Opportunity Center for Employment & Education in Seattle, Washington by Schacht Aslani Architects

Article source: Schacht Aslani Architects

The Opportunity Center for Employment and Education (OCEE) is a breakthrough project that brings employment and social services agencies together in a central location on a community college campus. This one-stop worksource center provides improved service delivery in the heart of Seattle’s north end. The purpose of the facility is to welcome people, giving visitors and users new to campus a clear sense of access. The building is programmatically open, airy and easy to find on the campus. Simple, clear signage facilitates wayfinding, helping users to navigate through the building.

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

• Architect: Schacht Aslani Architects
• Name of Project: Opportunity Center for Employment & Education
• Location: Seattle, Washington
• Project owner: North Seattle Community College (Seattle, WA)
• Year completed: 2011
• Area: 47,450 sf
• Photo credits: Lara Swimmer, Doug Scott
• Software used: AutoCAD 2010

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

• Surveying: Pace Engineers
• Civil Engineering: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
• Landscape Architecture: Nakano and Associates
• Structural Engineering: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
• Structural Engineering: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
• Mechanical Engineering: WSP Flack + Kurtz
• Electrical Engineering: Travis Fitzmaurice & Associates
• Lighting Design: Cierra Lighting Group
• Signage Design: WPA, Inc.
• Acoustical Engineering: BRC Accoustical Consulting
• Cost Estimating: Davis Langdon and Associates
• Sustainability Consulting: O’Brien and Company
• Geotechnical Engineering: Associated Earth Sciences
• Envelope Consulting: The Building Envelope
• Commissioning: Engineering Economics, Inc.
• General Contractor: Graham Contracting

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

The project is an expansion and renovation to the south end of an existing 1970s post-tensioned concrete building. The project’s lightweight steel frame “floats” over the older, heavier concrete structures, tying the buildings together both structurally and visually. The orientation of the building maximizes its exposure to north and south light, providing significant opportunities for daylighting interior spaces.

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

The existing campus is heavy, dense, inwardly-focused and lacking in color. In contrast, the materials and color palette on both the interior and exterior of the OCEE set up a clear juxtaposition with the gray concrete of the existing campus. The building’s green roof has transformed a formerly drab, expansive concrete plaza in the center of campus into a more inviting outdoor gathering space. The multi-level atrium stitches together old and new and provides an important amenity for the campus community: one of the only enclosed circulation and gathering spaces on campus.

The project is LEED Gold certified.

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Images Courtesy Doug Scott

Images Courtesy Doug Scott

Images Courtesy Doug Scott

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Images Courtesy Lara Swimmer

Tags: Seattle, Washington

Categories: Autocad, Social welfare

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 6:27 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.