Download Renovation of 100,000sf `Big-box` Store Designed by The Miller Hull

Renovation of 100,000sf 'Big-box' Store Designed by The Miller Hull Partnership Gets
Underway To Provide City of Kirkland with New Public Safety Building
Former Costco Home Store finds new life as a centralized municipal service center
June 2013 — Seattle, Wash. – Renovation of a former Costco Home Warehouse Store is moving forward,
with a redesign by The Miller Hull Partnership that will transform a large warehouse store into a vital and
inviting public safety services building.
In response to exponential growth following the annexation of 30,000 new residents last year, the 100,000sf
warehouse building in the Totem Lake Business District has been designed to better serve the community's
needs, and from a more central geographic location within the city's expanded service boundary. When
complete, the target LEED Silver building will house the Kirkland Police Department and Kirkland
Municipal Court, along with 55 jail beds–and improves upon current operational spaces, reduces
inefficiencies such as those incurred when transferring misdemeanants being held in outlying jail facilities
to court appearances, and increases parking. The building also provides community spaces including a
public meeting room and an open plaza area at the front entrance,
which incorporates a demonstration rain garden utilizing
stormwater. Cisterns on the property will store water for
irrigation. The purchase and renovation of an existing commercial
building vs. constructing a new facility was driven by the City's
desire to responsibly manage public funds. It is anticipated it will
take up to 12 months to complete the renovation.
"It was an energizing design challenge to work with an existing
structure of a type not generally thought to have much character
or a long-shelf life, and to demonstrate the ongoing value of these buildings when repurposed in creative
and functional ways," says Katie Popolow, project architect, Miller Hull. "And in designing specifically to
accommodate public safety services, the daunting size of the building required us to balance openness with
security, as well as to express the serious nature of the building's function and the core values of the
community through architecture."
While the building size provided an incredible amount of space to work with in co-locating City services
previously scattered in multiple locations, the major design challenges included converting a super efficient
warehouse structure into an essential facility for first responders, breaking down the scale of the building to
more appropriately house the new civic uses, to provide separation between the police department and the
municipal court, and to provide access to natural light and views to the exterior. As an essential facility the
Kirkland Public Safety building will need to remain functional after a major earthquake. This required that
the roof be upgraded from wood to steel, incidentally enabling the ceiling height to be reduced. Externally,
it was possible to work with existing walls on three sides, and to enliven the entry facade by selectively
replacing panels with glass and more substantial portals that clearly delineate specific entrances. The
people who will work in this facility will have workspaces located near the perimeter of the building.
Skylights will be strategically located to allow natural daylight deep into the building.
Sustainable strategies include reuse of materials from the previous iteration of the building. Concrete from
walls will be reused in the new front plaza, while glulam beams are repurposed into furniture and dividers.
Project partners include: PCS Structural Solutions, structural engineer; Triad Associates, civil engineers;
Wood Harbinger, mechanical engineer; Sparling, electrical engineers; McLaren, Wilson & Lawrie, Inc.,
police facility consultant; Berger Partnership, landscape architects.
About The Miller Hull Partnership
Founded in 1977,The Miller Hull Partnership is an award-winning firm specializing in performance-based
design for public and private buildings that actively engage their communities through simple, innovative
and authentic designs. Current projects include the Bullitt Center in Seattle, the first commercial building to
target Living Building status, along with the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry border crossing between San
Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico – the busiest border crossing in the world. The Miller Hull
Partnership is the recipient of the National Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects. For more
information, visit http://www.millerhull.com.
###