Eco-Laboratory Wins National Award

Weber Thompson’s Eco-Laboratory Wins National Award at 2008 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo

Conceptual “Living Building” Project Displays Integrated Design, Sustainability and Innovation

SEATTLE – Dec. 3, 2008 – Weber Thompson today announced that Eco-Laboratory, a conceptual high-rise project designed by four young designers at the firm, won the 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition at Greenbuild the USGBC’s annual International Conference and Expo in Boston.

Eco-Laboratory is a theoretical project set at the corner of Western Avenue and Vine Street in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, adjacent to the historic Belltown Cottage Park and the Belltown P-Patch, a community garden.  The conceptual design envisions a residential building and expanded garden, merging the existing neighborhood amenities – such as the neighborhood market, vocational training facility and a public sustainability educational center – into a financially viable residential development.

The Natural Talent Design Competition is a national competition open to young professionals who have worked in the design field for less than five years.  A panel of green building experts judged the entries on the 2008 Greenbuild theme, “Revolutionary Green: Innovations for Global Sustainability.”  Judges looked for designs that effectively and seamlessly integrated projects into their surroundings using the community’s existing resources. 

The Weber Thompson team incorporated the competition design goals into Eco-Laboratory through myriad innovative and sustainable features, including a rainwater-collection system, a hydroponic garden to grow food for the community, a biological wastewater treatment system to convert black water into greywater and potable water, and earth tubes, which funnel air cleaned by the P-Patch into the building through underground ducts.  The design also harnesses wind, solar, biofuel and hydrogen to create a net-zero energy building, meaning that energy sources create the same amount of energy used by the building. 

While each of these features is unique and innovative unto themselves, the most resourceful aspect of the building can be found in its interconnected systems, which create a closed cycle so the building and community are almost completely self-sustainable.  For example, the wastewater treatment system cleans black water generated in Eco Laboratory for reuse in other areas of the development, such as the hydroponic garden.  Methane, a byproduct of the wastewater treatment system, runs the hydrogen fuel cell, which in turn is combined with other energy-generating systems to provide electricity to the building and to heat water.

Eco-Laboratory mixes affordable housing units with market-rate housing.  The project also includes a hygiene station, job-training facilities, meals and basic shelter for Belltown’s working poor and homeless community, as well as an education center to teach the public about sustainability and urban agriculture.  A public farmers’ market provides a much-needed amenity to the Belltown community.

Eco-Laboratory had previously won the regional award in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Cascadia Chapter, qualifying for the national contest, where it competed against 16 other regional winners.

“We’re proud to be recognized for our cutting-edge design,” said Myer Harrell, Weber Thompson designer and LEED AP, who accepted the award.  “Eco-Laboratory blends culture and sustainability to provide a vision for a new type of housing that we hope will soon become a reality.”

Eco-Laboratory was designed by Harrell; landscape designer Dan Albert, LEED AP; and former Weber Thompson staff members Brian Geller, LEED AP; and Chris Dukehart.  The project took team members about five weeks of full-time effort to design.

EDITOR’S NOTE: High-resolution images of Eco-Laboratory are available on request.