The Cobb Building was one of only three projects selected by both Professional and Public Juries to highlight as "new models for progressive urban living". Eleven projects, total, were selected from among over 70 entries.
GGLO worked with the management company, Unico, in redeveloping and repurposing the historic structure. Built in 1910, the 11-story Cobb Building made history as one of the first commercial buildings in the United States to exclusively offer medical and dental offices. Nearly 100 years later, The Cobb leads the market again by joining a select group of historic renovations awarded LEED certification.
The location of the Cobb in Seattle's core reduces strain on habitat and preserves natural resources while being close to work, recreation and public transportation options. 22% of the site area converted rooftops to vegetation to exceed the open space requirements and to provide habitat and respite for residents and their pets in the middle of Seattle.
Low-flow showerheads, faucets, dual flush toilets and high efficiency appliances were installed and a hybrid heat pump system heats & cools units. Heat rejected during the cooling mode preheats domestic hot water system to save about 5% a year over typical water source heat pump.
The Cobb is a participant in GGLO’s ongoing Building Performance Evaluation of multifamily projects in the Seattle area in order to assess building performance relative to design intention.
Read more about FutureShack and the Cobb here:
On August 30 The New York Times featured an article by Mireya Navarro that looked at building performance post LEED certification and found that many LEED certified buildings are not living up to expectation. Why? Most often to blame were low efficiency mechanical systems and design that did not focus on energy-saving measures. Audits of post occupancy energy use showed poorly for energy efficiency. In fact, the USGBC found that possibly "a quarter of the new buildings that have been certified do not save as much energy as their designs predicted and that most do not track energy consumption once in use."
The USGBC is considering measures to combat this issue. The article states that, "starting this year, the program also is requiring all newly constructed buildings to provide energy and water bills for the first five years of operation as a condition for certification." There has also been discussion of overturning certification or withholding it until energy efficiency in the occupied building can be proven.
All of this points to the importance of designing for energy efficiency in the pursuit of truly sustainable buildings and neighborhoods. It was this realization that drove GGLO to begin tracking building performance a while back and develop our Building Performance Evaluation program and services. Read about GGLO's building performance evaluation services (BPE) here.
Read the article here. (Subscription required)
GGLO’s Sean Canady and Don Vehige presented “Density Done Right” at the Smart Growth conference last Friday in Bellingham, Washington. For this session Don and Sean showed a montage of built mixed-use projects to demonstrate density models. Specifically, the team presented two regional case studies, Juanita Village and Burien Town Square, that focus on traditional mixed-use residential/commercial/civic urban neighborhood centers while championing the design of density done right.
The session was followed by a “Plan Slam”, an interactive, thirty-minute charrette. See more about the event here. Request a copy of this presentation here.
Jory, the restaurant at the Allison Inn and Spa in Newberg, Oregon is open for business and has just received their first review on yelp.com (an extremely positive one). Speaking to the design, the reviewer posted that "the facility, the building itself, is amazing. Everything is beautiful and very, very high end. The cool part for me is that it's all sustainable. All the way down to the woven bamboo drink coasters at the bar."
Jory was named for Oregon's official state soil, a volcanic soil notable for it's minerality and drainage, which produces such excellent wine growing conditions in the Willamette Valley.
Read the review for yourself at: http://www.yelp.com/biz/jory-restaurant-at-the-allison-inn-and-spa-sherwood
And visit Jory at the Allison: http://www.theallison.com/
The Cobb Building was one of only three projects selected by both Professional and Public Juries to highlight as "new models for progressive urban living". Eleven projects, total, were selected from among over 70 entries.
