Case Study

Vital Stats Location: Seattle Star Level: 4-Star Checklist: Multifamily Section Points Site and Water 183 Energy Efficiency 88 Indoor Air Quality 86 Material Efficiency 87 Multiplier 1.0 Total Score 441

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Urban Partners
Seattle, WA

The first ever 4-Star Built Green multifamily high-rise building in Washington has arrived, and it's called Aspira. Developed by Urban Partners, the 37-story building in downtown Seattle’s Denny Triangle has 325 apartment units and 6,000 square feet of first-floor retail. The building is the first multifamily building to meet Built Green’s higher-level energy benchmarks, the most difficult energy minimums of any program in the country. The project was developed through King County’s Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program to protect a section of Sugarloaf Mountain as open space. A participant in Seattle’s Green Streets program, Aspria is a transit-oriented, mixed-use development that even provides electric vehicle charging stations in the parking garage. A more comprehensive summary of the green building features in the building are below, but without a doubt, the project represents a big step toward the future of dense, urban residential green building.

Some of the many green features of the project include:

Site and Water Protection

• Transit-oriented mixed-use development
• Participant in Seattle Green Streets program
• Includes structured parking within the building footprint
• Community common areas include a rooftop deck, media room, party room with kitchen, yoga center and fitness center
• Developed integrated design plan and used charettes to inform design of building
• Installed low flow fixtures for all showerheads and faucets
• Native drought-tolerant plants used in all landscaping
• Used high albedo roof for 70 percent of roof surface to mitigate urban heat island effect
• Dual-flush toilets installed in all units other than ADA designed units

Energy Efficiency

• Envelope designed and built to use 17 percent less energy than required by new construction energy code, a difficult feat in a building of this size
• Building went through commissioning process at completion
• Installed high-efficiency water-source heat pumps in each unit
• Centralized natural-gas hydronic-heating system with 93 percent efficient boiler
• Used high-efficiency central-water heating for building
• Installation of Energy Star exhaust fans in all units

Indoor Air Quality

• Building is designated as non-smoking
• Installation of green-label-certified carpeting where carpeting was used
• Used only low VOC paints on all interior surfaces
• Envelope was inspected at various phases of design and construction by envelope consultant
• Air intakes placed to avoid air pollution sources
• Hardwired carbon monoxide detectors in each unit with a combustion device
• Sealed combustion heating and hot water equipment installed
• Provided permanently installed track-off mats at major entrances to building
• All units have operable windows

Material Use

• 88 percent total-construction waste-recycling rate achieved through both source separation and commingled recycling
• Practiced waste prevention strategies and used at least 10 materials with recycled content in project
• High emphasis on durability, designed as a 100-year building
• Provided in-building recycling center
• Used locally produced and salvaged sources for block
• Used ductile core design to reduce formwork waste
• Reduced post-tension slab thickness and increased column spacing to save 813 cubic yards of concrete
• Used FSC-certified Ipe decking for rooftop common area
• Bamboo paneling used in building lobby

Still Images

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All exterior photographs courtesy of Jules Frazier, penthouse shots courtesy of Rhapsody Marketing.