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April 25, 2019

SPU transfer station honored by AIA for sustainable design

Photo by Benjamin Benschneider [enlarge]
The $108 million North Transfer Station was designed by Mahlum Architects to allow hillside neighbors to take in lake and city views.

The Seattle Public Utilities North Transfer Station in Seattle is a winner of the American Institute of Architects' 2019 COTE Top Ten Awards, which focus on sustainable design.

AIA said in a press release that the 10 winners of the Committee on the Environment's highest honor integrate cutting-edge design with advanced performance. Sustainable, economic and social criteria are evaluated by the jury.

The winners will be honored in June at the AIA Conference on Architecture 2019 in Las Vegas.

Mahlum Architects designed the $108 million North Transfer Station, which opened in 2016 at 1350 N. 34th St. in Wallingford.

(Editor's note: This story has been changed to correct the name of the architect.)

The larger and more efficient replacement station processes 750 tons of waste, recycling and compost per day from commercial and self-haulers. The complex houses a tipping/transfer building, a reuse/recycling building and an administration building.

The building was designed so hillside neighborhood could overlook it to take in lake and city views.

The LEED Gold station includes two green roofs, pervious paving, translucent panels for natural light and solar panels. It has more covered and enclosed spaces than the old station, better ventilation, and entrances and exits designed to reduce noise and odor.

The site includes plazas, native and adaptive plantings and a dry cobble swale that collects stormwater runoff.

Artist Jean Shin created lacelike artworks for the site called “Reclaimed” that are composed of nearly 10,000 feet of recycled rebar salvaged from the property and painted bright orange.

East of the station, the utility created about an acre of open space with a children's play area, sports court, lawn, walkways and exercise stations.

The project team included Lydig Construction, general contractor; CDM Smith, engineer; The Greenbusch Group, acoustic and mechanical engineer; LPD Engineering and Parametrix, civil engineers; Integrated Design Engineers, structural engineer; Adams Consulting and Estimating, hardware consultant; O'Bunco Engineering Co., surveyor; Heffron Transportation, transportation consultant; and HBB Landscape Architecture.

Oregon Zoo Education Center in Portland, designed by Opsis Architecture, is among the other winners. See them all at https://tinyurl.com/y28jb27w.




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