Contract - January/February 2014 - 132

Client
U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers
Location
Seattle

ZGF Architects
"With plenty of daylight, this interior environment embraces the
culture of rivers. Incredibly progressive for a government building,
this space offers a sense of community for the employees." JURY

By Sheri Olson
Photography by
Benjamin Benschneider

For decades, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE) either sweltered or froze, depending on the
season, in a 1932 Albert Kahn-designed former Ford
Motor Company plant on a Superfund site south of
downtown Seattle. The factory's windows were
inoperable, limiting fresh air, and daylight did not
penetrate far into the 100,000-square-foot floor
plates. Six-foot-tall office partitions reinforced
departmental separation and made collaboration
difficult for the civilian and military workforce.
The 2009 American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act provided funding for a new
USACE Northwest headquarters and an opportunity
to showcase one of the Corps' key missions:
restoring and sustaining the environment. Built on a
site adjacent to the previous one on the Duwamish
Waterway, the new headquarters is in the top one
percent of energy-efficient office buildings in the
United States, and fosters community and a
collective identity among staff. The building is the
result of an innovative design/build partnership
132

between ZGF Architects and Sellen Construction.
"Our goal was to create an esprit de corps for the
Corps," says Allyn Stellmacher, the ZGF partner
in charge of the project.
ZGF took a cue from the twists and turns of the
nearby Duwamish Waterway and designed the open
office space in an oxbow shape around a central
atrium. The U-shaped form of the 209,000-squarefoot building delivers daylight into the narrow,
60-foot-wide floorplates, providing natural light to
more than 90 percent of the interiors. Key to the
building's success is an ultra-efficient envelope that
balances a high level of insulation without inhibiting
transmission of daylight, allowing the innovative
mechanical system to perform at optimal capacity.
The sleek, stainless-steel skin conceals a
surprisingly rough-hewn interior. Recovery Act
funding required the reuse of timber from a
demolished warehouse on the site, and ZGF
ingeniously incorporated it to give the atrium
an appealing weathered character.
Inside, a bed of rock and slate meanders
across the atrium floor to resemble a river. Building
upon biophilic design principles to evoke a positive
response to nature, the designers incorporated
timber columns that line the banks like trees, and
water that gurgles through channels cut into
boulders. The water features are fed by a rainwater
reuse system that captures water from the roof and
stores it in a 25,000-gallon cistern. An estimated
430,000 gallons of rainwater will be harvested
annually, providing a 79-percent reduction in
potable water use for toilets and irrigation.

Sky bridges and stairs crisscross the atrium
to connect open office space on upper levels at
multiple points. By grouping conference areas in
the commons, the designers were able to keep
full-height walls to a minimum in the office areas,
and the low, 50-inch-tall workstation partitions allow
visual access within and between departments.
"Based on feedback from the Corps, the design
has definitely improved collaboration between
groups," says General Services Administration
(GSA) project manager Rick Thomas. "People can
now walk across the sky bridges to connect, or talk
to their colleagues over the lower partitions."
An underfloor air distribution system for
ventilation and cooling delivers 100 percent filtered
air from outside, and the natural process of
convection exhausts air through the atrium to a
high-efficiency heat recovery system. The building
is one of the first in the region to use structural piles
for geothermal heating and cooling, as well as a
phase change thermal storage tank. The tank and a
ground loop provide back-up heating or cooling to
meet demands during peak seasonal loads.
"The Corps' mission is integrated throughout
the building, which reflects a dedication to restore
and sustain the environment," Thomas says. At
certain times of the day, members of the Corps can
watch river otters playing in the waterfront site's
restored wetlands. With a light touch on the
surrounding environment and well-executed
interiors, this office is a sustainable, uplifting
upgrade for the Corps employees. c
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Contract - January/February 2014

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