The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus has been awarded LEED Platinum for New Construction, making it the largest, non-profit LEED-NC Platinum building in the world.
Open to the public in July 2011, the new 900,000ft2 campus reflects its commitment to philanthropy and its roots in the Pacific Northwest. The Foundation and design team's goal since the beginning of design was to make sure that sustainability was incorporated into all aspects of the campus. In October 2005, Arup's Seattle office joined the NBBJ-led design team to help them achieve these goals.
“A sustainable campus was a natural result of the foundation’s overall philosophy, keeping in line with values to be a good steward and positive addition to the neighborhood. We share this [LEED-NC Platinum] award with our many partners on the project – who all shared a common goal to build the right building for foundation staff to do their best work, while keeping an eye on mitigating impact to the local community.
- Martha Choe, chief administrative officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
As part of an integrated and collaborative team including NBBJ, Sellen, Seneca Group, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and others, Arup’s contributions to the project included structural, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering, as well as façades, acoustics, information-communications, materials, and audio-visual consulting.
“This is a fantastic achievement for the project and the team that delivered this outcome. Perhaps most satisfying is that this sustainability achievement was the result of an integrated and engaged design process, not a race to acquire points. The design choices that the team selected have resulted in a high performance building.
- Cormac Deavy, Principal at Arup, project director and design leader for the engineering team
The LEED certification system is the nation's preeminent, third-party verification program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. More than 7,000 projects in the world have achieved some level of LEED certification since the program began in 1993, but fewer than 8% of all LEED projects have been awarded Platinum, which is the highest achievement in the LEED program.