This year we have a large mentoring team of 16 professionals working with 21 students. The students are immersed into design problems, construction schedules and budgets at a level of exposure equal to upper-level college courses. The mix of students from different schools and classes gives participants the opportunity to learn from others and to work together much like an actual design and construction team would work on its projects.

The design problem for this year is to design a sports arena to accommodate both the Supers Sonics basketball team and a new hockey team. The 17,000 seat stadium with practice facilities, retail, and vending services presents challenging design problems for the entire team. Along with conceptual study models, the students generated a 3D SketchUp computer model. More specifically, the Structural team has worked out a 350 foot roof truss design; the Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing team developed design strategies to conserve energy and water by providing solar panels and reusing rain water to flush toilets; and the Architectural team provided the visual expression. This year’s design problem is extra challenging due to the complexity of the project–and is forcing the students to look at very difficult problems and how to break them down into more manageable pieces. The students will have the opportunity to submit their proposed design titled the ‘Pearl Stadium’ at a final presentation event for all area teams on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, at 6:30pm, at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. Feel free to attend!

Miller Hull Partner, Norm Strong, introduced the program to our office after hearing about the national program at an AIA Conference, and about ten Miller Hull employees have filled the teams over the years. Of my six years being a mentor – currently in my fifth year as a team leader – I am continually amazed at the students’ skills and understanding of the design concepts. The opportunity to share from own my experiences and enthusiasm for the architecture profession with the these young, inquisitive minds makes me feel hopeful and confident they will be able to make knowledgeable decisions to become architects, if they wish.

If I would have had access to a similar program when I was in high school, I could have focused efforts my first year in college on becoming an architect vs. a veterinarian. Coming from a small rural community in the Midwest, this program might not have not have been available to me, and it is surprising how far some of the ACE program students in our area are willing to travel for this experience – coming from as far away as Gig Harbor, Silverdale, Kingston, and Woodinville. Whether by ferry, bus or stuck on a crowded freeway, they are still driven to make their way to the city for meetings.

Along with exposing students to the design and construction professions, ACE provides college scholarships at both the local and national level. Aya Mears from Sammamish High School was awarded this year’s Miller Hull ACE Scholarship, receiving $2500 to pursue a degree in Architecture at Cornell University. This year the Seattle ACE Chapter granted $28,000 to seven students at the annual scholarship breakfast–bringing the total since 2001 to over $305,000 in scholarship funds.

As this year of mentoring comes to a close, I look forward to the underclass students returning for another year with ACE next fall, and to hearing how college classes are going for the seniors from years past. It is great to work at a design firm that not only maintains a university-level internship program, but which also supports outreach to high school students. Our office benefits from the enthusiasm and creativity of young people in our midst! And thanks to all of the ACE mentors in the architectural, construction and engineering firms for donating funds and time to such a great program – part of the national organization which won the 2010 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Consider joining us or your local chapter in mentoring the potential AEC professionals of tomorrow!

As architects we often find ourselves trying to coax clients into pursuing more efficient, environmentally responsible buildings.

With the Bullitt Foundation and its president, Denis Hayes, that clearly wasn’t the case, as the Bullitt Center was envisioned as a landmark prototype for green, urban buildings. Targeting the rigorous requirements of the Living Building Challenge green-building certification program, the Bullitt Center was projected to be twice as efficient as any building our firm had designed to date, at least on paper.

Albert Einstein famously noted that “we can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” So keeping in mind that buildings in the U.S. consume about half our energy and are responsible for half of all carbon dioxide emissions, we understood from day one that the design process for the Bullitt Center would have to be adaptable and creative given the mandate to create a structure with essentially no environmental footprint.

The design process was driven more by energy-performance than aesthetics. To design a building that will serve as an example for others to learn from and improve upon, we wondered if we would have to change the way we design if we were going to create a better building. The outcome represents a new paradigm for our design process, changing how we seek to achieve enhanced performance balanced with beautiful design.

Integrated design process

The architect has historically operated on one end of a vertical design process that sometimes results in buildings that cost more and are less energy-efficient than they would be if engineers and other project partners were included in the design process.

For the Bullitt Center we implemented an integrated design process that enabled us to bring architects, engineers and contractors together from the beginning to develop a holistic design in keeping with our client’s uncompromising sustainability goals. We soon realized that to power on site a six-story, 50,000-square-foot building, we were looking at what would have to be one of the most energy-efficient buildings ever designed. The margin of error between the projected power supply and the demand was razor thin, which required that every design decision needed to get us closer to the net-zero energy goal. It was clear to us that the goals of the Bullitt Center were pushing us beyond merely an integrated design model into what we have come to refer to as performance-based design.

Under this new design paradigm, formal moves are secondary to the optimization of building systems. The massing of the building isn’t driven by metaphor or aesthetics but rather by performance metrics such as the quality of natural light and ventilation. The orientation and layout of the windows are driven by an even distribution of daylight on the interior rather than by the composition of the facades. Meeting the requirements of the Living Building Challenge means the selection of structural systems and materials is based on where they can be sourced and their relative carbon footprint.

If we design for performance first, what happens to the appearance, aesthetics and composition of the architecture? Typically we strive to design intelligent and efficient buildings that are conceptually clear and compelling. But in this case we were going to have to do more with less.

An integrated, performance-based design process overlaid with the Living Building Challenge gives us a building that is intelligent and does not deplete our resources, is more natural and less toxic, more regional and less global. But doing more with less doesn’t mean that our quality of life or the quality of the experience of our buildings have to be less. In fact, we feel it’s exactly the opposite.

Happily, we found that a performance-driven design process actually opens up new formal opportunities.

For example, the parallel projection windows installed at the Bullitt Center perform at a higher level for a longer period of time than other window systems, and fully automated retractable blinds control glare and block the heat before it warms up the building. The combination of the automated blinds and efficient windows in turn provides an interesting, layered facade that adjusts through the course of a day while doing its job of modulating the interior environment. And the use of heavy timber framing helps reduce the building’s carbon footprint while leveraging the beauty of this natural regional material as a dramatic interior component.

Another prominent aspect of the design is the transparent staircase perched above Madison Street. Denis Hayes requested an “irresistible stair” that would lure people out of the elevator — not just to save energy, but to ensure a healthier daily routine for building occupants and to foster a stronger sense of community within the building. With this feature, building performance is improved and we get a noteworthy vertical element on the building that animates the facade, connects building occupants inside and to the neighborhood, and provides spectacular views that keeps people climbing the stairs.

The roof of the Bullitt Center is perhaps its most defining element. Large roof overhangs have always been a part of the Pacific Northwest design vernacular, but in this case we could never have justified such a heroic roof if it weren’t purely for the generation of clean, renewable electricity. While this was the most debated aspect of the building from a design point of view, it is worth pointing out that the rooftop photovoltaic arrays, while they might increase the perceived height or extent of the building, create electricity without the need for an externalized utility infrastructure — poles, wires, transmission towers — or the pollution associated with combustion.

We have also found the rigorous performance-based design process generates an architectural expression of interdependencies similar to what can be found in nature, with final building design expressive of the systems within, everything in its place in an organic, natural synthesis.

This reliance on performance to direct design is not to say that the architecture doesn’t matter. We still need to craft the expression of these systems and components in a compelling way with the parts organized to satisfy not only the science but the art of the building as well. While “form follows function” is more about programmatic solutions, performance-driven designs will have an elegant efficiency and simplicity.

Our advances

While the Miller Hull Partnership is grounded in sustainable design, the challenge of designing the Bullitt Center has helped us to refine and focus the way we practice architecture. The introduction of new systems technologies and performance-driven materials is reenergizing design possibilities, and it is exciting to be on the forefront of a revolution in how we design and construct buildings.

Beyond material and systems considerations, we are inclined to push for an integrated process that streamlines reaching performance and aesthetic goals. Building on collaborative efforts, we have developed a set of tools that enables us to quickly optimize the use of daylighting and photovoltaics.

In addition to the tools, we have assembled a collective knowledge within the office that individual teams can mine for use in any context, on any project. We are now better able to educate clients about the benefits of sustainable choices, helping them to make decisions that consider life-cycle costs, material toxicity and the health and well-being of building occupants. To better understand the actual performance of our projects we have begun a process to track and analyze this information. This database gives us a reality check. We want all architects to be fluent with their understanding of each project’s relative energy efficiency, and better yet, how the actual performance matches up to the predicted performance.

The world is increasingly being forced to confront critical issues with regard to energy and climate change. We as architects want to know that we are doing everything in our power to help chart a course forward. Thanks to the vision and commitment of the Bullitt Foundation, the Pacific Northwest will soon have an example of what that future might look like.

Mac's house

Recently I was fortunate to be invited by Steve Badanesand Linda Beaumont to travel to the Rural Studio in Hale County Alabama and be part of the review team for the annual Soup Roast. There I got to see a vision of architecture of service, poetry, and hands-on community engagement and creation. I visited past projects, saw the status of current projects, and critiqued several future projects. The student work, and faculty attitude and dedication to explorations of design and community engagement was completely inspiring, refreshing and invigorating.

The Rural Studio has been a program through Auburn University in Hale County Alabama since 1993 to provide students with hands on experience in rural Alabama’s Black Belt region. Students take on the important aspects of becoming a “Citizen Architect”–they meet with clients and consultants, create budgets and fund-raise, design and build these projects, and they interact with the clients and municipalities after the projects are complete.

Perry Lakes Pavilion

Finally, working for and with an under-served population, they promote the philosophy and core belief of the program that “everyone, both rich or poor, deserves the benefit of good design.” The good design they practice holds countless examples of being functional (building rugged restrooms for parks and play fields) and soulful (the rest rooms may be 20’ tall, or house a tree within them!)

One of the projects I helped review was the Newbern Public Library. Students presented their analysis and focused their attention towards creating social space for the community through the remodel of a crumbling former bank into the Newbern Public Library.

(future) Newbern Public Library

How will they accomplish their goals? With lots of dust covered hands-on-work, community input, a few missteps that will ultimately become opportunities. Along the way forward they will be challenged to reuse existing materials, meet their budget constraints, and continue to have public critiques of their work. By the time the project is completed, the team will have reached out to consultants, local craftspeople, community leaders, and learned to work well together.

This, like nearly every completed project I saw there, pushed the students to be active participants in an education that goes beyond the usual undergraduate experience, and may even exceed the typical professional experience. The great work they do is more proof that professional designers should value these added experiences−as they help cultivate a vision of architecture that recognizes the strength of civic engagement and collaboration. An architecture that bridges the pragmatic and poetic, and reminds us what good design should do for all.

Safe House

Thinnings Bathhouse

During my stay, I also had the chance to eat a lot, be part of a sing-a-long, and give a short talk to the students. ”Things I Learned from Building’ is a collection of the learning which carries over from my experiences as a builder in Seattle prior to and during years of graduate school while I made a living building with amazing people, was part of several fantastic projects, and made lifelong friends.

The following lessons are just as important to budding designers to think about as they look to become successful leaders and participants of design projects and teams, as they are for me to remember now in my work at Miller Hull – and as they were when I was pulling tarps over second floor additions in the rain years ago. (click images for links to more information).

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‘Things I Learned from Building’

Look Busy
• If you don’t know what to do…. sharpen your pencil or draw though a detail. Don’t stand around with your hands in your pockets.

Clients are important
• Everyone who has been part of a great project has at one point said some version of “Great clients=great projects” One of the most important parts of our job is to learn to talk to our clients and help them give the most to the project.

Have “Court Vision”
• When working on a project, keep your eyes open, and pay attention to what everyone is doing. Try to position yourself to be the most helpful towards the final goal of a great project.

Things can and will go wrong
• This will happen, and it should not let it stop you from making a great project. Find a way to hide it, take a different look at the problem, or do it over. Move forward and if you get lucky –it might even help make for a better solution.

Learn how to carry things
• From a sheet of plywood by yourself, to finished cabinet boxes, from beams, to bags of concrete, carrying things requires that you can work well by yourself and with others, requires that you can set and follow the proper pace, and it requires that you know your limits.

Be able to draw and talk (or listen) at the same time
• Nothing beats a quick sketch on-site to clarify an idea or solution and get everyone on the same page.

Recognize good work
• Point out good work when you see it being done. Compliment the sub that goes the extra mile, or the apprentice that organizes the lumber pile, or the client that bakes cookies.

Build Community
• Seek out those who do good work, have good ideas, and inspire you, and try to work with them as much
as possible.

Situated in the lightly wooded and gentle sloping landscape of Lakewood Park in White Center, the recently completed Bethaday Community Learning Space (BCLS) is the new home of the Technology Access Foundation (TAF) – a nonprofit that partners with local school districts to provide underserved students with skills for future careers in math, science and technology. Founded by former Microsoft employee Trish Millines Dziko, the initial vision of the organization launched ten years ago has experienced phenomenal success with consistently more than 80% of students completing the program pursuing higher education. In an effort to accommodate the organization’s growth and desire to more permanently root itself near the communities it serves, a partnership was formed with King County Parks & Recreation Department, allowing TAF to lease a small portion of the northeast corner of the park to build its new headquarters. The project site uniquely positioned TAF as stewards of one of the neighborhood’s only public spaces and as such, afforded an opportunity to introduce public amenities currently lacking in the community.

City parks were initially conceived as a way to provide respite from the “ills” of the city. Despite the fact that parks are created to address a real need for safe and clean public amenity spaces, they are not always successful as Jane Jacobs posits in her seminal work – The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Public parks, just as streets, require a diverse mix of users and an “eyes on” presence to ensure their continued vitality and democratic use. The BCLS introduces new public program – indoor and outdoor multi-purpose and event spaces, a commercial kitchen, and access to technology – as well as several new user groups to the park, bringing with it the strength and ethos of the larger community. However, it is simply TAF’s presence, which bolsters the park’s public significance and safeguards its future, that is perhaps the project’s greatest gift to the community.

As architects, we are continually drawn to discussions about the future and the challenges and opportunities that may come about as a result of new technologies, emergent building and program types, shifting sensibilities, and a more connected/ global society. Working with TAF afforded us the unique opportunity to explore these shifting paradigms within the unconventional setting of a public park, challenging us to meet the needs of a nimble and non-traditional educational organization while providing cohesion to disparate program components.

While the use of repurposed materials emerged as a popular part of the design narrative, reduced to its most basic elements, the project’s strongest moments take their cues from the same simple principles that inform all great design – relationship between building and site, response to climate, economy of materials, and careful consideration of light, views, proportion and movement – within a given social and environmental context. The honest and direct approach to addressing these parameters provides a solid framework for both TAF and the community’s growth but constitutes only the first step in the site’s continued evolution. No final answers are offered– only beginnings.

Our firm’s interest in public projects stems from the belief that design can elevate the experience and role of the public realm, re-framing problems as opportunities that add value and depth to the public landscape. It has been our great pleasure to help TAF realize their new home in the White Center community while re-energizing one of King County’s cherished public spaces.

We find the working process for developing design entries is shaped something like this < >. Initially expanding from a starting point and relishing ideas from everyone and everything, we merge the utopian with the practical. New ideas are researched and explored, even untested technologies and materials are evaluated for how they might take architectural form. And we leverage our firm’s weekly Design Panel during which anyone in the office is able to critique and contribute to a design-in-progress.

These mental marathons are a proving ground where we can learn from both good and bad ideas alike. As the deadline approaches, we are challenged to distill our ideas to their most elemental form – the architectural equivalent of industrial refining. The task is daunting but amidst the triage key ideas emerge to shape and define the project, enabling us to better develop ideas in a relatively short period of time. The exercise also enables us to experiment with how to clearly and concisely express our ideas with compelling graphics and emerging visual technologies.

We will present our winning ‘Office Building of the Future’ entry on October 24, 2012, at the NAIOP ‘Development 12′ National Conference in Washington, D.C. And while we can’t reveal all of the details at this time, our starting point was to consider how technology and increasingly variable/mobile work styles can support collaborative consumption of spaces, energies and experiences for increased economic and environmental efficiencies in spaces designed for both internal and external interaction. Our design ended up with flexible, open space that is fast and inexpensive to build, includes collaboration space that is customizable and easily reconfigured for tenants, and groundfloor retail space to accommodate a diverse mix of uses.

Ultimately, we compete for exercise – embracing the struggle and the reward of the outcome. In the end, the proposed concept is evidence of a collaborative research project whose life extends beyond the deadline of the competition. Sharing the excitement, the angst, and results of the process subsequently informs the way we work and what we build for our clients going forward. We grow as individuals, as teams – and the firm as a whole is better able to address the challenges and opportunities of current and future projects.

I have had the great honor of working with Denis Hayes and Jason McLennan on the Bullitt Center project over the past few years. Denis was one of the visionary co-founders of Earth Day back in 1970, a landmark event which essentially launched the U.S. environmental movement and brought about numerous changes in public policy. He is now the guiding force behind the Bullitt Center currently under construction in Seattle, a building that aims to set a new standard for urban sustainability. Jason McLennan is the CEO of Cascadia Green Building Council and is the author of the Living Building Challenge, a program that is profoundly affecting the way we design and construct buildings — and which is the standard the Bullitt Center has been designed to meet. On May 10th, Denis and Jason will be discussing ‘The Future of Building Design’ at the Intiman Theater, on the grounds of historic Seattle Center. If you are concerned about the planet and you care about building design,  you won’t want to miss this event. It should be an amazing and inspiring discussion by visionaries with a long history of involvement with progressive change in this century.

I have also had the pleasure of serving on an advisory committee that developed the Howard S. Wright ‘Urban Intervention’ Design Ideas Competition for Public Space, another Seattle Center ‘Next Fifty’ event. Urban Intervention is an international design competition that asks designers to help envision what public space will be like in the future. The proposed site for the intervention is the Seattle Center campus and teams were challenged with developing a new use for nine acres there, including the Memorial Stadium site. The three finalist teams are coming to Seattle this weekend to present their visions and to discuss the future of public space. Videos of each team’s solution can be viewed here and check here for more event information. If you  care about public spaces and like to think about the future, come to the historic  Seattle Center campus — home to visionary thinking of the last century – for a look forward to what is possible as we move toward the next century.

The Watershed Address was inspiring to me, living next to Seattle’s Duwamish River and working with People for Puget Sound, Duwamish river Cleanup Coalition, and the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle, to help create habitat to repair Seattle’s only river – and it’s salmon runs – one restored parcel at a time. These efforts will take communities of committed folks years to accomplish and returning salmon, juvenile fish in the new backwater eddies, and increased bird populations prove that the efforts have traction.

Friends of the Cedar River Watershed takes watershed sustainability beyond restoration ecology. In partnership with manual habitat repair, they educate and inspire future generations of thought leaders to restore sustainability in the social landscape, engaging community and political leaders through action, policy change, and commitment. With smart, passionate high school students, a Vimeo channel, strategic inquiry, and succinct messaging, FoCRW has the secret weapon that it takes to make lasting change from the ground up. I’m in. Are you?

As a firm, Miller Hull is involved with numerous events of The NextFifty celebration marking the 50th anniversary of Seattle Center and the 1962 World’s Fair. I will have the opportunity to continue the conversation started with Peter years ago on May 5 where Friends of the Cedar River Watershed is assembling a multigenerational panel of youths and sustainably-minded thought leaders to compare the 2012 and 2062 versions of the Watershed Address. In 1962, Seattle entered the space age at the World’s Fair. The future was bright, technology and innovation were forging new frontiers. In 2012, we are at a tipping point. We have identified the need for carbon neutrality, energy independence, zero waste, food security, and the importance of water in all its forms. Where will we be in 2062? What does a 100% sustainable future look like and how do we get there? We encourage you to come join the conversation. For more information visit http://www.cedarriver.org/

During the development of Bothell City Hall the design team was charged by the Historic Preservation & Landmarks Board to relate our use of masonry to the historic brick facades of Downtown Bothell. These buildings were constructed at a time when bricks shared both structural and ornamental functions. The facades reflect an understanding of the building material and its placement — a relationship between structure and texture. The rich patterns are evidence of a craft rooted in the relationship of hand and brick.

Fast forward… 2011. The role of masonry (specifically brick) has changed. With its structural capabilities diminished, the module is now used as a skin. Furthermore, the tools for designing and constructing with brick have also shifted from the hand to the machine. The current context is much different than the scenario we had been asked to relate to, and our design strategy would need to respond to that.

Our starting point for developing design parameters was to reassess both our material and our toolset. The brick still offered us a modular and efficient solution to building assembly, while digital tools introduced a new capacity for variability within the system. Using Grasshopper + Rhino we developed a set of rules for the placement of the bricks along the walls of the new city council chamber. The behavior of the system was based on carefully designed parameters to deal with brick size, bond and overlap. Basic structural and weathering requirements, along with aesthetic desires informed the input values for the equation and could be manipulated to produce a variety of patterns. By designing a behavior rather than a specific solution, we were able to generate multiple iterations of the wall and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each one. 

The outcome of these relationships is a variable rotation of each brick along the length of the curving façade. The idea is actually very simple, though its visual appearance indicates otherwise. One half of the arcing wall is laid as a traditional running bond along the curved surface — this is actually the mathematically complex portion because every brick has a different rotation value. Luckily, masons have no problem laying up a smooth curved wall. Breaking at the tangent point of the wall, the other half of the arc maintains a running bond with a fixed rotation. This means that all of the bricks are laid parallel to the tangent at the midpoint of the wall. To assist in the assembly of the wall, a digitally fabricated steel template will be placed at the top and bottom of the wall to act as an alignment jig. This will eliminate the need for the mason to measure the displacement of each brick and it passes along the curve.

The resulting effect is a sort of unraveling masonry, accomplished by the relationship of material and digital processes. The potential of this wall system lies in its ability to relate to the historic texture of masonry while reflecting a new digital craft.

You can join the discussion here on Facebook.

During the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, housing exhibits provided a vision for the future of domestic life as exuberant modular assemblages packed with high-tech energy-intensive gadgets that did the living for you, built and powered by seemingly endless resources. Fifty years later, we are at work on The House of the Immediate Future with Habitat for Humanity to be built first at Seattle Center as part the 50th Anniversary celebration of the ’62 World’s Fair, and then moved to an emerging Seattle Housing Authority neighborhood in Rainier Valley.

Our approach seems modest when compared with the space-age vision in 1962. But that’s the point.

The difference highlights how advances in building science over the past five decades have trended toward a sober return to basics as we better understand the reality of limited resources and global warming. Smaller footprints in walkable transit-oriented communities and ever-tighter building envelopes that make miserly use of renewable energy sources may not capture the imagination quite like the sci-fi visions of the past, but may be the only way we can survive long into the future

To kick-off the project, Miller Hull hosted a Think Tank workshop attended by over 60 local experts from across the spectrum of residential design, engineering and planning. The Think Tanks were focused on four major topics: Construction, Energy, Program and Site that prioritized repeatable solutions for near-term Habitat projects by combining the right blend of established but forward-looking techniques.

Our hybrid-approach to construction systems includes prefabricated “wet-cores” (mechanical room, kitchen, bathrooms) by Method Homes and a panelized double-stud exterior wall assembly constructed by Habitat volunteers. By prefabricating the infrastructure cores, professional labor can be separated from a less-skilled volunteer force so important to every Habitat for Humanity project. Volunteers will build wall panels that can be erected around the wet-cores at the Seattle Center exhibit and then disassembled and moved to the permanent site.

A “dream team” of residential energy experts including our in-house energy-guru, Jim Hanford, along with Buzz Burgett of NW Mechanical, Tadashi Shiga of Evergreen Certified and Brad Liljequist of Z-Home are all looking for the most simple and cost-effective approach to achieving net-zero energy for the home. Currently they are crunching the numbers to compare two solar-driven mechanical systems: an air-to-water heat pump with radiant slab versus a ductless mini-split system. Habitat will use the house to develop techniques that fit their volunteer-model to minimize air-infiltration and maximize insulation to reduce the energy loads and resultant costs of renewable energy sources.

Beyond building science, the team is pondering the question, “How do families live now?” To address this question, the house and site are planned to optimize flexibility for a widening variety of family configurations, aging-in-place and income-generation possibilities for the global family of the future.

You can join the discussion here on Facebook.

Discussions for improvements to the Moses Lake City Hall were taking place in 1999, probably earlier. That was in the last millennium!

Fast forward to 2007:

The growing city required more services, and the staff had outgrown their existing facility. Meanwhile, the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center (MAC) had procured a $1M Heritage Grant from the Washington State Historical Society. (The MAC is an impressive civic service and amenity, especially for a city with a population of about 20,000.) The city decided to go forward with an unconventional idea: combine the MAC with the City Hall.

It was at this time that Miller Hull became involved with the City Hall project, later dubbed the Civic Center since it encompassed much more than an administrative building. It was a great opportunity to work with a forward thinking client who wanted not only a building to work in, but also a building for the citizens to really use. And, on top of this, Bob Hull grew up in Moses Lake.

Fast forward again, Grand Opening on November 18, 2011:

It was a beautiful sunny day in Moses Lake. An estimated 1,000 people were in attendance. There was a brief opening ceremony and then the festivities commenced. Although the permanent exhibits were not yet in place for the MAC, it was fully occupied for the holiday show which included a silent auction, temporary exhibits, children’s arts and crafts, and lots of people. Even Santa Claus was there.

People wandered the building, checking out the offices, the museum, and other public spaces. The main circulation space (called the “Avenue” as it is the extension of 4th Avenue to Civic Center Park) was packed. Movies were being shown in the auditorium. In the MAC, there was live music at the east end of the gallery; at the west end, shoppers were getting an early start to the holidays in the museum store.

Then, the fire alarms sounded. I looked on in curiosity: maybe I could stand back and witness the exiting requirements for an Assembly Occupancy in action? How cool it would be for the arrows and width calculations on our exiting plans to come to life. But, no one moved or missed a beat, not even the Fire Chief. The exception was Bruce Strait, the building maintenance supervisor, who hurried to the basement. Instead, people chatted with neighbors and co-workers as they queued for the buffet (the source of the alarm…a cooking hood brought in for the opening that was not anticipated for the public lobby). Strobe lights activated, the party was now in full swing!

Although it is not completely finished, it was amazing to see people enjoy the building, in just the way that was envisioned so many years ago. It is more than a place where one goes to pay utility bills or apply for permits. This is truly a public building, a place for citizens to gather and see their government at work.

Moses Lake Mayor Jon Lane said, “Many council chambers in this day and age are building bars and extra security while Moses Lake is building glass windows that open up to the outside. How tremendous.”

As Bob said in his remarks at the dedication, “It takes a real team not only on our side, but also the people with vision on your side to create a building like this.”

We are now nearing the end of the road, for our part, anyway. We hope that the City of Moses Lake will enjoy the building for many years, and that it will be a place that becomes part of the tradition and culture of this vibrant and growing community. If you are out in this part of the state, stop by to visit Moses Lake and the Civic Center. The trip, while long, is beautiful.

The Moses Lake Civic Center is located between the existing City Hall and the Parks and Police Building, adjacent to Civic Center Park. The approximately 41,000 square foot facility includes the council chamber/community room, administrative offices for two city departments, public lobby, 200 seat auditorium, museum gallery, and art classrooms. The building is targeted for LEED Silver.