LMN Architects’ mass timber structure for Founders Hall at the University of Washington Foster School of Business has topped out.

The 85,000-square-foot structure, expected to be completed in the summer of 2022, frames the northeast edge of the school’s historic Denny Yard, an open space at the heart of the original campus plan. It expands the Foster School of Business education complex while improving connections to the surrounding area. 

The building is organized in two parts, a public-facing sector and a more private office sector, which are framed by an open circulation space that also serves as a central connector. Active-learning, collaboration, and event spaces are positioned at the south edge of the site in order to engage with the Denny Yard landscape and to link to the surrounding pedestrian pathways. 

The connector houses a feature stair, circulation spaces, pre-function spaces, and two-tiered classrooms that can serve from 65 to 135 students. This area also features 28 team and interview rooms, four executive conference rooms, a student commons with an outdoor terrace, and a rooftop event forum.

As per the architects, Founders Hall is a model for sustainable design at the University of Washington and is embracing the school’s Green Building Standards to reduce emissions from embodied carbon by 83%. Its heavy timber structure with cross-laminated timber decking reduces the building’s embodied carbon by 58%, according to the project description. 

Additionally, the building offers a system of new collaboration spaces that are designed to encourage teamwork and foster spontaneous interaction amongst students, program staff, and the broader business community. 

Founders Hall is LMN’s most recent project at the Foster School of Business, which began with the initial master plan in 2002, and also includes the PACCAR Hall and Dempsey Hall projects. It is one of the first projects at the University of Washington to be realized through progressive design-build project delivery. 

“This project demonstrates how an integrated client and design-build team can translate a vision of sustainability into a building that is equally successful at fostering social performance of the users as well as the operational performance of the building,” said LMN Architects Principal Robert Smith. “The 83% reduction in operational carbon is a result of careful balancing between envelope performance, the mechanical system design, and the users’ commitment to leverage operable windows and ceiling fans in lieu of energy-intensive air conditioning."