Spotlight on San Francisco's Extremely Green PUC Headquarters

San Francisco's PUC headquarters, "one of the greenest buildings in the nation," cut costs while introducing cutting-edge sustainable technologies to the city.

2 minute read

December 28, 2015, 9:00 AM PST

By Elana Eden


In the midst of the 2012 recession, during a construction downturn, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission made the somewhat unusual decision to build a brand new, state-of-the-art headquarters.

In doing so, it saved ratepayers $3.7 billion over the building’s 100-year lifespan—and provided a model for sustainable development in the city with pioneering approaches to earthquake resiliency, renewable energy, and water recycling.

The 13-story, 277,000-square-foot HQ is rated LEED Platinum. It's the first building in the city with an onsite recycling system for non-potable wastewater, and spurred the creation of a citywide permitting process for similar systems.

The Living Machine, as it's called, treats about 5,000 gallons of water per day, enough to supply the building’s low-flow toilets and urinals. In all, the building uses 60 percent less water than similarly sized buildings—and even harvests rainwater in a 25,000-gallon cistern.

An integrated hybrid solar array and wind turbine generates 227,000 kilowatts a year, or about seven percent of the building’s annual energy needs.

Smart solutions at every level worked to make sustainability and resilience affordable. An innovative approach to earthquake safety also worked to reduce the building height, in turn bringing down the total construction cost.

That approach was the now-common use of vertical, rather than horizontal, post-tension. In layman’s terms, "Our building acts like a tuning fork. It moves back and forth, and then it comes back into place after the shaking has stopped."

SFPUC's general manager Harlan Kelly explains more about the building, and what made it possible, in The Planning Report.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015 in The Planning Report

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Concrete Brutalism building with slanted walls and light visible through an atrium.

What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities

How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.

February 28, 2025 - Justin Hollander

Complete Street

‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge

Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.

February 27, 2025 - Streetsblog USA

Aerial view of single-family homes with swimming pools in San Diego, California.

San Diego to Rescind Multi-Unit ADU Rule

The city wants to close a loophole that allowed developers to build apartment buildings on single-family lots as ADUs.

March 9, 2025 - Axios

Cars driving on the American Legion Bridge in Maryland

U.S. Miles Driven Rose by 1 Percent in 2024

Americans drove a total of 3.279 trillion miles in 2024, but per capita VMT stayed the same.

March 10 - Eno Center for Transportation

An adult man, stopped on a Seattle, Washington street corner, preparing for a rainy morning bike commute.

Seattle Recorded Zero Bike Deaths in 2024, per Early Data

The city halved the number of pedestrian deaths compared to 2021.

March 10 - Seattle Bike Blog

Close-up of green ULEZ sign in London, UK.

Study: London ULEZ Rapidly Cleaning up Air Pollution

Expanding the city’s ultra low-emission zone has resulted in dramatic drops in particle emissions in inner and outer London.

March 10 - Smart Cities World