BULLITT CENTER THE MILLER HULL PARTNERSHIP COMMERICAL- NEW CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DETAILS: Architect: The Miller Hull Partnership Location: Seattle, WA Type: Commercial - New Construction Project Duration: June 1, 2009 to April 22, 2013 Size: 52,000 SF over six floors Project Delivery: Design-Bid-Build with Integrated Design Process STAKEHOLDERS: AIA FOREFRONT Owner: The Bullitt Foundation Developer: Point32 Contractor: Schuchart October 24, 2013 Key Subcontractors: Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing (PAE) Salt Lake City, Utah Structural (DCI) Landscape (The Berger Partnership) Solar (Solar Design Associates) Waste (2020 Engineering) BULLITT INTRODUCTION The Miller Hull Partnership is a 55-person firm based in downtown CENTER Seattle, WA with offices in San Diego, CA. Founded in 1977 based on the principles of socially responsible and humane public “Could we create a building architecture, the firm works on a broad range of project types that did not have an and scales, with an emphasis on simple, innovative, and authentic environmental footprint?” designs. Miller Hull’s design philosophy centers around two essential Brian Court, Miller Hull architectural ideas. One is to use a building’s structure to create a significant place within a site, and the other is to be sensitive to climate and to respond to environmental demands with the form of the building. The recently-completed Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA, exemplifies the firm’s commitment to environmentally-sensitive, site- responsive design and demonstrates how owner-driven collaboration is one of the most effective ways of fostering integrated project design and delivery for extremely high-performing buildings. The client for the project, the Bullitt Foundation, is a visionary organization whose mission is to safeguard the natural environment by promoting responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest. In planning their new headquarters, the organization leadership sought to lead by example in assembling a high-performing group of experts to set a new precedent in sustainable building practices by meeting the requirements of the Living Building Challenge, the most ambitious benchmark of sustainable design in the built environment. To become certified as the largest and first commercial building to achieve such certification, the building is required to satisfy all of its own energy, water, and waste needs on site. Additionally, the project team wanted to not make a ‘one off’ building, but one that could affect significant change beyond the project by demonstrating sustainable practices that could be applied to all buildings using existing technologies. The project represents not only the level of sustainability possible in an urban environment, but also the level of innovation and collaboration possible when integrated design teams target aggressive efficiency goals. “Integrated design was imperative,” according to project manager Brian Court of Miller Hull in achieving these goals. “The Living Building Challenge demanded great effort on all fronts. A synchronized team was the first step toward achieving this goal.” SECTION A: PROJECT DELIVERY TEAMS, STRUCTURES AND TOOLS According to Court, the guiding question that propelled the Bullitt Center project development was: “Could you create a building that did not have an environmental footprint?” The Miller Hull Partnership led an integrated design team handpicked by the Bullitt LCAP:Leadership in Collaborative Architectural Practice page 2 Foundation, which sidestepped the traditional RFP process to vet firms recommended by peers as the best suited to create a Living Building. Design and development team members included: Point 32, Schuchart Corporation, and Portland-based PAE Consulting Engineers. Court led the performance-driven design process as set out by Bullitt Foundation President and CEO, Denis Hayes. “The building was intended as a new prototype,” Court explained, fitting into a typical developer’s pro forma of mid-rise structures at six floors and 52,000 gross square feet. Its deeper purpose, however, resonated with the mission of the Foundation, which is “to change the debate on sustainability and urban issues in the world today.” Figure 1: Living Building Challenge “Petals” The Living Building Challenge™ 2.0 guidelines were chosen from other sustainable rating systems because they most-appropriately represented the aspirations of the Foundation in leading the way to see what level of sustainability is possible in a contemporary office building. The International Living Future Institute, which establishes the Living Building Challenge guidelines, has organized their seven requirements in the form of flower petals. Components of site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty form the ‘petals’ of the Living Building Challenge and require rigorous adherence to sustainable principles to attain certification in each sector. The material ‘petal,’ for example, demands full abstinence from use of materials on the Red List, a one-time carbon offset to cover the project’s total embodied carbon footprint, and the use of sustainable materials such as Forest Stewardship Council-certified timber. The water and energy ‘petals,’ demand net zero performance in that LCAP:Leadership in Collaborative Architectural Practice page 3 100% of the water used be naturally gathered and treated on site, and that 100% of the energy consumed also be produced on site. Figure 2: Completed Bullitt Center The Bullitt Center is intended as a ‘billboard of sustainability,’ with a sustainable and performance-based scope spanning the building lifecycle, net zero water, net zero energy, and occupancy considerations. A 250-year heavy timber, concrete, and steel structure is clad in a 50-year envelope, adorned with a 25-year photovoltaic array. Net zero water is accomplished with a 50,000-gallon cistern filled by green roof-captured rainwater as well as complete grey water and waste treatment on site. Net zero energy is achieved with a balance between mechanical means natural daylighting and ventilation, and renewable energy from the project’s photovoltaic array. Ground-source heat exchange, radiant floor heating and cooling, and a heat recovery ventilation system operated with night-flushing operable windows contribute to the energy-saving environmental control systems. In order to achieve such high-performance goals in the building, the design team used an integrated, performance-driven process. The team selection process was led by the owner, represented by Bullitt Foundation President and CEO Denis Hayes, with input from Miller Hull and the developer, Point32. “We had to have the best of the best,” Court recounted. Together, they organized “a carefully vetted team of people with a demonstrated portfolio of innovative, aggressive, sustainable buildings.” The Bullitt Foundation LCAP:Leadership in Collaborative Architectural Practice page 4 held a traditional design-bid-build contract for the project but made the effort to bring many team members on early in the design process. Court reflects that a true IPD contractual agreement may have better suited the project’s goals. “We were matched up with our mechanical engineers as you would be in an IPD process,” he said continuing “cost constraints on the project required that the contractor be there from the beginning.” Portland-based PAE Consulting Engineers was the primary MEP engineer brought on to assist Miller Hull with achieving the tall order of a net zero building. Schuchart was also brought on early to better align the design with constructability issues and budgetary constraints. “We were all working together to slowly assemble the team,” said Court. Figure 3: Highlight of Primary Systems SECTION B: COLLABORATION AND CULTURE Though not formally an integrated project, the Bullitt Center team proceeded as if it were, beginning with a two-day kick-off meeting attended by 40 team members. This proved an effective team-building exercise. “This design process was going to be different,” Court explained: “Everyone was at the table.” Horizontal meetings including the architect, contractor, owner, and mechanical and structural engineers were conducted weekly to inform every decision with expertise from all design professionals. Consultants from Solar Design Associates and net zero water consultants from 2020 Engineering LCAP:Leadership in Collaborative Architectural Practice page 5 “The attention-getting along with a host of other team members participated as needed. elements of the Bullitt Center follow from an “The attention-getting elements of the Bullitt Center—100% on site equally exciting integrated renewable energy, water and waste management, as well as a safe, naturally day-lit and ventilated work environment built to last 250 design process that years—follow from an equally exciting integrated design process that enabled us to move beyond enabled us to move beyond the traditionally linear design, engineering, the traditionally linear and construction process to orchestrate a diverse team targeting design, engineering, and the seemingly impossible together, right from the start,” said Craig construction process to Curtis, design partner with The Miller Hull Partnership. “In considering orchestrate a diverse team first and foremost how to design a building with essentially no targeting the seemingly environmental footprint, it was energizing to identify imaginative and impossible together, right elegant ways to beautifully express the building’s core