The building expression does not hide from how it operates.

We were being asked to design the world’s first commercial office building to achieve Living Building certification—the most ambitious benchmark of sustainable design in the built environment. Designed as a leasable Class A office building, the Bullitt Center also had to be cost competitive to lease out at market rates in a non-urban location.

The conversations with our lead electrical engineer in initial design charettes proved to be instrumental to the architectural concept. It was apparent to me from those first meetings that the PV array was going to dominate the architectural conversations. Embracing that fact, the building expression does not hide from how it operates, balancing the output of the solar umbrella with the narrow geometry and high performance skin to reduce EUI, the building is a physical representation of net zero energy. Everything else, including the unique rain capture and treatment, fell into place nicely after those initial design moves. Accustomed to taking cues from structural and mechanical engineers to develop an integrated design concept, this was the first time in my career that it was an electrical engineer who had the largest influence.

The building has been operating on a net positive basis since it opened in 2013.

Awards