Evening Program

Our presenters come from a variety of green building professions and are invited to share their stories of innovative advancement in all stages and styles of green building. Each presentation is just 10 minutes, and all speakers are coached, to provide a highly entertaining and informative evening. You don’t want to miss this!

Tim Hammer and Natalie Grimm
LEAN: Passive House Middle Housing in Downtown Seattle

Echo, is a 10-unit apartment building under construction in Seattle’s Lake Union neighborhood. The project is design-certified Passive House and pursuing Built Green 5-Star certification. The multifamily building replaces a single-family structure in the residential urban village, adding important middle housing. It utilizes a stacked flats design, that pushes the bounds of the single-family envelope while maintaining an urbanism-friendly street frontage. The two homes on the ground floor are both fully accessible and the top two units have high ceilings with lofted sleeping areas. These small efficiency dwelling units (SEDU) will help contribute to abundant housing choices downtown.

Max Stafford
UW Solar Decathlon: Home at Ease

Home at Ease is a design project developed by architecture and engineering undergraduates at the University of Washington as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2024 Solar Decathlon Design competition. Students selected to focus their design in Elma, Washington with the goal of facing the resiliency issues within the region as climate change progresses. Their vision for a single-family home aimed at adapting to an environment experiencing hotter drier summers and increased risks from wildfires. While the main emphasis of the competition is Net Zero Energy buildings, designs are judged across a wide range of categories such as affordability, beauty, embodied carbon, and community impacts. The Solar Decathlon is held annually at the University of Washington to encourage collaboration between faculty, industry, and multidisciplinary students to train students to be part of the clean energy workforce.

Martha Rose
Verona Street Dream Realized – After Twenty Years

Dreams often require determination, and sometimes it’s also decades in the making. Hear the trials, tribulations, and successes of Martha Rose’s more than 20-year journey to build her home in the City of Bellingham. She purchased a double lot with a 1970’s T1-11 “shack” in 2002 with the intention of building two detached dwellings. However, even though increasing density prevents sprawl, city planners determined the property had been downsized and could not accommodate more than one dwelling. Planned as her “grown-old-in home” she was determined to create a home that fostered community within its walls. Through smart design and creativity, she built a high-performance, three-unit abode disguised as a single-family home. It includes many of the signature Martha Rose features of high-performance design, material salvaging and reuse, and flexible design to accommodate multiple individuals or families.

Dave Bennink
Building Up an Industry That Takes Down Buildings

For over 30 years, Dave Bennink, of Re-Use Consulting, has been leading a charge to build up the circular economy throughout North America. He has helped start almost 100 circular construction businesses that employ over 1000 green-collar workers. Resulting in over 100 million pounds being diverted from the landfill and conserving the equivalent of more than 10,000 acres of standing-forest’s worth of reclaimed wood. Reuse Innovation Centers have reached a point that they are building their own structures out of its reclaimed building materials. Learn about the advances in building deconstruction, equity, historic preservation, designing for disassembly and how the State-wide Redistribution Network is helping reuse stores across Washington, connect with sustainable building contractors and suppliers in an effort to eliminate waste and get it to those in need.

Monica Guevara and Steve Gelb
Contractor Diversity is the Answer

Carissa Iris
Biophilic Design: Transforming Spaces and Enhancing Lives

Biophilic design is revolutionizing how we build, integrating natural elements to enhance both mental and physical well-being. Beyond the inclusion of plants, it incorporates natural light, materials, and views, significantly reducing stress, boosting mood, and increasing productivity. This holistic approach improves air quality, encourages physical activity, and fosters a profound connection to nature, which in turn enhances creativity, concentration, and overall life satisfaction. Environmentally, biophilic design promotes sustainable practices and reduces energy consumption. Economically, it raises property values and lowers healthcare costs. Socially, it fosters engagement and mental health, aligning with the growing demand for wellness-focused spaces. Practical applications range from maximizing natural light and using eco-friendly materials to incorporating plants and designing for natural views and sensory experiences. This interactive presentation will educate and inspire, showcasing how biophilic design can transform both our built environment and our communities.

Brittany Porter
Northlake Commons: A Biophilic Mass Timber Workplace

Northlake Commons is a biophilic, mass timber, speculative core and shell workplace project and LEED Platinum candidate on the shores of Seattle’s Lake Union. At 275,000 gross square feet, it is one of the largest, if not the largest, mass timber laboratory-ready buildings in the country. Using Northlake Commons as a case study, explore the opportunities and characteristics intrinsic to mass timber construction that help workplace buildings lower carbon footprints while providing differentiation in a competitive leasing market.

Matt Hutchins
HEAVY: A Partially-Buried CLT House in the Methow Valley

Looking like it surfaced from its meadow surroundings, the Berm House is mostly invisible from the approach, obscured by boulders pulled from the adjacent mountain and placed by the owner. The low-profile home is situated under a man-made berm that becomes a living roof–you can climb up and onto the house to get a fresh perspective on the panorama of mountain, forest, and farmland. Inspired by Passivhaus, the home is oriented linearly, with the long south-facing mostly glass façade optimizes winter solar exposure, while 6-foot overhangs protect from snowfall and intense summer sun. The roof structure is designed with regionally sourced cross-laminated timber (CLT) for significant loads. Thermal bridges were minimized by continuous external insulation including a raft of structural EPS, insulating it from the earth and air. Mechanical ventilation doesn’t penetrate the roof and heat pumps use the crawl space plenum to condition the interior. Eventually, the living roof will be home to the Valley’s restored pioneer schoolhouse.

Julie Blazek and Tom Balderston
Passive House Meets a Public Library

The Mount Vernon Library Commons is ground-breaking on many levels. It is one of the first publicly bid projects to pursue Passive House certification. It is all electric and will be the largest public EV Charging station in the country. It’s estimated to have an overall Global Warming Potential (GWP) reduction of 45% from traditional construction. The concrete, which constitutes 55% of the overall building materials, has been designed to reduce its GWP by over 40%. This focus on reducing GWP changed the way the design team, the local suppliers, and the contractor needed to approach the project. This project demonstrates the high-performance, resilience, carbon-reduction, and energy savings that are taking place in a small, forward-thinking rural city in Washington State. The Mount Vernon Library Commons represents the future of public construction and serves as a model for those who believe that this type of project can’t happen without a private developer, a design-build approach, or outside of a large metropolitan center.

Linda Pruitt
Thornton Creek Commons: Salvage and Rebirth

Thornton Creek Commons is a new, nine-home Built Green 5-Star certified, high performance community located on the site of the former St. George Episcopal Church in NE Seattle’s Olympic Hills neighborhood. The existing 8,000 square foot (SF) church structure was deconstructed, salvaging 90% of the materials for use in the new homes. Original old growth, hand-split cedar siding from the church was used as siding on garages and for fence material. Framing material and 3.5 inch thick car decking paneling was milled into solid wood flooring for four of the nine homes. Dimensional lumber was used in the framing of the 9 new homes. The 1.5 acre riparian open space adjacent to Thornton Creek was cleared of invasive blackberry and ivy and is undergoing a restoration of the Riparian habitat. The open space also serves as a private park for the 9 owners at Thornton Creek Commons. The homes range from 1600 to 2400 SF and respond to the needs of small households, families and multigenerational living.