Seattle native enterprise information and information – Structure & Engineering

July 14, 2020

Weber Thompson relocates his offices in search of even greener pastures

The Watershed office building in Fremont is due to open at the end of 2020. Eco-friendly features include self-tinting glass that reduces heat build-up and glare. Take a virtual tour.

Architectural firm Weber Thompson is planning to move to the super green Watershed building at the end of the year, leaving behind the super green but older Terry Thomas building – both Seattle projects it designed.

Watershed at 900 N. 34th St. in the Fremont neighborhood is slated to open by the end of 2020, Weber Thompson Managing Partner Kristen Scott said on Monday. The seven-story, 72,000-square-foot office building tracks the 2014 version of Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program, which requires aggressive reductions in energy and water use, as well as other sustainable strategies.

Weber Thompson has been based at Terry Thomas at 225 Terry Ave. for 12 years. N. in South Lake Union. The building is LEED Gold certified for core and shell, is passively cooled and saves energy and water. It opened in 2008 and is owned by a Seattle group that includes Scott.

Scott said Weber Thompson is renting 9,800 square feet on level two and a small portion of level one of Watershed – about the same as there is now.

“It is absolutely … a core value of our company to be in a building that truly represents the very latest in sustainable design,” she said.

The lease runs for 12 years, said Scott, who refused to elaborate on the terms. She said it was signed before the COVID-19 pandemic was hit hard.

Weber Thompson has 70 employees. It offers architecture, interior design, landscape design, and community / urban development, and works on high-rise, urban infill, residential, commercial office, hospitality, and affordable housing projects.

The company is planning its tenant upgrade at Watershed. Schuchart is the general contractor for the expansion, which is expected to begin in August. Weber Thompson said many of his employees are working remotely due to COVID-19 security protocols.

Watershed is pursuing the service categories materials, place and beauty of the Living Building pilot program or “Petals” from the Living Building Challenge of the International Living Future Institute. Scott said Watershed only uses materials that are “Red List” free of toxic chemicals.

The building has castellated beams and natural daylight, educational signage, environmental art, a changing room for 100 bicycles and showers, and around 5,000 square meters of retail space. An electrochromic glass facade colors itself on sunny days, reduces heat generation and glare, and helps reduce energy consumption by 25% compared to a building with a code baseline, the design firm said in a press release.

The building is also intended to reduce water consumption by 75% compared to a base building. The extensive water intake on site is visible from the outside via a cantilevered roof, a cascading vertical gutter system and an oversized sculptural steel coupler that flows into a water collection cistern. The building captures 200,000 gallons of water annually to be used on-site for toilet flushing and irrigation.

Along Troll Avenue North, Bioswales naturally clean over 300,000 gallons of toxic runoff from the Aurora Bridge annually while incorporating a number of outdoor patios. The project is also Salmon Safe certified.

The company is pleased to continue the tradition of working in a “learning laboratory”.

“While Watershed’s strategies are different from The Terry Thomas’ strategies, they are a continuation of what we’ve learned from over a decade of development and work,” Scott said in the press release. “We layered the best parts, like great daylight and a courtyard entrance, with new technology to make it even better. This step enables us to show our customers the intersection of sustainable design and technology and ideally inspire them to do the same. ”

Watershed was developed by COU LLC. Weber Thompson was also a landscape architect and Turner Construction was the general contractor.

In 2019, Alexandria Real Estate Equities and Weber Thompson filed a plan to build a building on Terry Ave. No. 219 to be demolished and renovated with a new 13-storey office / laboratory building. It would be just south of the Terry Thomas building that would be preserved as part of the project.

Scott said Monday that no construction date has been set for this project.