February 10, 2016

ASHRAE honors two local projects

Photo by Michael Walmsley [enlarge]

Stack House Apartments

Two Seattle-area projects are among five first place winners of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers awards for innovative building design.

Ken Warren of the Port of Seattle won in the new industrial facilities or processes category of the Technology Awards for a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport project. Jonathan M. Heller of Seattle-based Ecotope won in the residential category for Stack House Apartments, a project developed by Vulcan Real Estate in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood.

In the airport project, a plant pumps hot and cold fluids through 15 miles of pipes to 73 jet gates, where a unit then preconditions warm or cool air blown into the aircraft. It results in fuel, money and emissions savings. The airport in SeaTac is operated by the port.

Stack House includes two new multifamily buildings and adaptive reuse of a historic building.

There is a central heat pump water heating system in one of the multifamily buildings, ductless heat pumps for 40 percent of the apartment units and common spaces, and rainwater catchment and reuse for urban agriculture on the roof.

The historic building was included in the city's pilot of an outcome-based energy code. The project also participated in a stormwater treatment pilot with Seattle Public Utilities, with two biofiltration swales providing primary treatment to stormwater runoff.

The other winners are:

Benjamin A. Skelton of Cyclone Energy Group in Chicago in the new commercial buildings category for the Walgreens net zero store in Evanston, Illinois.

Dylan T. Connelly of Integral Group in Oakland, California, in the existing commercial buildings category for DPR Construction's San Francisco net positive energy office.

Nicolas Lemire of Pageau Morel and Associates in Montreal, Quebec, in the new educational facilities category for the Anne-Marie Edward Science Building at John Abbott College, Sainte- Sainte-Anne-De-Bellevue, Quebec.