Spatial

The Federal Center South Building 1202 is designed as oxbow shape, which provides the greatest flexibility for work groups to expand and contract as needed, while the narrow floor plate optimizes daylight penetration. And all three levels surround the central atrium which is the social heart of the building where all shared services are located.

Qualitative

The building roof form is distinguished by a sloped atrium skylight and clerestory. And the building is clad in stainless steel shingles that reflect light variations from shingle to shingle and give the building the allusion of being covered by fish scales. Vertical and horizontal sun shading elements contribute detail and texture to the façade.

The project’s primary perimeter diagrid structure, essentially a large truss with diagonal columns tied floor plates, allows for progressive collapse as well as a significant reduction in steel use. The project sits on fill with piles that act as stilts during seismic events, allowing for the building to remain standing if liquefaction were to occur.

Structural system

The building tries to organize around the work place of the USACE, therefore, the open and flexible “oxbow” building form is designed as the part of an integrated strategy to provide a completely unified and flexible footprint while creating a collective identity for all departments and 700 employees who occupy the building.

As we can see, the open-plan workstations surround the central “commons” which forms the social heart of the building and houses all shared resources, including conference rooms, kitchenettes, the library and informal seating areas to encourage interaction and create a sense of community.

Interior system

There are three floors for people to work together within a highly connected and flexible environment to share and communicate.

The first floor has two parts, the oxbow space ensures direct and more efficient support for employee workspaces. And the centralized grouping of conference rooms and meeting facilities increases room use rates, provides flexibility and shared ownership and encourages gathering, mingling and connection between non-adjacent departments. The function in 2nd and 3rd floors are similar to the first floor. And, the workstation cubicle height of 50 inches provides virtually everyone with a view to the outside. The narrow 60 foot floorplate of the office bar optimizes daylight penetration to reach nearly all workstations and reduce the need for artificial lighting and associated energy cost.

Besides, atrium bridges and stairs clad in reclaimed timber decking connect people throughout the building and are adjacent to informal seating and "touch-down" work surfaces to encourage impromptu collaboration.

The U-shaped design inspired by the oxbows originally formed in the Duwamish River as it coursed towards Elliott Bay and the Puget Sound, and the building's orientation toward the water. And the diagonal forms on the west-facing ends of the building promote this structural theme in a dynamic formal statement along the river's edge.

Federal Center South Building 1202

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External/Landscape

The Federal Center South Building 1202 includes bicycle trails and facilities available to employees to encourage alternative transportation to and from the work place. Space for 40 employee bicycles are protected by an overhang.

Inside the building, employees have access to lockers and shower facilities. And the building seizes views to create a strong inside-out/outside-in relationship between buildings, the campus, and the natural amenities of the Duwamish waterway.

Besides, around the building, although this place used to be a brownfield site, we can see numerous greenery areas. And near by the building, there is a courtyard, park and wetland, which connected with the river and provide with environmental friendly working atmosphere.

Quantitative

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1st floor

2nd floor

3rd floor

The gross floor area is 209,000 square feet. And the conditioned space area is 188,587 square feet. Besides, the total cost of the building is $72 million, and the cost per square foot is $354.

There is a re-use plan called Timber reclamation planwhich aims at reusing portions of the existing warehouse that previously stood on the site in the design of the new 1202 building, approximately 100,000 board feet of salvageable structural timber and 200,000 board feet of decking (92%) was reclaimed to form the commons foundation, structural system, and interior cladding.