Greenroofs.com Project of the Week: 9/18/17

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Parking Garage
Seattle, WA, USA
87,120 sf Greenroofs plus multiple green infrastructure elements

Project of the Week Mini Description & Details

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation offers the opportunity to dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people and its campus is a paragon of sustainable features. Designed by NBBJ Architects and completed in 2011, the multi-award winning Gates Foundation’s headquarters is the largest LEED-NC Platinum Certified nonprofit building in the world. Located across the street from the Seattle Space Needle, the former 12-acre asphalt parking lot had previously emptied its runoff into Puget Sound. But the design team including landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) created a stylish palette of mostly natives, including big leaf maples and edibles, along with drought tolerant non-natives. And, the campus features a total of two acres of extensive greenroofs, each with a five inch depth with plantings of sedum and sempervivum.

Completed first in 2008, most striking is the Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Parking Garage, with its 1.5 acre undulating living roof from American Hydrotech. The multifaceted structure is flooded with natural light and the high-vaulted roof is cut with a dramatic skylight. Working with NBBJ and GGN, Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company led the water resource management design, including a 100 percent non-potable irrigation system, water harvesting, subsurface drainage, green roofs, and soils engineering.

Rainwater is filtered by the greenroofs and directed from paved areas into a million-gallon cistern, currently harvesting 3.3 million gallons of rainwater a year. Conservation strategies reduce energy consumption by 39 percent via a solar array, thermal energy, and more. Potable water use is reduced by 79 percent through landscape features, rainwater storage, and the living roofs. This represents an upfront investment in the 100-year energy-efficient building that will pay for itself in fewer than 30 years. In addition to regenerating the surrounding downtown Seattle community, the ecologically and workplace-sensitive campus design has created a new world model for sustainable urban campuses.

Publisher’s Note: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Parking Garage greenroof will be featured on one of the tours at CitiesAlive 2017.  Join colleagues on Thursday, September 21 at 9:00am – 12:00pm – click to learn more.

Year: 2008
Owner: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Seattle Center (garage only co-owned)
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Building Type: Multi-Use – Commercial: Above-Ground Parking Garage and Corporate
Type: Extensive
System: Single Source Provider
Size: 87120 sq.ft. (approximately 2 acres between all of the greenroof on the campus)
Slope: Varies to about 7%
Access: Inaccessible, Private

Designers/Manufacturers of Record:

Architect: NBBJ
Landscape Architect: GGN (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol)
Greenroof System: American Hydrotech
Landscape Contractor: Pacific Earthworks
Greenroof Plant and Ecology Consultant: Rana Creek
Multiple Engineering Services: Arup
General Contractor: Sellen Construction Company, Inc.
Irrigation and Soils: Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company

More Info

View the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Parking Garage PROJECT PROFILE to see ALL of the Photos and Additional Information about this particular project in The International Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.

Project of the Week Video Feature

Watch the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Parking Garage Project of the Week Video below or see it on our GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube:

Greenroofs.com Project of the Week 9/18/17 video photo credits: Courtesy of ©Sean Airhart/NBBJ; ©GGN (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol), including one each by ©Timothy Hursley and ©Sellen Construction Company; and ©Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company.

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