Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles from Seattle, is in the process of expanding its ABET-accredited programs for electrical engineering, computer engineering and science, and energy science.
As part of that process, the university is building Kaiser Borsari Hall, the 54,000-sf new home for those academic disciplines that will include teaching labs, research labs, classrooms, collaborative spaces, and administrative offices.
Scheduled for completion next January, the four-story building is designed (by Perkins&Will) to achieve net-zero energy and carbon, and a 74% reduction in outdoor water use. All of the building’s electricity will be drawn from rooftop solar panels, and that onsite energy generation and storage are expected to achieve a 63% reduction in embodied carbon and 100% reduction in operational carbon.
Western is also targeting Living Building Challenge Energy Petal certification. An element of that pursuit is the decision to use mass timber and cross-laminated timber construction. The glulam beams and columns, and CLT decks, were harvested sustainably.
“We’re not just building a facility; we’re crafting a sustainable legacy for future generations,” says Michael Harder, Vice President and General Manager for Mortenson’s Seattle office. Mortenson is the CM and GC on this project. Other building team members include McLennan Design (consulting architect), Coughlin Porter Lundeen (SE), KPFF (consulting engineers), Hargis Engineers (EE), Affiliated Engineers (M/PE), McKinstry (mechanical contractor and CM), VECA (electrical contractor and CM), Associated Earth Sciences (geothermal engineer), The Greenbush Group (acoustics and elevator consultant), and Berger Partnership (landscape architect).
The mass timber is being supplied by British Columbia-based Kalesnikoff, which last month opened its third production facility. The hall’s $73.6 million construction cost is being financed by public and private funds, and the building will be one of the first publicly funded zero-energy academic facilities in the region.
Once completed, Kaiser Borsari Hall will be surrounded by existing STEM programs and connected via skybridge to Western’s Communications Facility, 20,000 sf of which has been renovated. The hall’s courses will include the nation’s only interdisciplinary undergraduate energy program.
Related Stories
| Aug 8, 2022
Mass timber and net zero design for higher education and lab buildings
When sourced from sustainably managed forests, the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel on larger scale construction projects has myriad economic and environmental benefits that have been thoroughly outlined in everything from academic journals to the pages of Newsweek.
Mass Timber | Jun 29, 2022
Mass timber competition: building to net-zero winning proposals
The 2022 Mass Timber Competition: Building to Net-Zero is a design competition to expand the use of mass timber in the United States by demonstrating its versatility across building types and its ability to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment.
Mass Timber | Jun 2, 2022
Brooklyn is home to New York City’s first mass timber condo building
In the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, the newly completed Timber House is New York City’s first mass timber condominium building and its largest mass timber project (by height and square footage).
Mass Timber | May 31, 2022
Tall mass timber buildings number 139 worldwide
An audit of tall mass timber buildings turned up 139 such structures around the world either complete, under construction, or proposed.
Mass Timber | Mar 8, 2022
Heavy timber office and boutique residential building breaks ground in Austin
T3 Eastside, a heavy timber office and boutique residential building, recently broke ground in Austin, Texas.
Mass Timber | Jan 11, 2022
As trends shift toward mass timber, AEC firms are watching the demand curve
Swinerton’s New York office expects its first projects to be luxury residential.
Mass Timber | Nov 28, 2021
Henning Larsen reveals design for large-scale timber building
The project is located in Copenhagen.
Sponsored | Mass Timber | Nov 17, 2021
Mass Timber Brings Warmth, Flexibility to Commercial Building
Design visionaries are creating game-changing commercial facilities with mass timber. Discover how to use mass timber in your next project.
Mass Timber | Nov 5, 2021
Large-scale mass timber office building completes in Kirkland, Wash.
LMN Architects designed the building.
Mass Timber | Nov 1, 2021
A new mixed-used building in L.A. could set the stage for greater mass timber use for western construction
Part of a trend that’s seeing CLT gain acceptance for bigger projects across the country.
