Making informed and sustainable decisions on every project is crucial for minimizing environmental impact and preserving natural resources, promoting a healthier and more resilient built environment for present and future generations.
In collaboration with Sounders FC, the design and build partners exceeded the sustainability goals of the Sounders FC Center at Longacres in Renton, Washington that opened in February 2024. The design, construction, and operation of the Sounders’ new facility needed to align with the club’s Protect our Planet initiatives, which commit to annual measurements and reduction of the club’s carbon footprint.
Before becoming the newly named Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse, the site was once the home of an office park for aerospace giant Boeing, serving as the company’s headquarters for the Commercial Airplanes division. With pristine natural beauty and a large pond nestled into the land, it served as the perfect snapshot of the Pacific Northwest. The Sounders set the path for sustainable design down to site selection by electing for a renovation versus a new build. The choice to renovate reduces carbon dioxide emissions associated with materials and construction processes, better known as embodied carbon.
With much of the site sitting within the Green-Duwamish FEMA 100-year floodplain, the four practice fields now sit on an elevated pitch, preventing washout but eliminating roughly 584,000 cubic feet of flood storage in the process. Approximately 592,000 cubic feet of storage was then created underneath the fields to restore the lost storage. The landscape was selected to be a mix of native ground cover, perennials, and woody shrub species. These drought-tolerant native plant species allow for minimized water irrigation.
To meet Salmon-Safe certification requirements, Generator worked with Salmon-Safe Large-Scale Construction Management Accredited contractors Venture General Contracting and Tunista Construction. The Salmon-Safe assessment and certification process, developed by independent scientists and technical experts, is oriented toward reducing impacts on water quality and fish habitat from urban land and water management practices. Special considerations to the onsite treatment and return of cleaner water to the adjacent watershed and the selection of cork as the compression infill for the two artificial practice fields – ensuring that toxins affecting salmon do not leak into the watershed – helped the facility meet Salmon-Safe requirements.
The business and soccer operations are now housed in one place for the first time in the club’s 50-year history. In the office areas located on the second floor of the building, the club purposefully opted to use pre-existing office furniture to reduce waste and conserve natural resources. Instead of installing wall-to-wall carpeting made from synthetic materials, the existing concrete floors have been adorned with accent rugs.
Motion-activated on and off LED lighting was installed in every room, as well as individual thermostat controls, high-efficiency heating and heat recovery infrastructure, and separate system metering to ensure efficient heating and cooling and measurement of the club’s footprint. The design of the reimagined space also maximizes natural light through windows on site.
The Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse serves as a testament to the Sounders’ continued stewardship of environmental sustainability.