BULLITT CENTER
BULLITT CENTER Seattle, Washington
Building Gross Square Footage: 50,000 gsf
Inspiration: Bullitt Foundation president, Denis Hayes, envisioned the Bullitt Center as a landmark prototype to inform future green, urban market rate buildings. Targeting the Living Building Challenge and net zero energy, it will use 20% of the energy of an average Seattle building, collects rainwater for potable and non-potable use, and avoids toxic chemicals commonly found in building materials. Problem-solving: A razor thin margin of error between the projected power supply and demand dictated every design decision support the net-zero energy goal–surpassing an integrated design model to performance-based design. When designing low impact buildings, it is necessary to do more with less. The design team identified imaginative ways to express the building’s core functions through existing and new technologies, systems and materials, as well as numerous opportunities to creatively celebrate regional context through materials, features and function. Environmental Sensitivity: Building massing is not driven by metaphor or aesthetics, but rather by performance metrics. Window orientation and layout is driven by an even distribution of interior daylight rather than by the facade composition. The Living Building Challenge dictates selection of structural systems and materials based on where they can be sourced and relative carbon footprint. Sustainable design moves include: open floor plates and operable floor-to-ceiling windows ; heavy-timber framing–a renewable regional material offering strength, beauty and carbon sequestration; an ‘irresistible stair’ with stunning views giving occupants a workout between floors vs. an energy-drawing elevator; automated exterior blinds; and most visibly, the overhanging rooftop PV array providing all power for the building in a performance driven reinterpretation of a longstanding element of Northwest regional design vernacular. Social Transformation: A primary goal of the project is to change the way society views the relationship of a building to its environment. Buildings historically come with a certain environmental liability, with carbon emissions typically required to heat, cool and light a building, pump water into and waste out of a building. Toxins, such as chlorine, are used to treat our municipal water supplies and are found throughout the sourcing, manufacture and installation of most of our building products. The Bullitt Center demonstrates that buildings can function with the elegance and simplicity of a flower or a tree, using only as much water and energy as they can collect. The Bullitt Center is a bold attempt to change the way that buildings are designed and built so that society can begin to better exist in harmony with the environment.
PLAN The form of the building isn’t driven by metaphor or aesthetics but rather by performance metrics. Each dimension of the building’s design, its energy and water use, the durability, longevity, toxicity and origins of its materials, its function, form and organization, had very high performance thresholds to achieve.
SECTION
ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING
OCCUPANT
TENANT
HEATING/COOLING
++ ++ + ++ +
+ +++-
high performance glass high performance walls & low infiltration 65% effective heat recovery ground source heat pumps demand controlled ventilation ventilative cooling radiant slab cooling operable windows operable blinds
“irresistable” stair to discourage elevator use lower heating setpoint raise cooling setpoint daytime office cleaning 80% laptop, 20% desktop phantom loads low flow water fixtures
TYPICAL BASELINE OFFICE BUILDING
PV ROOF & FACADE
LIGHTING
CARRYING CAPACITY
++ -
92
42
maximize daylighting daylight dimming lighting power
32
230,000 kwh/year supports 52,000 gsf (with 10% safety)
16 +
BUILDING ENERGY USE INTENSITY(EUI): ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER FLOOR AREA
=
NET ZERO ENERGY
THE PATH TO NET ZERO ENERGY
DAYLIGHT Sunlight was perhaps the single most influential factor in shaping the design of this building. PV panels required to achieve net zero energy are in direct competition for space with skylights needed for daylighting. Parametric analysis helped optimize the balance between competing needs to maximize daylight autonomy.
A typical building of this size has an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 92 kBtu/ft2/year. A PV array with an area of 65,172 ft2 is required to meet its energy needs.
A building of this size meeting Seattle Energy Code has an EUI of 51 kBtu/ft2/year, requiring a PV array with an area of 44,752 ft2 to meet its energy needs.
A LEED Platinum certified building of this size has an EUI of 32 kBtu/ft2/year, requiring a PV array with an area of 28,599 ft2 to meet its energy needs.
The proposed building, meeting the Living Building Challenge, has an EUI of 16 kBtu/ft2/year and needs only 14,303 ft2 of PV to meet its net-zero energy goal.
WATER The water and recycling systems are intended to demonstrate a different way to think about waste and to realign the ways we use water. It isn’t about doing less bad but about actually restoring the relationship between water, resources and the land to something closer to the condition of this place when it thrived as a Douglas fir forest for the thousands of years before we came along.
HOT WATER
RESIDUAL TREATMENT TANK
DRINKING FOUNTAINS
SINKS
SHOWERS OVERFLOW FOAM FLUSH TOILETS
LEACHATE TANKS
REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
BACKUP OVERFLOW TO CITY SANITARY SEWER
CONNECTION TO LEACHATE PORT (HAUL OFFSITE)
Building Gross Square Footage: 50,000 gsf
Inspiration: Bullitt Foundation president, Denis Hayes, envisioned the Bullitt Center as a landmark prototype to inform future green, urban market rate buildings. Targeting the Living Building Challenge and net zero energy, it will use 20% of the energy of an average Seattle building, collects rainwater for potable and non-potable use, and avoids toxic chemicals commonly found in building materials. Problem-solving: A razor thin margin of error between the projected power supply and demand dictated every design decision support the net-zero energy goal–surpassing an integrated design model to performance-based design. When designing low impact buildings, it is necessary to do more with less. The design team identified imaginative ways to express the building’s core functions through existing and new technologies, systems and materials, as well as numerous opportunities to creatively celebrate regional context through materials, features and function. Environmental Sensitivity: Building massing is not driven by metaphor or aesthetics, but rather by performance metrics. Window orientation and layout is driven by an even distribution of interior daylight rather than by the facade composition. The Living Building Challenge dictates selection of structural systems and materials based on where they can be sourced and relative carbon footprint. Sustainable design moves include: open floor plates and operable floor-to-ceiling windows ; heavy-timber framing–a renewable regional material offering strength, beauty and carbon sequestration; an ‘irresistible stair’ with stunning views giving occupants a workout between floors vs. an energy-drawing elevator; automated exterior blinds; and most visibly, the overhanging rooftop PV array providing all power for the building in a performance driven reinterpretation of a longstanding element of Northwest regional design vernacular. Social Transformation: A primary goal of the project is to change the way society views the relationship of a building to its environment. Buildings historically come with a certain environmental liability, with carbon emissions typically required to heat, cool and light a building, pump water into and waste out of a building. Toxins, such as chlorine, are used to treat our municipal water supplies and are found throughout the sourcing, manufacture and installation of most of our building products. The Bullitt Center demonstrates that buildings can function with the elegance and simplicity of a flower or a tree, using only as much water and energy as they can collect. The Bullitt Center is a bold attempt to change the way that buildings are designed and built so that society can begin to better exist in harmony with the environment.
PLAN The form of the building isn’t driven by metaphor or aesthetics but rather by performance metrics. Each dimension of the building’s design, its energy and water use, the durability, longevity, toxicity and origins of its materials, its function, form and organization, had very high performance thresholds to achieve.
SECTION
ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING
OCCUPANT
TENANT
HEATING/COOLING
++ ++ + ++ +
+ +++-
high performance glass high performance walls & low infiltration 65% effective heat recovery ground source heat pumps demand controlled ventilation ventilative cooling radiant slab cooling operable windows operable blinds
“irresistable” stair to discourage elevator use lower heating setpoint raise cooling setpoint daytime office cleaning 80% laptop, 20% desktop phantom loads low flow water fixtures
TYPICAL BASELINE OFFICE BUILDING
PV ROOF & FACADE
LIGHTING
CARRYING CAPACITY
++ -
92
42
maximize daylighting daylight dimming lighting power
32
230,000 kwh/year supports 52,000 gsf (with 10% safety)
16 +
BUILDING ENERGY USE INTENSITY(EUI): ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER FLOOR AREA
=
NET ZERO ENERGY
THE PATH TO NET ZERO ENERGY
DAYLIGHT Sunlight was perhaps the single most influential factor in shaping the design of this building. PV panels required to achieve net zero energy are in direct competition for space with skylights needed for daylighting. Parametric analysis helped optimize the balance between competing needs to maximize daylight autonomy.
A typical building of this size has an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 92 kBtu/ft2/year. A PV array with an area of 65,172 ft2 is required to meet its energy needs.
A building of this size meeting Seattle Energy Code has an EUI of 51 kBtu/ft2/year, requiring a PV array with an area of 44,752 ft2 to meet its energy needs.
A LEED Platinum certified building of this size has an EUI of 32 kBtu/ft2/year, requiring a PV array with an area of 28,599 ft2 to meet its energy needs.
The proposed building, meeting the Living Building Challenge, has an EUI of 16 kBtu/ft2/year and needs only 14,303 ft2 of PV to meet its net-zero energy goal.
WATER The water and recycling systems are intended to demonstrate a different way to think about waste and to realign the ways we use water. It isn’t about doing less bad but about actually restoring the relationship between water, resources and the land to something closer to the condition of this place when it thrived as a Douglas fir forest for the thousands of years before we came along.
HOT WATER
RESIDUAL TREATMENT TANK
DRINKING FOUNTAINS
SINKS
SHOWERS OVERFLOW FOAM FLUSH TOILETS
LEACHATE TANKS
REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
BACKUP OVERFLOW TO CITY SANITARY SEWER
CONNECTION TO LEACHATE PORT (HAUL OFFSITE)
