Seattle, WA—The redevelopment of the historic Firestone Building at 400 Westlake topped out today in South Lake Union. The sixteen-story, 269,000-square-foot office building is owned by Martin Selig Real Estate (MSRE) and reuses the two-story historic façade of the Firestone Building, a 1929 Seattle landmark. The global design firm and architect behind the building, Perkins and Will, has preserved the architectural history while driving it into the future with modern environmental design and sustainable technology.
The traditional “topping out ceremony” featured a socially-distant beam signing and the team outfitted the final beam with an evergreen tree and American Flag—which symbolize luck and prosperity for future building occupants— before flying the final beam into place.
The contractor, Lease Crutcher Lewis, broke ground on the redevelopment in March of 2020 and is scheduled to complete in the fall of 2022. The Erection Company began erecting steel on August 23, 2021, topping out in just three months. To-date, Lewis has erected over 2400 tons of steel and placed 8000 cubic yards of concrete. The next major milestone for the project will be unitized curtainwall enclosure starting in January 2022 and high-rise elevators starting in March 2022
Greenest Office Building of its’ Size
Once complete, 400 Westlake will be the world’s greenest office building if its size, following Seattle’s Living Building Pilot Program, which sets stringent sustainability standards for new and existing construction. The building will achieve LBC Petal Certification for energy, beauty, and place in addition to using less than 75% of allowable energy use in the Seattle Energy Code and collecting rainwater. The building will meet requirements for the energy petal through rooftop photovoltaics and an offsite photovoltaic array, making it a net-positive building.
