Today is Earth Day. Today the greenest commercial building in the world opens to the public in Seattle. The opening begins at 11 am. Now, I want you to read this description of the Bullitt Center by Denis Hayes, the head of the Bullitt Foundation:
It does not look at all like a douglas-fir forest but it is like a douglas-fir forest. The impact it has on this site is pretty much the same as a douglas-fir forest had on this site 200 years ago. The douglas-fir got all of its energy from the sun through photosynthesis, it gets its energy from the sun through photovoltaics. The forest supported a complex ecosystem; there’s a complex ecosystem in the building. The forest got water and disposed it in the ground, this building does the same for the most part. It disposes most of its water not in the bay but in the ground.
Now look at this image of the building, which was taken by Brad Kahn…
Though it tries to function like a forest, it does not try to look like one. But if the architect firm, Miller Hull, did try to make the building look like a forest, with its deep greens and dark browns, the building would then be in the same sad sphere as that one on Beacon Hill.
