Bullitt Headquarters to be Greenest Building in Seattle
The Bullitt Foundation is devoted to helping the Northwest achieve environmental sustainability. The foundation offers grants to organizations, offices, and businesses, who want to direct their company in the direction of sustainability and “to go green”. Despite the foundations very determined stance to help the region attain a more sustainable human presence and interaction with the environment, the foundations main building and headquarters doesn’t reflect that sentiment. Currently, the Bullitt Foundation Headquarters is operating out of a historic First Hill house at the Stimson-Green mansion. The mansion, isn’t insulated, and doesn’t perform to the high standards the foundation sets for itself and for the grantees it helps. This is why, the foundation has set in motion the plans for a 6-story office building, that will be the city’s, and regions “greenest building ever”.
The Bullitt Foundation is calling its new building the Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction. It would house the foundation’s headquarters and serve as a showplace for cutting-edge green engineering, eco-friendly energy consumption, and architecture.
The building is planned to use only one third of the electricity that conventional office building use. All of which the building will generate itself.
All of the water the building uses will come from treated rain water from it’s roof, and treated water from it’s drains and toilets.
All six of its parking spaces would be devoted to hybrid vehicles.
The building is being designed to last 250 years.
The Cascadia Center aspires to meet the most difficult green-building standards on the planet: the Living Building Challenge. The Living Building Challenge was developed by Seattle-based Green Building Council in 2006. The group administers the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system. The idea behind the living building challenge is analogous to how a tree interacts with its environment and surrounding. The tree produces it’s own energy and water and it doesn’t pollute. Living buildings aim to have that kind of minimal footprint. The building would be virtually self-sustaining.
The hope is that eventually, more companies will follow in the footsteps of the Bullitt Foundation and help make the Northwest and Seattle area a more sustainable, and eco-friendly region.
For more information, please visit the Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction pdf.
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