Seattle’s Bullitt Center was the winner in the High-performance Buildings category at the 2014 Beyond Green awards, organized by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC).
The six-story, 4830-m2 (52,000-sf) Bullitt Center was lauded for promoting density in urban areas, and demonstrating how an urban office building can meet its own water, waste, and energy needs without adversely impacting the environment. The design team—consisting of Miller Hull Partnership, PAE Consulting Engineers, Point 32, and Schuchart Construction—used building information modeling (BIM) and technical analysis to create one of the most energy-efficient commercial buildings in the world. (For more on some of the glazing technologies specified for the Bullitt Center, see the 2014 article in The Construction Specifier.)
“What they have been able to accomplish in an urban environment really sets this project apart and provides inspiration and demonstration of what is possible,” said R.K. Stewart, FAIA, NIBS immediate past-chair of the board of directors, and a member of the jury.
At the ceremony, held earlier this month as part of the 2015 NIBS conference, three other projects received Merit Awards:
- Karuna House (and the project team of Holst Architecture, Hammer & Hand, Imagine Energy, Earth Advantage, and Intep);
- New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Center for Building Knowledge’s Smart Supermarkets Program; and
- the ‘timber tower’ research of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM).
Highlights of these projects will be posted online as part of a Whole Building Design Guide case study series.
