An associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington who played a role in the design and construction of Seattle’s Bullitt Center will speak about the building’s sustainable design and functioning at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14, in Academic West 204 at Western Washington University.

Rob Peña, a building performance consultant with the UW Integrated Design Lab, will describe the Bullitt Center, a living laboratory distinguished by its composting toilets, strict energy and water budgets and a conspicuous lack of on-site parking. The 50,000-square-foot office building pushes the edges of sustainable architecture with its rooftop cap of photovoltaic cells estimated to produce 230,000 kilowatt hour a year; its 56,000 gallon cistern for water; and its mandate to educate the public through docent-led tours of the building.

His talk, which is free and open to the public, is titled, “The Integrated Design Lab: On the Bullitt Center.” The presentation will include a question-and-answer period.

The event is co-sponsored by the WWU College of Fine and Performing Arts speaker series on Art and Ecology, and the university’s Huxley College of the Environment Speaker Series.

Peña teaches architectural design and building science with an emphasis on ecological design and high-performance buildings. For the past five years, he has worked with the Bullitt Foundation, the Miller Hull Partnership and Schuchart Construction on the design and construction of the Bullitt Center.

For more information, contact Huxley College at 360-650-3520.

2020 Engineering of Bellingham played a key role in the Bullitt Center’s construction, designing a highly specialized sustainable water system for the building. Read more about 2020’s involvement here.