Miller Hull's Design Vision for the Bullitt Center, Seattle's Living Building Pilot Program
A Living Building is a Learning Building
Thanks to an invite by the Seattle AIA and its COTE, I learned firsthand about the inspiring, work-in-progress Bullitt Center. The presentation and hard-hat tour was an amazing opportunity to learn about this six-story, commercial building located in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood – an area of Seattle known for its arts, culture, unique shops and dense urban living.
The building is named for its benefactor – the Bullitt Foundation – whose vision states, “A future that safeguards the vitality of natural ecosystems while accommodating a sustainable human population in healthy, vibrant, equitable, and prosperous communities.” It seems appropriate that the project was selected to participate in Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program.
BACKGROUND
The Living Building Pilot Program assists projects attempting to meet the requirements of the Living Building Challenge. This Challenge is an innovative global green building rating system created by the International Living Building Institute to recognize buildings meeting the highest level of sustainability. The Living Building Challenge requires buildings to meet a series of prerequisites relating to site, energy, materials, water, indoor air quality, and beauty and inspiration.
FEATURES
It will take a full year after occupancy to meet the rigorous Living Building certification and ensure that the building is performing at, or in excess of, its net zero energy and water use goals. Here’s a partial list of the building’s leading-edge features:
• Water – Harvested rainwater will be use throughout the building, and treated using a dual filtration system, conservation methods include waterless urinals and composting toilets
• Solar – Over 400 PV panels will generate an estimated 242 KW of renewable energy and feed excess capacity back into the local grid
• Geothermal – Over 25 geothermal wells will heat and cool the building moving hot or cold water through the building, as needed
• Windows – State-of-the-art, German-designed and US manufactured, they provide both day lighting, ventilation and triple-paned insulation and are operated by a smart, real-time control system
• Materials and Finishes – Broke new ground in sourcing materials and avoiding Red List items; built a knowledge database to share with the industry. This proved to be one of the key challenges of the project.
• Human Scale – Designed to fit within the unique character of the surrounding area yet large enough to attract tenants, this mid-rise feels people scaled (vs. an imposing skyscraper)
• Green Community – Adding green space includes a transformed pocket park, McGilvra Place; installing a green roof with native plantings; a nearly perfect “walk score,” benefiting the local community.
Look for progress updates, as I plan on regularly checking in with the Design Team and reporting on this state-of-the-art Living and Learning building. – alex
10th NW Ecobuilding 10x10x10 Slam!, Kenmore
Come celebrate green building hosted by the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild’s Seattle Chapter, and emceed by Patti Southard, of the King County Green Tools Program.
14th Built Green Conference and Festival, Issaquah Our team is presenting the Northwest Harvest House education session entitled “Harvesting the Power of the Sun, Soil and Rain.” Hear from the project architect, builder and solar system and rainwater harvesting specialists. We take the stage at 10am.
15th Eastside Greendrinks, Kirkland
Later this month, I’ll be mingling and raising a glass of local wine with greenies on the Eastside at the wonderful Simplicity Decor shop in the heart of downtown Kirkland.
16th Juanita Farmers Market, Kirkland
We’re participating at the farmers market Community Booth where we’ll showcase green building and remodeling with City of Kirkland green team partners.
20th
Eastside LEED Users Group (ELUG), Bellevue
Come learn about the International Green Construction Code, Advancing Safety and Sustainability in the Built Environment hosted by GLY.
20th AIA Seattle hosts Future Shack, Seattle
This is a great event for design folks and the greater community. Model Remodel is a repeat sponsor and one of their project’s Northwest Harvest House was submitted into the competition by the project architect and designer, Velocipede.
Please update me on other don’t-miss green community events in our area. –alex
Wanting to make your home healthier, more comfortable, increase its energy efficiency and improve its marketability? Then join us on April 16 -17th, at the NW Ecobuilding Guild Green Home Tour in the North and South Sound.
Homes at this free event are open to the public from 10am – 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 -17th. You’ll meet friendly local experts ready to answer all of your questions about home design, construction, remodeling, energy systems, plumbing, appliances and technology. Better than a home show, you’ll see green features applied in real homes that range from terrific Tudors to modern marvels!
The North Sound Tour, held in my backyard, features inspiring examples in greener home design:
Patti Southard of King County Green Tools sums it up nicely, “It’s so exciting that the Guild is taking their tour around the Sound. There are so many good green projects out there, and it’s inspiring for consumers in smaller cities to see them in their own backyard!”
Mark your calendars and invite your family, friends and neighbors to check out many great green ideas that are practical, affordable and beautiful, too. After visiting the sites, share with our readers how you may have been inspired by your experiences at the NW Ecobuilding Green Home Tour 2011. Happy touring, and remember to wear your comfortable shoes. – alex
Catherine Mohr, offers us an interesting perspective on the energy hog or, in this case, elephant-in-the-room when it comes to making greener choices as a consumer. Mohr walks us through her personal green home building project looking at trade-offs in embodied energy and water. Her perspective includes looking at the life cycle impact of not only her materials and process choices but forecasting the operational costs of running a household. She claims that she reduced her green building energy footprint to 150 MWh vs the typical new construction project average of 300MWh. This doesn’t tell the whole story.
She ends her Tedtalk describing that her real footprint is more about how much she travels in an airplane versus the smaller impact of building green. I agree with her assessment but I also know that in the aggregate making better choices that require less resources from materials to energy and water will also help to move the needle, it’s not either or but an and.
What measures have you taken to go greener and what impact do you think those choices have on the size of your family or community’s footprint? -- alex
