Constructed to be a neighborhood-focused workplace and retail center, 35 Stone is a showcase for Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program, celebrating Seattle’s origins with its mass timber framework and an industrial inspired form, including metal wall and roofing panels from The Bryer Company.

“35 Stone is a high-performance office building designed to bring modern day office design into an industrial zone near Seattle’s Lake Union Waterfront,” says Kristen Scott, AIA, LEED AP, Senior Principal at Weber Thompson in Seattle. “The form of the building echoes historical industrial waterfront building typologies with a sloping roof creating a hard shell protecting the mass timber structure of the interior.”

The five-story office building/retail space is a “showcase for environmental stewardship,” according to a description on the Weber Thompson website. Scott says 35 Stone was designed to meet market demand for workplaces that support health and wellness. The project participated in the city’s Living Building Pilot Program, which gives additional area and height to buildings that meet rigorous energy and water reductions, along with three-petal certification from the International Living Future Institute.

An integral gutter system collects rainwater, allowing the roof to turn down and become the exterior siding material on the east and west façades.
Photo: The Byer Company

“Water reduction requirements meant that we needed the roof to capture as much of the rainwater as possible and direct it to a 270,000-gallon onsite cistern,” Scott says. “The standing seam metal roof minimizes water loss due to evaporation while supporting the water capture for reuse onsite for toilet flushing, exterior hose bibs and irrigation. An integral gutter system collects rainwater allowing the roof to turn down and become the exterior siding material on the east and west façades. The contrast of the standing seam metal paneling and the curtainwall glazing is eye-catching and a big part of the visual identity of the design.”

The Bryer Company supplied two wall panel profiles and 18,000 square feet of a single standing seam roofing profile. The 22-gauge, 12-inch TBC-Superseam roof panel in custom Smokey Blue captures rainwater. The wall panels were 22-gauge, 12-inch TBC-Ultra (14,200 square feet), produced in custom Smokey Blue and .032-inch aluminum 7/8 Corrugated panels (13,300 square feet) in custom Wescott Navy. Bryer also supplied 1,600 square feet of custom perforated panels. Northshore Exteriors Inc. of Seattle installed the Bryer panels over the course of nine months.

“The standing seam wall panels were particularly challenging since they have staggered transverse seams,” says Kristi Gouy, Senior Project Manager at Northshore. “The panels are 12 inches wide, so alignment across the entire façade was crucial to the final look. Bryer’s production team and QC team made sure all panels were uniform during production.”

The metal wall panels proved challenging due to staggered traverse seams, but the final result is stunning.
Photo: Moris Moreno / @morismoreno

The unique design and extra diligence during installation ensured effective rainwater harvesting.

“Critically, Bryer’s standing seam metal roofing product allowed us to create the ‘hard shell’ form with the continuous use of the material for the sloping roof transforming to exterior siding while concealing an integral gutter,” Scott says. “This expression forms a key part of the overall design concept for the building.”

She adds the perforated corrugated steel mesh screen on the exterior stairs provides some weather protection while still allowing for good daylighting and visual connection with the outdoors. “At night, the interior lights shining through the perforations create a lantern effect,” Scott says.

In addition to the cistern that saves more than 50 percent of water use compared to a typical Seattle commercial property, construction of 35 Stone uses 25 percent less energy than a typical building with finely tuned glazing placement to maximize views while balancing heat gain. Four rooftop bee hives produce more than 100 pounds of honey annually. Educational signage around the site connects to both the pre-development and post-industrial history of the site and highlights building performance features of the community.

35 Stone is one of the first Dowel Laminated Timber structures in the area. “The use of mass timber reduced embodied carbon by 35 percent compared to a steel structure,” Scott says. “The amount of timber used is regrown in approximately six minutes in the U.S. and Canadian forest land. The massive timber supports a large roof overhang showcasing the beauty and strength of timber products. We needed all of the roof area to capture enough rain to meet the water demand year-round onsite.”

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