Founders Hall at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, the first mass timber building at Seattle campus of Univ. of Washington, was recently completed. The 84,800-sf building creates a new hub for community, entrepreneurship, and innovation, according the project’s design architect LMN Architects.
The design creates an intersection of three volumes hosting student-focused team collaboration spaces, program offices, classrooms, and gathering spaces, all connected by a five-story steel and wood feature stair that weaves through the mass timber structure.
The community connector houses the feature stair, circulation spaces, pre-function spaces, and two tiered classrooms that can be set for 65 or 135 students. The team bar provides 28 team and interview rooms, four executive conference rooms, a student commons with an outdoor terrace, and a rooftop event forum.
The building was organized to foster spontaneous and open interaction between staff, business professionals, and students by positioning program offices, alumni offices, and career services offices adjacent to student spaces on every level. With meeting spaces accessible to all for shared use, students and program staff will be able to interact with one another daily.
Mass timber construction cuts embodied carbon
The use of mass timber lowers the project’s embodied carbon substantially with the use of Douglas fir creating a warm and inviting interior atmosphere. The exterior architectural expression draws from the material palette established by other Foster School buildings and reveals moments of the mass timber structure.
Founders Hall is the first new building to meet the University of Washington Green Building Standards, reducing carbon emissions by over 90%. The design takes advantage of Seattle’s weather by integrating natural and mechanical ventilation to provide a comfortable environment for users with minimal reliance on conditioned air. As an integrated element in both the interior and exterior expression, the building incorporates a mass timber structure with cross-laminated timber decking. This reflects the Foster School’s connection to the Northwest and the local wood products industry, also reducing the building’s embodied carbon by almost 60%.
Many of the existing nearby Douglas fir and sequoia trees on site were preserved. The peeled-away brick façade paired with carefully placed glazing exposes the timber inside the building while providing views of the Douglas firs, giving the higher floors of the building an immersive Northwest forest experience.
The project partnered with Aureus Earth, a provider of carbon offsetting incentive programs, to create a proof of concept for long-term biogenic carbon storage in a mass timber building. The building will store more than 1,000 tons of CO2 for decades, keeping carbon out of the atmosphere for the lifetime of the building.
On the project team:
Owner and/or developer: The University of Washington
Design Architect: LMN Architects
Design-Builder: Hoffman Construction
MEP engineer: PAE Consulting Engineers
Structural engineer: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Related Stories
Green | Apr 21, 2023
Top 10 green building projects for 2023
The Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex in Boston and the Westwood Hills Nature Center in St. Louis are among the AIA COTE Top Ten Awards honorees for 2023.
Higher Education | Apr 13, 2023
Higher education construction costs for 2023
Fresh data from Gordian breaks down the average cost per square foot for a two-story college classroom building across 10 U.S. cities.
Market Data | Apr 11, 2023
Construction crane count reaches all-time high in Q1 2023
Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Denver top the list of U.S/Canadian cities with the greatest number of fixed cranes on construction sites, according to Rider Levett Bucknall's RLB Crane Index for North America for Q1 2023.
University Buildings | Apr 11, 2023
Supersizing higher education: Tracking the rise of mega buildings on university campuses
Mega buildings on higher education campuses aren’t unusual. But what has been different lately is the sheer number of supersized projects that have been in the works over the last 12–15 months.
Contractors | Apr 10, 2023
What makes prefabrication work? Factors every construction project should consider
There are many factors requiring careful consideration when determining whether a project is a good fit for prefabrication. JE Dunn’s Brian Burkett breaks down the most important considerations.
Smart Buildings | Apr 7, 2023
Carnegie Mellon University's research on advanced building sensors provokes heated controversy
A research project to test next-generation building sensors at Carnegie Mellon University provoked intense debate over the privacy implications of widespread deployment of the devices in a new 90,000-sf building. The light-switch-size devices, capable of measuring 12 types of data including motion and sound, were mounted in more than 300 locations throughout the building.
Architects | Apr 6, 2023
New tool from Perkins&Will will make public health data more accessible to designers and architects
Called PRECEDE, the dashboard is an open-source tool developed by Perkins&Will that draws on federal data to identify and assess community health priorities within the U.S. by location. The firm was recently awarded a $30,000 ASID Foundation Grant to enhance the tool.
Architects | Apr 6, 2023
Design for belonging: An introduction to inclusive design
The foundation of modern, formalized inclusive design can be traced back to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The movement has developed beyond the simple rules outlined by ADA regulations resulting in features like mothers’ rooms, prayer rooms, and inclusive restrooms.
Sports and Recreational Facilities | Mar 30, 2023
New University of St. Thomas sports arena will support school's move to Division I athletics
The University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minn., last year became the first Division III institution in the modern NCAA to transition directly to Division I. Plans for a new multipurpose sports arena on campus will support that move.
Designers | Mar 28, 2023
Inclusive design requires relearning how we read space
Pulling from his experience during a campus design workshop, David Johnson, AIA, LEED AP, encourages architects to better understand how to design spaces that are inclusive for everyone.