Seattle - Hubbard Project
Adaptive Re-use Sustainability Project
The Hubbard's Corner project, spearheaded by veteran structural engineer Don Davies and , is a notable sustainable development endeavor located in the Green Lake section of Seattle. This adaptive-reuse and seismic-retrofit initiative focuses on breathing new life into a historic 1912 brick building. Comprising 5,126 square feet, the two-story structure is designed with unreinforced masonry bearing walls and flexible wood diaphragms.
The ground floor is dedicated to a restaurant with a 10-year lease, while the upper level accommodates offices, including those of Davies-Crooks. This unique project serves as a living laboratory to showcase cutting-edge low-embodied-carbon systems and materials, spanning cement, concrete, steel, timber, and insulation. The developers, who transitioned from their roles as structural engineer and environmental policy activist to commercial developers, aim to not only extend the building's lifespan by a century but also to create a development model for embodied-carbon reduction, emphasizing a hands-on, collaborative approach.
Timeline
Sept. 2023 - Present
Greenlake Project Building Systems
Materials and Technologies Used:
C-Crete Concrete: A novel material supplied by Heidelberg Materials, described as the most unique material in the building. It is a low-carbon concrete alternative with a portland-cement-free binder from C-Crete Technologies.
ProZero Bio-Block: Microalgae-based substitute for concrete block used in the basement mechanical room, produced by Prometheus Materials Inc.
Sublime Cement: A portland-cement substitute produced using an electrochemical process, used in ProZero walls, exterior slab on grade, and sidewalk.
VersaWorks Veneer-Laminated-Timber Panels: Used as shear walls on the second floor, provided by Boise Cascade.
HempWool: Bio-based thermal and acoustical insulation made of 90% natural fiber, used in walls and ceilings, supplied by Hempitecture.
Structural Steel Innovation:
90% of the 10 tons of structural steel used in the project were selected from the steel fabricator's "boneyard," containing leftovers from previous orders.
Collaborative Design Approach:
The project employed a collaborative approach to minimize the mill order for new steel, reduce costs, and repurpose leftover materials from previous orders.
Embodied Carbon Reduction:
The project aims to track over 75% below an average construction project of this size embodied carbon baseline.
Preliminary data suggests a significant reduction in embodied carbon, though achieving a truly carbon-negative footprint is challenging.
My Role
My primary role on the project was to ensure sustainability, working with the Don, and all parties involved in the project to source sustainable material.
I was also responsible for Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis on each stage of the project. Which often meant working closely with each supplier to collect Environmental Product Data (EPDs), in some case working and pushing manufactures to create an EPD for their product. This project is also utilized by me as case study for lot of sustainability tools in the market, in coordination with Building Transparency to optimized their tool chest such as TallyLCA, TallyCAT and EC3. All this approach for sustainability class at University of Washington
