Technical Tours
Swale on Yale Tour 2019
For Seattle Public Utilities’ (SPU's) projects, there’s often more benefit than meets the eye. Such is the case for the Swale on Yale , a green stormwater infrastructure project started in 2012 and now in its second phase. The sustainability committee hosted a tour with SPU on October 18, 2019 to learn about the innovative public-private partnership project, where we review the project's sustainability!
Oldcastle Tour 2019
We hosted two tours at Oldcastle Infrastructure in September and October 2019. The tour included a presentation about sustainability for precast concrete products.
Bullitt Center Sustainability Tour 2016
We had another great sold-out tour and a fun and delicious happy hour! The beautiful, state-of-the-art Bullitt Center was showcased in fine Seattle sunshine. The presentation and tour were conducted by program manager, Deborah Sigler, and research associate, Michael Gilbride, and was supplemented by ASCE member Colleen Mitchell, who worked for 2020 Engineering on the building’s water systems. The tour provided an in-depth look at the innovative designs that make the center a “living building” - everything from foaming, composting toilets to green roofs and a solar array that generates as much as 60% excess electricity. This was an exciting look into hopefully the future of building technology!
CenturyLink Sustainability Tour 2015
Thank you to everyone who made it! It was a sold-out tour. The group visited the Seahawk's locker room, the podium where Coach Carroll comes out to talk after a game, the solar panels that the stadium uses, the large amount of recycling faciliites that CenturyLink field has, and many other things you would not know if you only sat in the stadium seats! Afterwards, the group went over to Pyramid for a happy hour hosted by the committee to network with others and talk about all the excitement we had on the tour.
Sustainability and Brews: Brightwater Treatment Plant
The committee had a tour of King County's Brightwater Treatment plant on April 25th followed by a happy hour at the Red Hook Brewery!
Bullitt Center Architect Lecture and Building Tour
On Friday, May 17, Miller-Hull hosted at their downtown Seattle office a group of over 20 engineers from ASCE at brown bag presentation. Miller-Hull provided the architectural services for the project. Then, on Wednesday May 22, the group visited the Bullitt Center to attend a tour by Prof. Robert Pena of the Urban Ecology Program at University of Washington.
The Bullitt Center is the greenest commercial building in the world, firmly planting Seattle at the forefront of the green building movement. This six-story, 50,000 square-foot building is located at the intersection of Capitol Hill and the Central District in Seattle. The building is seeking to meet the ambitious goals of the Living Building Challenge, the world’s most strenuous benchmark for sustainability. For example, a solar array will generate as much electricity as the building uses and rain will supply as much water, with all wastewater treated onsite.
