EMP Museum Building Gains Green Recognition

SEATTLE — The EMP Administrative Office Building for the EMP Museum added another sustainable achievement to its record. The 51,200-square-foot, four-story office building recently gained LEED Platinum certification, was named the first Salmon-Safe-certified office building in Seattle and was also designated a 2013 ENR Best Project Award for office, retail or mixed-use developments.

Designed by Seattle’s CollinsWoerman and constructed by Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company headquartered in Portland, Ore., the office building provides additional space for the museum and includes office space, workshops and acclimatized collections storage. The use of a highly efficient building envelope, electrical and mechanical systems reduces the building’s energy use by 38 percent.

“Our primary focus was to achieve the owner’s goal of constructing a LEED Platinum building,” said Brad Phillips, senior project manager with Howard S. Wright, in a statement. “We knew that in order to achieve this goal, we had to design and build an extremely high-performing building envelope and also include a high percentage of natural light — a challenge the team took to heart.”

Water efficiency upgrades and a rainwater collection system contributed to 75 percent less water usage in the building. Other sustainable features include enhanced indoor air quality with 30 percent additional outside air to create a healthy interior space for building occupants, and 23 percent of the wood installed in the building is FSCE-certified.

“To overcome the challenge, we brought in specialty contractors early in the design process who were focused on performance as much as they were on cost and aesthetics,” Phillips added. “This innovative approach may have been the single largest factor in achieving the LEED Platinum rating. In fact, we maintained an intense focus on developing strategies to achieve this goal throughout the entire design and construction process, and we were able to do so with minimal cost impact to the project.”

The administrative office building exceeded the sustainable goals that were set at the onset of the project.

“The project has exceeded the minimum amount of points to achieve LEED Platinum,” said Dan Peyovich, division president for Howard S. Wright, in a statement. “I’m proud of our team’s commitment to deliver a high-performance building at the highest level of sustainability possible for this signature museum project in Seattle.”