July 3, 2019

LEED Gold for Hyatt Regency Seattle

Photos provided by Hyatt Regency Seattle [enlarge]

The 1,260-room Hyatt Regency Seattle, center, has building systems that cut energy use by about 27%.

[enlarge]

The hotel’s Regency Club Terrace is available to certain levels of World of Hyatt members, or as an upgrade.

Hyatt Regency Seattle, a 45-story hotel in downtown Seattle, received a LEED Gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Seattle-based R.C. Hedreen Co. developed the 1,260-room hotel, which has 103,000 square feet of meeting and event space.

It opened in December at 808 Howell St., two blocks from the Washington State Convention Center and right by The Summit — the 1.4 million-square-foot convention center expansion slated to open in spring 2022.

The project team included Sellen Construction, Arup and LMN Architects.

In a press release, Hyatt Regency Seattle said it is the first LEED Gold-certified hotel in the Seattle area. It said it joins 14,032 hotels in the U.S. to have been awarded gold by LEED as part of its rating system for new construction.

Sustainable elements include:

• A light-colored roof to reduce the urban heat-island effect.

• Thirty percent more fresh air ventilation than the minimum standard amount and a mechanical system that meets industry standards for thermal comfort.

• High-efficiency operations (such as occupancy sensors, kitchen hood sensors, waste heat and high-efficiency chillers and boilers) that reduce the building's energy usage by 26.77% compared with a conventional baseline building.

• Water conservation practices across the property, including its landscaping, laundry and public areas, that reduce consumption by 33%.

• Over 20% of the construction materials were regionally sourced and manufactured.

• Material transparency, through the selection of building products that publicly disclose their environmental impacts through environmental product declarations reviewed by third parties.

• A green cleaning procurement policy that reduces hazards from cleaning products, reduces packaging waste and helps maintain indoor air quality.

The hotel said it also supports it provides bike parking, electric car chargers and preferred parking for fuel-efficient vehicles.

Additionally, the hotel said it participates in housing projects that provide affordable housing to 160 low- and moderate-income families for 50 years and in King County's transfer of development rights program, permanently protecting 5,285 acres of forest and 5 acres of local farmland.

Shauna Decker, vice president of design and development for R.C. Hedreen Co., said “Building sustainability is a strong core value of ours and frankly in order to represent Seattle appropriately, we had to make the commitment early to achieving LEED Gold for the Hyatt Regency Seattle.”