A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

WHERE'S THE FAMILY IN MULTIFAMILY?

Principal Catherine Benotto AIA, ASLA, LEED AP is presenting at Friday’s Design for Livability: Sustainable Cities Conference. Her presentation is an expansion of an article written for the Daily Journal of Commerce about enticing families into urban, multifamily housing.

Sustainable cities require higher density housing in mixed-use urban areas. However, a closer look at the types of housing built in Seattle’s urban center reveals that the vast majority is geared toward young singles, young couples and empty nesters. Where are the children? Healthy communities include children and not providing options for families in urban areas could lead to sprawl elsewhere. Bringing families into urban, multifamily housing requires a number of design, planning and policy decisions that work together from the individual building and the street level to the larger neighborhood scale. This presentation will cover those requirements and challenge some assumptions with excellent North American examples.

 

For more information about the conference visit Cascade Land Conservancy.

PRODUCT RUNWAY 2009: WEBER THOMPSON CRAFTS HOPE FROM A WISHBONE

What do you get when you offer local design minds a friendly creative challenge, randomly restrict their medium, and then throw in a 120 foot catwalk to boot? The answer is the Interior Design Coalition of Washington’s signature event, Product Runway. Now in its second year, this fashion / design / theatrical event is intended as a way to encourage imaginative thinking and foster collaboration within the design industry.

The Challenge:
Eighteen leading architecture and design firms were randomly paired with product reps and challenged to create and construct a couture garment made exclusively of that rep’s material offering (carpet, tile, etc.). For more information about the event, visit http://www.productrunway.com/

The Collaboration:
This year, the Weber Thompson team enjoyed a unique partnership with Barb Bushnell of Designtex (fabric), and Paula Vollers of Coalesse (furniture). Also joining our band of innovative minds was Bellevue College student Maggie Goodman.

Using our guiding principal of integrated design, it was important that the internal Weber Thompson team be open to everyone from day one. WT’s interior design, architecture, landscape architecture, and support staff all jumped on board with enthusiasm! Our company lounge was transformed into a laboratory of ideas (and creative explosions) where everyone was invited to offer their hands and their two cents to help achieve our goal.

The Concept:
Early schematic meetings led the team on a path of reflection and hope. The concept statement gave me goose bumps the first time I read it, and so I can’t help but share it with you:

“There is a duality in the way we negotiate the world. Issues of our present both ground us and weigh us down, yet we catch glimpses of the potential of the future. We control our own destiny by interweaving our own inherent strength with an acceptance of external support, ultimately allowing us to let go and emerge with unbridled lightness and hope…”

To translate this into a world of wearable furniture and fabric pieces, the team used the back element of the, appropriately named, Wishbone Chair, and agreed on a progression of color and texture that began as a heavy base at the bottom of the garment and became lighter and more delicate as it reached the top. Think of a large tree in the forest — grounded by its stable roots, and reaching up toward the sun. 

A shout out and huge thank you to the Weber Thompson Product Runway 2009 Team: Ann Wolf, Ginger Garff, Laura Greenamyer, Marc Furst, Maria Hayward, Monica Lewis, Nicole Winn and Sabina Fiore!

-Amanda Swartwout

TEST RUNNING SEATTLE'S PROPOSED LOW-RISE ZONING

 

Two members of the WT family, Jeff Reibman and Sam Castro, joined a group assembled by the local chapter of the Congress of Residential Architects (CORA) to test proposed changes to the low rise, or L zones, in Seattle’s Land Use Code.

Members of Seattle City Council's Planning Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee (PLUNC) wanted a test run of the proposed changes to help understand the implications for development on several different sites. Teams were asked to produce both “White Hat” schemes that showed the positive potential of the proposed code and “Black Hat” schemes that attempted to game the code to maximize development potential while producing results counter to its intent.


Three teams were asked to participate to represent a spectrum of ideas. CORA's team was made up of seasoned multi-family architects. We saw it as our mission to bring our creativity to bear on the problem and test a wide range of ideas. Our “black hat” schemes were intended to illustrate significant loopholes and unintended consequences while our “white hat” schemes highlighted the type of development we hope to see more of and advocated for changes that would incentivize it. The other two teams represented neighborhood activists and development interests.



On 9/24/09 all three teams presented to PLUNC, the public, and the cameras of the Seattle Channel in council chambers. CORA presented 20 different schemes with a variety of housing types including Cottages, Clusters, Townhouses, Row-houses and Flats. We also made recommendations for changes to the code that we felt would help it to better achieve the city’s goals for the zone.

The Daily Journal of Commerce also covered the meeting in their September 29th Edition.

A few of CORA’s recommendations are summarized below. Great City is hosting the entire presentation on their website. Check out their Blog entry here to see the schemes and read the executive summary.

CORA’s Recommendations:

1. Use FAR as a tool to reward desirable features and outcomes. For small-lot ground-based housing, FAR can be kept relatively low. For structured parking, large lots, and projects with full design review, higher FAR is appropriate.



2. Strengthen the requirements for communal amenity space
 


3. Remove the density limits in all L-zones to allow diverse unit types, sizes, and affordability levels.



4. Return to a 30' base height limit for all L-zones w/ bonuses as appropriate to incentivize desired outcomes like interesting roof forms and structured parking

.

5. Encourage basements by exempting them from FAR.



6. Reduce required Green factor. If it were working, it would incentivize open space, privacy screening, tree planting & permeability. It does none of those things; it simply covers your land in shrubs & your walls in vines.

Framing SLU’s Future

For nearly two decades we have been a resident of South Lake Union, first in the Cascade neighborhood, then moving to our new digs here at The Terry Thomas in 2008. During that period, the City of Seattle has written and rewritten multiple planning documents for this area including a neighborhood plan, design guidelines, open space strategy, and transportation strategy They have also held a joint design charette with the Uptown neighborhood. Throw in a fairly comprehensive sustainability plan produced by Vulcan and the LEED for Neighborhood Development certification process we worked with the city on and all the bases are covered…right?

Right, except for the fact that most of these documents made broad, generalized recommendations that gave guidance but had little or no teeth when it came to implementation. 

Recognizing this problem, we have been working with the City of Seattle since April to use the past efforts as a foundation to develop an Urban Design Framework (UDF) for South Lake Union. While the UDF will stop short of being a comprehensive master plan it will establish a shared urban design vision and, most importantly, an implementation strategy in the form of Incentive Zoning, Development Standards, updated Design Guidelines, EIS Mitigation for zoning designation and height / density increases, Right of Way Design and Management, and how we use or reuse public property in the neighborhood.

The Project Team (Weber Thompson and the City of Seattle) has been working closely with a Working Group comprised of a range of community stakeholders since April. Given the extensive public planning to date, the team has developed proposals through a series of charrettes and vetted proposals with the Working Group. An initial charrette was held in May to look holistically at the neighborhood, review past plans and new opportunities and develop a list of six potential “opportunities” for further study. The proposed opportunity charrettes have been structured in such a way to build upon each other and achieve the project goals by identifying and studying opportunities and challenges at different scales as well as implementation strategies.
    

Senate Bill 5854

One of the most encouraging things to come out of this year’s legislative session is the passing and signing into law of Senate Bill 5854, aka the Washington State Reducing Climate Pollution in the Built Environment ordinance which went into effect July 26th.

The bill’s first sentence establishes the high priority of energy conservation. “The legislature finds that energy efficiency is the cheapest, quickest, and cleanest way to meet rising energy needs, confront climate change, and boost our economy.”

Obviously, in order to conserve energy, we first need to know how much we’re using building by building. Local public utility companies are tasked with completing the analysis to establish an Energy Star rating for every non residential building over the next two years. This is followed with a required disclosure by building owners of their Energy Star rating to any prospective buyer, lessor or lendor. A little friendly competition can be galvanizing in terms of changing behavior, right? The disclosure is phased in with large buildings (over 50,000 sf) by Jan. 2011, followed by buildings over 10,000 sf  by Jan 2012.

It’s also worth noting that public state agencies may not enter into a new lease or lease renewal for a building with an energy star rating below 75 unless an audit has been conducted within the last two years, and the owner agrees to implement energy conservation measures within the first two years of the lease agreement.

Along with analyzing what energy we’re using in existing buildings is a ratcheting up of the Washington State Energy Code requirements to meet a 70% reduction in energy use in all new construction, including residential, by 2031. The roadmap for getting there is being developed by the Department of Community Trade and Economic Development.

All in all, this new law has the potential to make a positive change to the marketplace; with knowledge comes power, eh? 

--Amanda Keating

LOW IMPACT PRESENTING

Our principal Catherine Benotto AIA, ASLA, LEED AP has been busy. In addition to her project load, overseeing Weber Thompson’s community/urban design/landscape groups and sustainable resource team, volunteering on the Seattle Planning Commission, developing the Washington regional credits in the USGBC’s LEED Neighborhood Development program and the construction of her own green home, she has been one of the featured speakers in the Low Impact Development (LID) Technical Workshop Series presented by Washington State University’s Pierce County Extension program and the Puget Sound Water Partnership.

These workshops took place in Sequim, Bellingham, Lacey and Seattle and covered a wide range of Low Impact topics including Bioretention, Site Planning, Green Roofs, and Permeable Paving. Catherine presented on Site Analysis and Low Impact Planning of communities, describing a holistic and integrated design process that aims to reduce overall environmental impacts. Participants gave great feedback on the workshops with 94% rating them as good or excellent.

Over 1,100 people attended the workshops. Of that 58 have gone on to achieve the LID certificate, with another 75 in the process for testing for certificates. The LID certificate is supported by WSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU Extension and the Puget Sound Partnership.

WSU is hoping to put on another series as soon as they can put funding together. If you are interested, visit WSU LID Workshop for updates.

103 DEGREES AND NO AIR CONDITIONING? NO PROBLEM

The Terry Thomas beach got set up before the heat hit 85 degrees.

 
A late afternoon farewell to our WSU students.
Their gift to Weber Thompson? Two ultra cool fans.

What is a hot summer day without a weenie roast?
Senior Associate Jeff Reibman harnesses the heat to BBQ in his homemade solar oven.

THE SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN

After spending a year working in The Terry Thomas, our staff was asked to participate in a third party initiated survey (anonymous) regarding their environment, comfort level and how our new offices function. We are pleased to hear all the positive comments from our staff, and to see that most of the negative comments are in regards to systems that we have been fine tuning or replacing. These mainly run to the dampers opening on cold days in response to the CO2 levels, waterless urinals and the glare on computer screens due to all the windows. What is encouraging to see is the high sense of community and collaboration in our new offices as compared to our old space, and that on the whole the smaller work stations with communal/common layout space and storage areas overall works well for everyone.
Here is a summarized version of the survey. Please click on chart to enlarge.

 
  

SUMMER SCHOOL AT WEBER THOMPSON

It is always a little quieter around here in the summer as people take vacations. But this summer the activity level has risen as we are hosting six students and their professor from the Washington State University School of Architecture and Construction Management Summer Studio.

The Seattle Summer Studio program is a six week course intended to immerse students in cultures not readily available to them back in school. By way of design challenges, the students are pushed to explore a weave of issues, first as related to architecture and urban design, and second to professional practice.

“The opportunity to have practice and the academy interact in this way is invaluable to the students, while infusing the latest innovative thinking from the classroom into the firm,” says Wolf Saar AIA, LEED AP, a firm Principal and a member of the Professional Advisory Board to WSU.

Professor Ayad Rahmani and WT Senior Associate Brian Steinburg have been collaborating to create opportunities around Weber Thompson’s work in urban planning for South Lake Union and Seattle’s interest in development associated with the waterfront as the viaduct is replaced.

Next week is their last week here. We will miss the added enthusiasm and ideas that the students have brought. Not to mention the doughnuts one of the students keeps buying for our staff. 

ONE YEAR AND LOTS OF SAVINGS LATER

It has been over 15 months here at The Terry Thomas, and while we know the building is working great, it is nice to finally have real numbers.

The big news is our cost for energy usage — it is really low! Compared to the average national cost of $1.65 per square foot, according to the EPA’s National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency for office buildings, The Terry Thomas is running at $0.58 to $0.60 per square foot. For those of you who build (or renovate) and hold buildings, this is a great case study for long-term savings.

The other good news here is that our original modeling suggested that we would cut our energy use 30%-40%. As it turns out, the first year numbers indicate that we have reduced our energy consumption 41.88% for the whole building and 49.14% for Weber Thompson’s offices compared to the national average. As we continue to fine tune the systems and fill up the entire building, we anticipate that these numbers will continue to improve.

Data Collection

Here is a brief overview of the analysis and numbers:

We spent the first few months commissioning and working out the details for this building, so our data collection didn’t start until June 2008, and goes through June 2009.

The data is analyzed in two different ways:
• Based on the entire building excluding unheated, sub grade parking square footage. With assistance
from Stantec Engineering, projections had to be made for energy usage for the few spaces that do not have tenants.
• The second set of numbers is for Weber Thompson’s offices only (LEED Platinum certified) located on levels two and three.

1) Whole Building         Amount Used       
     Electricity:                  21.80 kBtu/sf/yr (47% of total energy usage)
     Natural Gas:              24.58 kBtu/sf/yr (53% of total energy usage)
     Total:                          46.38 kBtu/sf/yr

2) Levels 2 and 3         Amount Used
    Electricity:                 21.87 kBtu/sf/yr (54% of total energy usage)
    Natural Gas:             18.76 kBtu/sf/yr (46% of total energy usage)
    Total:                         40.63 kBtu/sf/yr

Based on the EPA’s National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency for office buildings, the average annual energy intensity for office buildings across the United States is 79.8 kBtu per square foot.

As part of this we got the post-occupancy survey back on the building. We will summarize and post the survey next week.

As always, if you are interested in a tour, or want to talk about how we designed a building with such great energy saving results, feel free to give us a holler at (206) 344-5700.