Environmental building continues at the University of Washington’s campus in Seattle with the new Benjamin Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building, the most recent structure to achieve LEED-Gold status. This building is at the very southwest tip of campus, almost under the Portage Bay Bridge. It doesn’t look like much from the Burke-Gilman, but from the front you can tell it’s designed with a spectacular view— looks over the water towards downtown. The university employed a Design-Build-Operate-Maintain model similar to what was planned for the ill-fated Green Monorail line in Seattle. Since the same entity is responsible for constructing and managing the building, there is more focus on the long-term energy costs built into design. For example, an electrical contractor might be advised to install thicker gauge wiring, which has a higher initial cost, but in the long-term life of the building, it would end up being the most efficient and cost-effective.

Richard Chapman, UW vice president for Capital Projects says:

“The decision to build the research center as a DBOM was made for several reasons, which include, obtaining true life cycle cost analysis in energy consumption, speed of delivery of the building, and lowest overall cost to the University.�

Three firms involved with building and operating the Research Center— M.A. Mortenson Company the lead and construction contractor; Collins Woerman, architecture and Johnson Controls, building management.

While we can look forward to more LEED-certified buildings at the University of Washington, Design-Build-Operate-Maintain won’t be the standard construction model. Richard Chapman, again:

“DBOM is a great tool and has its place in our execution strategies for a limited amount of opportunities. For our bigger projects (DBOM by State law has to be for projects costing more than $10 million) GC/CM (General Contractor/Construction Manager) or Design-Bid-Build are the best tools.�

Six other univeristy facilities intended to achieve LEED-Silver or greater are currently under design or construction. The most famous existing LEED-certified UW structure is Merill Hall, which was built to replace the horticulture center, destroyed by arson in 2001. The Nordheim Court single-student housing fascility is LEED certified as are the Tacoma Branch and the Educational Outreach Center.

Other resources: Real time report of the solar electricity being generated at Merrill Hall.