Photo courtesy of Johnston Architects

Name:
Greenfire Campus

Location:
Ballard

Size:
31,000 square feet in two buildings

Opened:
May 18




The team

Owner/principal:
Rose Letwin (environmental philanthropist and
founder of the Wilburforce Foundation)

Project manager: Seneca Group

Architect: Johnston Architects

General contractor:
Walsh Construction Co./WA

Interior design:
Robin Chell Design

Landscape architect:
The Watershed Co.

Mechanical design-build: PSF Mechanical

MEP design development: WSP

Electric design-build: Merit Electric

Civil engineer: 2020 Engineering

Structural engineer: DCI Engineers

Property manager: Blanton Turner

Photo courtesy of Johnston Architects

The energy benchmark for Greenfire is the Architecture 2030 Challenge. This means that all comparisons are against 2030 goals, not today’s standards.

Office

• Designed to use 70 percent less energy per square foot than the average office building from the 2030 Challenge benchmark

• Energy savings supports LEED platinum certification and the 2030 Challenge

• Hybrid natural ventilation/cooling of office/retail building minimizes use of fans and mechanical cooling

• Integrated ground source heat pump optimizes energy production, storage and sharing between the varying building uses

• Lighting concept exceeds Seattle Energy Code by as much as 35 percent

• 75 percent of heat is recovered from exhausted air

Apartments

• Designed to use at least 40 percent less energy per square foot than the average multifamily building from the 2030 Challenge benchmark

• Seeking LEED gold certification

• Integrated ground source heat pump optimizes energy production, storage and sharing between the varying building uses

• Lighting concept exceeds Seattle Energy Code by as much as 35 percent

• 75 percent of heat is recovered from exhausted air

Solar

• Solar hot water system produces 70 percent of domestic hot water in the apartment building

• A 10-kilowatt solar PV system reduces purchased electrical energy by as much as 5 percent annually

Water

• “Greenfactor” score of 6.12, twice the city-required minimum of 3.0

• Largest project in the city that uses rainwater as its sole source of irrigation

• All irrigation needs met by collected rainwater

• Rainwater harvested saves 70,000 gallons of city drinking water per year

• 32,000 gallons of rainwater storage

• 43 percent of the total site area is landscaped

• 46 percent of the landscaped area is planted with native plants

• 95 percent of the landscaped area is planted with native and/or drought-tolerant plants

• 16 percent of the landscaped area is set aside for urban agriculture

• 8,000 square feet of planting is considered high habitat value

• 61 trees will be planted

• 150 different plant species will be planted

• 55 different plant species on the roofs

• Chlorine-free rainwater used for organic food gardens

Construction recycling

• 99 percent diversion rate

Restoring nature

Just over half of the rainwater that falls on the site is used by the landscapes. This is close to the amount of rainwater that would have been used by the old growth forest trees that were once on the site. Typical developments have more than 90 percent water runoff due to impervious surfaces.