Rainwater recycling residences in funky Fremont

Footprint at the Bridge, a LEED Platinum-seeking development in Seattle's Fremont district, focuses on recycling a resource that's not exactly in short supply.

Thu, Jan 13 2011 at 12:15 PM

Related Topics:

Green Architecture, Green Building, Green Design, LEED, Water Conservation

Footprint at the Bridge, a LEED-seeking multifamily project in Fremont, Seattle.

Images: Johnston Architects PLLC

Another day, another notable green residential building project out of Seattle worth profiling …

Last week, it was a LEED Platinum-seeking modular abode installed as an urban infill project in the city’s Jackson Place neighborhood. Today, it’s another LEED Platinum-seeking project — this one a multifamily townhouse development across town in the free-spirited Fremont district, aka “The Center of the Universe,” home to concrete trolls, Lenin statues, and clothing-optional bike parades celebrating Summer Solstice.

Although the Johnston Architects-designed Footprint at the Bridge was completed in 2009, it’s still seeking LEED Platinum certification. And I hope that the project eventually achieves it — the FSC wood-clad, U-shaped cluster of seven townhouses is a true Pacific Northwest beauty.

Built on the former site of a beloved but down-and-out motel near the bustling Aurora Bridge, Footprint at the Bridge boasts passive solar design, natural ventilation, solar panels, an energy recover ventilator, a community garden, the use of low-VOC materials and finishes, triple-paned windows, and a nifty vegetation-covered screen wall that “wraps the community yielding both visual and acoustic privacy, rarities in an urban environment.”

However, perhaps the most remarkable green feature at Footprint at the Bridge has to do with the recycling of something that’s not in short supply in Fremont (no, not body paint or bike parts) or in all of Seattle for that matter: rainwater.

Johnston Architects explains:

The project is designed with a major emphasis on water efficiency and storm water recycling. Rainwater is collected from the rooftop and courtyard areas and conveyed to a large cistern in the garage, where it is filtered and then re-used on an as-needed basis. This building is projected to save over 50% of the energy used in a standard Washington code-based building of the same size. The project is targeting a 50% reduction over IECC (International Energy Conservation Code) as well as potable water use reduction targeted at over 100,000 gallons per year for the project relative to a standard code-based construction.

The price for living in a high-end Seattle townhouse with a 22,000-gallon cistern in the garage? According to a 2009 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, the homes were selling for $690,000 to $750,000.

Head on over to both the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and ArchDaily for more info and images of Footprint at the Bridge. The P.I. has some great shots of funky, true-to-Fremont art gracing the side of the building. And for a look at another amazing, eco-friendly Johnston Architects-designed project, this one in the Cascade Foothills, check out my post on the Schell-Wheeler House.

Via [ArchDaily], [Seattle P.I.]

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Comments: 2

jmorrow May 26 2011 at 9:11 AM

Correction. This project is LEED PLATINUM Certified. Certified in 2009. This can be verified w/ O'Brien & Associates & LEED.

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timallard Jan 20 2011 at 10:59 AM

Consider the lower downspout, now use a decent pipe and small outlet with a float valve to keep the head height at the eave, you have 8-feet of potential, a 2,000-sf roof in 1/10-inch of rain produces 10,000-watts of battery power, then add a tiny windmill at the eave to move about water back up and there is 20-kilowatts per tenth of an inch of rain. In the last storm in Seattle, 7-9 days and over 6-inches of rain, that's 1.2 megawatts from this system for this one home. Do the math, easy to manufacture

.... More

and put into the big-box stores so anyone can buy them, helps people with PV-battery systems the most, charges when the sun isn't shining.