Crushed Glass Structural Fill at West Bay Business Park

Crushed glass cullet was used below a sidewalk as fill and leveling agent in place of sand and gravel at 304 West Bay Drive in Olympia, WA. The material is made up of glass otherwise unsuitable for typical glass recycling and is created at a local quarry. Due to knowledgeable building officials and engineering examiners in Olympia, the material proved to meet the IBC compaction requirements with no additional procedures to permit the project. The project was successfully completed and crushed glass cullet proved to be safe and cost effective.

Supply Laundry Historic Retrofit via Outcome-Based Energy Code

Adaptive redevelopment of the historic 110-year old Supply Laundry building, vacant for over a decade, required an upgrade to the stringent 2009 Seattle Energy Code. To maintain as much of the architectural character as possible, the owners partnered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the City on the nation’s first outcome-based energy code pilot project. In exchange for access to post-occupancy performance data, the City granted code flexibility in how energy targets were to be achieved.

Commercial Potable Rainwater System at Brock Environmental Center

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Environmental Center serves as an embodied ethic of environmental stewardship and a prime example of cutting-edge regenerative design in the built environment. While this fully Living Building Challenge (LBC) certified structure has no shortage of innovative features, it met state and federal Waterworks requirements to become the first commercial building permitted to collect, store, and treat harvested rainwater for potable use.

Bullitt Center the first Mass Timber Building in Seattle in 80 years

The Bullitt Center, arguably the “greenest office building in the world” was the first mass timber commercial building constructed in Seattle in over 80 years. It has a structural frame of glulam columns and beams, floor decks of 2×6” lumber set on edge and “nail-laminated” together, and plywood used for structural diaphragm and shear wall panels – all conforming to prescriptive code requirements. 100% of the wood used in the project was FSC certified from local sources to meet the rigorous standards of the “Living Building Challenge.”

Greywater Treatment & Infiltration at the Bullitt Center

The Bullitt Center, arguably the greenest office building in the world, is certified by the International Living Future Institute having met the Living Building Challenge. The building is designed to capture and treat rainwater for all uses, and handle all wastewater on-site, including an innovative greywater treatment using a green roof constructed wetland and infiltration facility in the public right-of-way. Approval required multiple code waivers but the project was allowed extraordinary flexibility under the Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Ordinance.

Data 1 Building Diverts Toxic Stormwater from State Highway 99

To prevent the death of endangered salmon in Lake Washington from toxic stormwater pollution, the Data 1 mixed office and retail building in Fremont Seattle, WA will divert water from the Aurora Bridge on State Route 99 into a series of bioretention cells in their landscaping. This helped win Salmon Safe certification and a Master Use permit in 2016.

Solar Canopy at The Bullitt Center

The Bullitt Center aspires to be the “greenest commercial building in the world” by pursuing the Living Building Challenge which includes a net-zero energy goal to produce all the energy the building uses. The Northwest’s variable amount and intensity of daylight affects solar production values, so scaling the system to meet the needs of a six-story building required a 244 kW array with 575 solar panels, which installed cover an area larger than the footprint of the building, creating a solar canopy overhanging the sidewalk 6 stories below. Normally this would not be allowed, but a land use interpretation helped them gain approval.