• Introduction
• King Street Center
• Newspaper Article (about King Street project)
• Another Seattle Example (REI building)
• Environmental Purchasing Program

Introduction

King County's Departments of Natural Resources and Transportation are beginning their move into their new offices in Pioneer Square, in Downtown Seattle. Built by a private developer, this new eight-story office building will be occupied by these departments through a lease-to-own program.

This project is the County's first attempt at a public/private partnership for the construction of new facilities. The Department of Construction and Facilities Management has worked extensively with the developer and the tenants to ensure that the environment and worker-health issues are priorities for this project, which is expected to serve as a model to the community.

The building boasts an 80% construction demolition job-site recycling rate, sensor-controlled lighting, re-used carpet, low-emission paint, and a rainwater collection system that will augment the municipal water system for flushing toilets.

King Street Center

Environmental highlights of this project include:

• Energy-Efficient Lighting: The lighting system will use less than 0.86 watts per square foot (28% below code levels), occupancy sensors, and dimmers to reduce electricity use by responding to daylight and the number of workers in the offices.

• Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) units reduce consumption through variable speed drives. Roof-top HVAC air intakes provides 60% outside air filtration, double what is common, for better indoor air quality.

• Stacked copy rooms, so that copier toners are continually exhausted to the outside, reducing particulates.

• 80% job-site recycling rate, including items such as concrete, soil and steel.

• 32,000 square yards of re-used, renewed carpet tiles ("Earth Square" by Milliken).

• On-site water reclamation system collects storm runoff and groundwater and reuses the water for flushing toilets; this system will save an estimated 1.4 million gallons of domestic water annually.

• Elevator lobbies use a variety of recycled-content flooring materials

• Low-VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) materials, such as paints, adhesives, and finishes used throughout.

Here's what the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce had to say about these efforts in a June 10, 1999 article (follow the internet link):

"County, Wright Runstad sprout 'green' building"

The REI Seattle Flagship Store was voted one of the top ten Earth Day 1999 resource efficient buildings, by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). REI is a model, in Seattle and beyond, for it's resource-efficient design and function. According to the AIA, the selected facilities address one or more significant environmental challenges that have a lasting and positive impact on the environment, such as energy and water conservation, use of recycled construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality. Selection criteria included environmentally responsible use of building materials, use of daylight instead of artificial lighting, designs that create efficiency in heating or cooling, and overall sensitivity to local environmental issues.

For more information about the American Institute of Architects, please visit their website, in the section AIA News

Special thanks to the Department of Construction and Facilities Management, especially to the project manager, Laurel Rhoades, and to the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Transportation for a job well done.