Green By Design: Seattle's Public Buildings LEED The Way With Green Features

Seattle Magazine, March 2007
By Roddy Scheer

The frontier spirit of the Pacific Northwest lives on as the region pioneers new designs, techniques, technologies and standards for green building. Today’s trailblazers, surprisingly, come in a government package. Both the city of Seattle and King County require that all new buildings they build meet sustainability standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, which was launched in 2000 to encourage the implementation of green building practices for both new construction and renovation projects across the country. Government leadership in this area is having a trickle-down effect. More and more builders of residential and commercial structures are jumping onboard, designing and renovating buildings to LEED standards (including 5th and Madison, a high-rise condo renovation in Seattle’s financial district; the recently announced “1,” a condo/hotel project at Second Avenue and Pine Street; and Bellevue Towers, a condo project in Bellevue). Here we highlight some of the buildings and features worth checking out.

Seattle City Hall
600 4th Ave., Seattle (Downtown)
In Seattle’s attractive new $72 million City Hall, completed in 2003, vertical glass sun-catchers and horizontal light shelves team up to reflect early morning and late afternoon sunlight deep into offices and interior cubicles, reducing the need for interior occupancy sensors to turn on the lights. An under-floor air distribution system reduces energy consumption, while all the building’s carpeting is made from recycled materials. Meanwhile, a green roof consisting of a layer of soil planted with native grasses retains and slows the progress of stormwater while insulating the seven stories of offices and meeting spaces below. And the water that makes it beyond the green roof is channeled into a million-gallon underground cistern where it is reused to flush all the building’s toilets and irrigate its landscaping. On the downside, critics point out that the new building actually uses more energy than the old city hall building it replaced, with utility bills routinely clocking in at $3,000 to $5,000 more per month. But despite this surprise, City Hall is still widely regarded as one of the most forward-thinking municipal buildings in the country.

King Street Center
201 S Jackson St., Seattle (Pioneer Square)
Melding traditional aesthetics with cutting edge sustainability features, Pioneer Square’s eight-story, $65 million King Street Center was King County’s first green building project. Completed in 1999, the building set a high bar for all subsequent county construction, which (as of 2001) must meet similarly progressive green guidelines. In building King Street Center, an astounding 80 percent of all construction waste was recycled. High-use areas throughout were covered in different types of recycled flooring and non-toxic paint, and maintenance crews monitor each for wear and tear to find out which combinations are optimal. Meanwhile, more than six football fields worth of re-used, renewed carpet tiles—the largest such installation in the nation—were installed in the building’s offices and conference rooms. Energy is used judiciously thanks to extensive use of day light, occupancy sensors and an innovative variable drive HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system. It also reclaims 1.4 million gallons of rainwater from its roof each year to handle two-thirds of the building’s plumbing needs while saving the county many thousands of dollars on its water bill.

Yesler Community Center
917 E. Yesler Way, Seattle (Central District)
A pioneering example of green building on a smaller scale, the Yesler Community Center in Seattle’s Central District, which opened in February 2005, is held up as one of the nation’s best examples of how to maximize daylight not only to save energy but also to enhance the user experience. Designers called on experts from the Seattle Daylighting Lab (a free consulting entity funded by regional utilities) to create physical models to find the best locations for windows, skylights and dimmable rooftop ballasts to let in optimal amounts of sunlight while reducing glare. Photocells measure natural light levels in the building’s interior spaces and adjust highly efficient electric lights accordingly. Strategically-placed windows actually open onto fresh air and augment an advanced natural ventilation system developed with funding from Seattle City Light. Developers sited the building to extract heat from the sun and cooling from good old fresh air, and landscaping replete with drought-tolerant native plants slows and filters stormwater run-off while reducing the need for water, pesticides and pruning.

Ballard Branch Library and Neighborhood Service Center
5614 22nd Ave. NW, Seattle (Ballard)
In a stunning example of architectural novelty paired with cutting edge green design, the Seattle Public Library’s recently completed Ballard branch and neighborhood service center, which opened its doors in May 2005, serves as a model for sustainable building at the community level. The building’s shell is constructed out of easily-disassembled wood laminate and aluminum sheeting so as to facilitate future salvage and re-use, while plexiglass surfaces and concrete forms were fabricated out of recycled milk cartons. Solar panels and window-based solar film generate the majority of the building’s electricity, proving the usefulness of solar technology even in the light-deprived Pacific Northwest. Meanwhile, a curved green roof insulates while minimizing stormwater run-off thanks to hundreds of thousands of pounds of dirt and mulch under a biodegradable coconut fiber mat topped off with more than 13,000 mostly native plants. Inside, custom-designed “notch and tab” furniture cut from single sheets of laminated wood slide together without the aid of any fastener hardware, reducing waste while providing comfy seating.

Ben Franklin Elementary, Kirkland
12434 NE 60th Street, Kirkland
Named one of the nation’s top 10 green building projects by the American Institute of Architects for 2006, Kirkland’s Ben Franklin Elementary School makes extensive use of fresh air, daylighting, non-toxic finishes, recycled building materials and stormwater filtration to create a naturally inspiring learning environment for 450 Lake Washington School District K-6 students. Big operable windows afford sweeping forest views for students whose eyes may wander away from the blackboard. As a pilot project of the nascent Washington Sustainable School Program that requires all new public schools built across the state to adhere to stringent green building standards, Ben Franklin Elementary has been instrumental in teaching other public schools across the state about the benefits of green building.

Bainbridge City Hall
280 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island
Among other sustainability-oriented attributes, Bainbridge Island’s City Hall is lauded as the home of the region’s first major installation of wood certified as harvested in a sustainable manner. Named as one of the American Institute of Architects’ top 10 green buildings upon completion in 2000, the 24,000 square foot, the $5.5 million municipal building features extensive daylighting, natural ventilation, fully recyclable carpeting, non-toxic paints, and energy-efficient lighting. Resource-efficient recyclable siding and laminated wood give a heavy timber aesthetic without the use of increasingly rare huge trees. Outside, native landscaping and porous paving surfaces combine to distribute stormwater and filter contaminants for the benefit of the surrounding environment.