Greenest ever office building breaks ground in Seattle

Los Angeles Times : Billed as the first commercial building designed to carry its own environmental weight, Seattle’s Bullitt Center, which began construction yesterday, will generate its own power, process its own waste, and use only its own rainwater—for the next 250 years. The goal of the conservation-minded Bullitt Foundation is to construct the largest net-zero-energy and net-zero-water building ever. Although overall design and construction will cost about a third more than a conventional building and getting a bank to finance it has proven to be a challenge, the center could become ever more attractive as electricity and water become scarcer, according to the foundation. Among its features are a latticed overstory of solar panels, a giant cistern for collecting rainwater, higher ceilings, and taller windows that can be opened to let breezes through. The Bullitt Center is one of 12 “living buildings"—designed to generate as much power as they consume and to process their own wastewater—currently in progress in Seattle.