2006 Top Office Projects

By Lucy Bodilly

The economy is bouncing back, but with very little office space being built.

Name of Project: Parking Garage/Retail and Condominium Tower and Hotel
Owner: LS Holdings LLC
Architect: Sclater Architects
Consultant Team: ABKJ, Inc.
Contractor: Skanska USA Building

Major Subcontractors: Deeny Construction, Mac-Donald Miller Facility Solutions, Snyder Roofing, Valley Electric

Project Description: When Skanska took over the Lincoln Square jobsite in downtown Bellevue in the spring of 2003, the project was under management of its third developer. Since then, Skanska has brought the 2 million sf mixed-use project back on track, meeting major milestones on schedule and leading the project team towards a firm 2006 completion date. The project will feature a 42-story condominium/hotel structure, a 29-story office tower more than 336,000 sf of retail and dining space, a 10,000 sf destination spa, five levels of parking, a 12-screen movie theater and a skybridge linking the development to the Bellevue Square shopping center across the street.

Name of Project: Lincoln Square Office Tower, Bellevue, Wash.
Owner: Kemper Development
Architect: Sclater Architects
Consultant Team: ABKJ, Sparling, MacDonald-Miller
Facility Solutions General Contractor: GLY
Major Subcontractors: Nelson Electric, PCS, Apex Steel Erection, Patriot Fire Protection, Construction of highrise steel office building over existing occupied retail spaces, challenging logistics in urban CBD conditions with adjacent retail, hospitality and residential neighbors.

Name of Project: Office Microsoft Building 7 Redmond, Washington
Owner: Microsoft Corporation
Architect: Callison Architecture
Consultant Team: GLY Construction, Callison Architecture, Sparling, McKinstry,
Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Terra Associates, Brumbaugh Associates, Paladino & Associates
Major Subcontractors: McKinstry Company, Cochran Electric, All New Glass, Northwest Construction, Conforce

Project Description: 500,000-sq.ft. two office buildings and two parking garages

Most Unusual Aspect: Working in occupied campus environment, LEED Certified

Microsoft Corp. is accelerating campus development plans and spend $1 billion over the next three years to expand its Redmond campus by one-third its current size. Roughly half of the development agreement, approved by the city of Redmond in May 2005 to expand Microsoft’s Redmond campus over the next 15–20 years, will now be fulfilled by 2009, making the company’s Redmond campus one of the largest corporate campuses in the world. A total of 14 buildings will be added to the campus. Seven buildings will be new and seven have been purchased. Coupled with leased spaces, they will provide the capacity to house approximately 12,000 people based on the current conceptual layout. By June 2009, 3.1 million additional square feet will be available. Expanding the work space at its Redmond headquarters campus has become critical as Microsoft rapidly grows its broad portfolio of products in every one of its major marketplaces: games, entertainment, search, mobile and business applications.

Over the next three to five years, Microsoft will dedicate $35 million to significant transportation and infrastructure improvements in Redmond including improvements to streets, sewers, storm sewers and an overpass over SR520. The overpass will connect the east and west sides of the campus, allowing for easier traffic flow on campus and the surrounding communities. Almost half of Microsoft’s worldwide employees work in the Puget Sound area. The company employs over 30,000 workers in the region and another 33,000 globally. In this fiscal year the company expects to add approximately 4,000–5,000 net employees to its work force. It expects approximately 40 percent of the net additions will be in the U.S., and of those a vast majority will be in the Puget Sound region.

Name of Project: Alley24
Location: South Lake Union’s Cascade Neighborhood, 221 Yale Avenue North
Project Cost: $90 million
Owner: Vulcan Inc. and PEMCO Mutual Insurance Co.
Developer: Vulcan Inc.
Architect: NBBJ
Consultant Team: Flack + Kurtz (Mechanical); Magnusson Klemencic Associates (Structural); Yantis Acoustical Design (Acoustics); Egis Certified (LEED Tracking);
Commercial Contractor: Skanska
Residential Contactor: Compass Construction Rating
Program: LEED certification
Level Achieved: Tracking toward and expected to achieve LEED Certification (east side); tracking toward and expected to achieve LEED-Silver Certification (west side)
Completion Date: Commercial—February 2006, Residential South Tower— June 2006; Residential North Tower—Sept. 2006