost (including construction costs). The more complex the building and the more energy it uses, the higher that percentage will move within this range—especially in regions with high or increasing utility costs.

From its earliest days as an energy consulting firm, sustainability has been at the heart of Salas O'Brien. That’s why we were excited to partner with Plumrose USA to create a design that would dramatically increase efficiency at their new Iowa processing plant.

Salas O’Brien maintains a staunch commitment to client service and to adapting to the unique needs of each project. In the case of the De Anza Visual and Performing Arts Center (VPAC), this meant making special provisions in planning to ensure minimal impact to the beauty and acoustics of a facility that sits on an influential Silicon Valley campus.

Sunset Development is a leading suburban developer in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing cutting edge commercial tenant spaces. Bishop Ranch is one of the company’s premier properties, and with planned expansion to the development, Sunset needed a partner to bring its 2600 Bishop Ranch building up to the company’s high standards for sustainability and efficiency.