The adaptive reuse of the 200,000-square-foot, 1963 Plant Services Building at the University of Washington's Seattle campus transformed a loading dock and warehouse space into a state-of-the-art training center for facilities maintenance personnel.
Tactile experience draws on a limited palette: steel, aluminum, glass, and wood. The toughness of the original loading dock and warehouse is retained while refinement in the fixtures, fittings, and color enriches the experience.
Wood from a Chinese Elm, reclaimed from the UW campus, appears in several iterations throughout the building as benches, counters, and a 24-foot-long conference table.
The space provides a centralized location for specialized staff training to serve a large, geographically dispersed workforce. Flexible classroom spaces are dispersed along a faceted wall that enlivens the long corridor while addressing acoustical challenges.
The proud tradition of facilities maintenance is reinforced by murals of the 1904 Olmsted Campus Plan and historic photos of UW construction workers.
