Gallery: Rackspace Converts Vacant Sho...

It’s the perfect example of our potential to create a technologically-savvy sustainable future: Rackspace, an IT hosting and cloud computing company, recently turned a vacant shopping mall into its LEED Gold-certified headquarters. The revamped company headquarters, nicknamed “The Castle”, is part of a community redevelopment project in San Antonio, Texas that benefits surrounding retailers, schools and neighborhoods.

So far, Rackspace has redesigned over 230,000 square feet within the 1.2 million square foot mall, with more development to come. During demolition, Rackspace recycled over 1,900 tons of concrete, metal, wood and other materials. At the same time, the company sent over six trailerloads of recovered building materials including doors, windows and fixtures, to Habitat for Humanity.

The redesigned interior is ultra-green, too. Showers installed inside the building encourage employees to bike or walk to work, natural lighting pours in through skylights, lighting can be controlled at individual workstations, and the company’s irrigation system only uses recycled water collected through a cistern near the main entrance. It’s a brilliant reuse for an abandoned shopping mall — now we hope that Rackspace will green up its nine data centers accordingly.

+ Rackspace