The downtown Seattle design review board met yesterday to discuss the proposal for 1800 Terry, a unique 36-story, 360-unit residential building with 7,600 square feet of ground floor retail and parking for 290 vehicles across six levels in the Denny Triangle.
Owner Seawest Investment Associates has teamed up with architect CollinsWoerman and landscape designer Brumbaugh & Associates to make 1800 Terry the first Seattle DPD Priority Green urban high-rise project. According to the proposal, the building’s infrastructure would be green-focused, “utilizing solar-powered unit heating and domestic hot water; a grey water treatment system, and LED/low voltage lighting throughout the building.” One of the options for the proposed building plan would employ Sustainable Living Innovation’s patented modular construction technology. Haven’t heard of it? Here’s Puget Sound Business Journal to break it down:
“Modular buildings are put together a bit like Ikea furniture. Customers buy a kit of parts and then have to assemble them. In the case of a building, apartments are built in a factory and shipped to the construction site where cranes lift and stack the units on the the frame of the building.”
But what about the meatballs? The method was designed to reduce water and energy use by 50 percent and shave 20 percent off construction costs for comparable buildings, reports Sustainable Living Innovation. If this method is chosen, 1800 Terry would be the first Seattle high-rise to use the technology.
The smaller 47+7 apartment building in University Village was built using this method in 2015. According to the SLI website, the project took less than a year to complete. The U-District project broke ground August 4th, 2014 and was finished April 1st, 2015. The design was recently honored at the People’s Choice Urban Design Awards.
SLI has an exclusive license to use the component part technology in North American, but CollinsWoerman has plans to take this innovative show on the road. In 2013 the architecture firm was introduced to Intellectual Ventures, a company specializing in intellectual property. The two companies announced the formation of Innovative Building Technologies (IBT) in 2014. IBT is a “joint venture with the mission of commercializing new inventions for the design and construction of mid- and high-rise residential projects from a proprietary kit of prefabricated component parts.” IBT has its sights set on global licensees for the modular construction technology in other markets, including China, Japan and Vietnam.
