PAE helps Bullitt Center celebrate grand opening on Earth Day

April 17, 2013
What has been designed to become the world’s largest functioning, commercial Living Building, The Bullitt Center invites the community to celebrate Earth Day with a grand opening event on April 22, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

SEATTLE —What has been designed to become the world’s largest functioning, commercial Living Building, The Bullitt Center invites the community to celebrate Earth Day with a grand opening event on April 22, 2013, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The grand opening will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony and guided building tours, giving attendees the chance to explore the six-story sustainable facility. 

PAE, a west coast engineering firm specializing in sustainable design, provided energy modeling, and mechanical and electrical engineering for the building, as well as lighting design services through its Luma Lighting division. PAE will also lease half of the top floor of the building. The Bullitt Foundation will be located on the same floor and share conference and kitchen space with PAE.

“Everyone at PAE is elated about the completion of this truly significant project,” said Paul Schwer, president of PAE. “The Bullitt Center will pave the way for future Living Building facilities of its size, a movement we feel passionate about and are certain will continue to grow as the industry looks to design more net zero energy and water buildings.”

The building is designed to use 83% less energy than a typical Seattle office building and achieve net-zero energy and net-zero water through a variety of systems such as the following:

·      A high performance building envelope.

·      A layout designed to optimize natural light, an estimated 82% of the Center’s spaces will be lit by natural sunlight.

·      Careful coordination with tenants to reduce their “plug loads” by more than 75% through the use of high-efficiency monitors, copiers, laptops, zero clients and cloud based servers.

·      A geoexchange HVAC system that will harvest energy from the earth to provide efficient heating and cooling.

·      A radiant floor system that will efficiently heat and cool office spaces.

·      A roof-top photovoltaic array that will provide all the net energy needed for the building.

·      Rainwater and greywater reclamation systems, including a 56,000-gal. cistern to capture rainwater and a constructed wetland to treat greywater.

·      Foam flush, composting toilets reduce toilet water consumption by 96%.

Founded 45 years ago, PAE is a 76-person firm providing an array of services in mechanical and electrical engineering. Well-known for leadership in sustainable design, PAE has provided expertise for more than 100 LEED-rated or registered projects, 22 of them Platinum. Moving beyond LEED, several PAE projects are now pursuing the Living Building Challenge, Net Zero Energy/Water, Architecture 2030 and Passive House. With offices in Portland, Seattle and San Francisco, PAE serves public and private sector clients throughout the western United States and beyond. For more information, please visit: www.pae-engineers.com

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