This Flooring Manufacturer’s HQ Is the Greenest Building in Its State

Business owner Harlan Stone wanted to build more than a conventional corporate headquarters for his flooring manufacturing company, HMTX Industries. The fourth-generation CEO wanted to establish a legacy not just for his family-run company, but for the environment.

On a patch of land in Norwalk, Connecticut, that the company owned for a decade without developing, he decided to construct his own world headquarters.

The result is one of the most sustainable buildings in the state. The new 24,000-square-foot building, which the company completed in October 2022 and nicknamed “The House Up on the Hill,” is the first Living Building Challenge-certified building in Connecticut. Due to its extensive sustainability features, it is also energy positive, meaning it produces more renewable energy from solar panels than it uses and operates with zero carbon emissions by being all electric.

“What we were trying to create with the design and architecture was an environment that was better than what we found and what we inherited,” said project architect Jason McLennan, founder of McLennan Design, a firm that focuses on sustainable projects. “We were trying to create more conditions for life on the site through how we landscaped it, and for the operations of the building to have a positive impact on the planet.”

Presenting at a virtual session during the NeoCon commercial interior design show in Chicago earlier this year, Stone and McLennan’s case study on the headquarters highlighted the building’s environmentally friendly features and intentionally minimal impact on its surrounding environment.

The building is the first in the state to adhere to the The International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge, one of the world’s most stringent green building rating systems. The system evaluates buildings using a series of seven “petals,” or performance areas, including its impact on the surrounding landscape, energy and water usage, materials, and health and happiness of occupants.

Solar photovoltaic panels on the roof create an estimated 144,000 kilowatts in solar power per year. According to the company, the building reduces energy usage by 60% compared to “baseline office buildings of the same size and location.”

It is also full of natural daylight with expansive glass windows, while shading overhangs mitigate direct incoming sunlight. “We try to minimize cooling loads wherever possible in the summer months and create interior comfort,” said McLennan.

The HMTX headquarters meets all of the challenge’s seven petals except the one pertaining to water, though it still has robust water-conservation features. A 5,000-gallon storage tank captures rainwater and reuses it for utilities and toilets, and all plumbing fixtures are low flow. Three rain gardens additionally capture and treat stormwater for the building and for circulation through the property’s outdoor water features.

All interior materials, including HMTX’s own flooring products used throughout the project, are Red List free (The Red List is a Living Building Challenge designation for materials that contain chemicals deemed harmful to human health), which also contributes to improved indoor air quality.

The roof — in addition to being a gathering area and workspace for employees that incorporates murals on the mechanical walls and an art sculpture — includes a 1,700-square-foot garden providing a natural habitat for birds and pollinators.

“People sometimes forget about the roof — what we call the fifth façade. We were really thinking about how to use the roof in three dimensions and take into account how the birds and bees see the world. In this case, our roof is doing a lot of things for us,” said McLennan.

The building doesn’t just take sustainability into account within its four walls — careful attention to the site’s topography and a commitment to making minimal impact from construction also preserved the existing nature and landscaping.

“Trying to respect a site while you're building a building is, by itself, a challenge,” said McLennan, describing the attempts to keep the land as undisturbed as possible during the construction process. The team didn’t blast away rock or raze trees in order to create their building site — they worked with what was already there.

“In fact, we gave the ground floor back to nature. And this is not something that normal projects do,” McLennan said. The building is lifted up on pilotis, McLennan explained, so the natural landscape underneath it remains accessible to animals and birds, and doesn’t disrupt natural water flow or plant life. “We built the building raised above [the ground] because one of the things Stone thought was so special about the site was walking around it and seeing animals [in their habitat]. And so we felt it was appropriate to maintain that.”

They aimed to preserve as many trees as they could and to allow existing vegetation to live as close to the building as possible. It made the construction process more challenging, McLennan said, but more rewarding in the long run.

“What typically happens in construction is you clear 50 feet or more around the building perimeter so that the machinery can drive around. We couldn't do that,” he explained, describing how they fenced off all the trees during building.

“That was done to protect the site and ensure that our footprint was as small as possible. And the powerful thing about overcoming those challenges is now when you’re in the building, it’s like a treehouse,” said Jason. “There are mature trees all around you. The ecology can more quickly repair itself, heal and move through the site. So that’s turning a challenge into an opportunity and not taking the easy path of just cutting down any trees, flattening a site or blowing up rock. The better thing to do is to be sensitive [to the landscape].”

And while Stone acknowledged that they might have given up some usable square footage, the environmental sensitivity had qualitative benefits. “By giving up the first floor, we were able to build a taller building that stands up strongly and feels like you’re in the trees. We built the building for ourselves so that we could do great work and be around nature, which makes everybody happier and makes everybody think more broadly,” he said.

The few trees they did have to remove were repurposed into timber and lumber for the building and interior materials, such as finishes, coffee bar shelves and part of the grand spiraling staircases. All of the wood used in the project is either salvaged or Forest Stewardship Council-certified sourced wood.

The most mature tree that had to be cut down for construction was turned into a 30-foot bench using its middle section, and “with the lesser wood we built a bicycle shed that sits behind the building. It’s cool that we didn't have to throw the wood away. We used everything that could be cut and turned into lumber at a local sawmill,” said Stone. “It honors the trees that had to be sacrificed and instead of being thrown in the garbage, they’re here as part of our living building.”

Biophilic design enmeshes employees in nature within the building — in addition to the ample glass window walls that frame the site’s landscaping, the interior office is full of natural elements like plants and a living green wall.

“The living wall is also fed by natural sunlight through a window at the top of it and we maintain it like a garden,” said Stone.

An outdoor, ADA-accessible nature boardwalk winding throughout the site also provides a meditative space for work breaks, and a 25-foot waterfall, as well as other fountains and water features, were designed to mask noise from the adjacent highway. “You don’t hear the noise and instead you're actually calmed. You feel like you're in nature with running water,” said McLennan “Hopefully people's stress levels drop when they enter the courtyard, and then they can come into the building and be inspired.”

A focus on collaboration means most of the office is dedicated to communal space. Stone’s executive office is one of only two private offices in the entire building, and otherwise employees can work, hold meetings or socialize in the large “dining commons,” the roof or other non-desk spaces in the building.

In these areas employees are “talking and they're exchanging ideas. They're becoming more closely connected in their work. And personally, this is a very satisfying part of being in the building, and it provides value in terms of bringing human beings physically together,” said Stone.

The Living Building Challenge’s Health and Happiness Petal, which measures how an environment optimizes physical and psychological health and wellbeing, markedly influenced the building’s layout.

“The building is essentially two rectangles connected by an art hallway. Travel is an important part of the design, it’s all about moving. And while you’re moving, you’re seeing beautiful works of art and being inspired to think differently about design,” McLennan said.

Stone prides himself on being an art connoisseur and collector, so he filled the building with art inspired by his travels and hired artists to create custom pieces. The rooftop has a unique solar sculpture and two exterior murals — one to bring vibrancy to the HVAC system covering, and a second 10-panel mural on a cement wall.

“This is a space that is all about curating ideas, which is an important part of Stone’s vision to help people that are going to be creating the next generation of products get inspired. They’re surrounded by a museum of things, if you will,” said McLennan.

At one point earlier this year, two of the commissioned artists occupied two of the three available guest quarters on the office’s fourth floor.

A Living Building Challenge petal not to be forgotten is Beauty — stipulating that green buildings should not just be functional and efficient but aesthetically pleasing as well.

“We need to fall in love with our buildings, and then take care of them and have them last for 100 to 200 years, not 20 to 40 years. Like many buildings, this is a building that was meant to endure. And part of that is creating spaces that people fall in love with,” said McLennan.

And Harlan Stone has certainly fallen in love with his headquarters, which he said is more than just a building to him.

“This is a legacy to my family, and to all the work of three generations before me that allowed us to produce this. I’m sure this building will be standing in 100 years, and I'm sure my great-grandchildren, maybe even my great-great-grandchildren, will know this building and will be able to think about the work and the thoughtfulness that went into it and the fact that it is so sustainable,” he said. “People say, ‘why did you build such an expensive building?’ And I say, if you think about the cost of maintaining a building, the cost of running it and how long it's going to last, then this building was too cheap, not too expensive.”