Specialty Construction
Rafn Co.
IslandWood
Owner: Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center
Architect: Mithun Partners
Bellevue’s Rafn Co. took home the Eagle of Excellence award along with the Specialty Construction Award for the IslandWood project. The Eagle award was created last year to honor exemplary projects.
Rafn was cited for its extraordinary innovation, problem solving, project management and collaboration that made IslandWood a success.
Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center’s IslandWood campus is set on a 250-acre site within a watershed of forests and wetlands on Bainbridge Island. A pilot project for the US Green Building Council LEEDs program, the $17 million development involved complex challenges for Rafn — construct sustainable facilities using experimental systems, minimize impact to the local ecosystems, and meet the owner’s budget and 18-month schedule.
The campus was built to give children the opportunity to learn about natural resource conservation through outdoor field experiences. It includes a main center with entry area; interpretive center; great hall; library; staff and administrative offices; dining hall with a kitchen and dining rooms; learning studios with five classrooms and a laboratory; three lodges, which accommodate 30 students each; a guest cottage; and a maintenance building.
The Rafn team of subcontractors and suppliers discovered, developed and used entirely new green building methods for IslandWood. In keeping with the owner’s sustainability goals, photovoltaic panels power more than 50 percent of the lighting and electrical needs of the learning center, and the dining center and lodges have solar hot water panels that produce more than half the hot water used there. The buildings also feature composting toilets, experimental waste treatment systems, hydronic heating and natural ventilation.
In addition to being environmentally sound, IslandWood features beautiful finishes, including fireplaces that resemble the geological makeup of the Cascade and Olympic mountains. Rafn used a variety of recycled materials to create flooring and even included counter tops made of recycled yogurt containers and crushed sunflower seeds. More than half the siding came from trees harvested from the site, milled and kiln-dried, including 18- to 36-inch wood columns that were carved by local tribal artists.
During construction, Rafn developed highly detailed action plans to coordinate more than a mile of utilities installation and maintain site access via only a 12-foot-wide road. In addition to high-voltage electrical primary conduits, propane gas, communication and electrical vaults, the team installed new service roads for autos, buses, fire and service vehicles.
Positioning the 12-inch water main presented a significant challenge; Rafn cleared away native growth, excavated through moisture-sensitive soils, laid two miles of pipe through hills and ravines, then backfilled and restored the forest, meeting the owner’s vision of no evidence of the construction. The team hand-logged the route, used mole-boring equipment, off-road vehicles, mini excavators, and other specialized equipment and excavated through sensitive areas by hand.
In collaboration with architect Mithun Partners and a host of subcontractors and suppliers, including ABC members Bird Electric Corp., Ironwood Manufacturing Co., Matheus Lumber, Puget Sound Masonry, Smith Fire Systems, Tuco Industrial Products and Parker, Smith & Feek, Rafn completed the project on schedule and under budget.