How Green Is a Green Office Building?

Some signs went up at the future site of the Colman Center earlier this week. Where there is currently a parking lot surrounded by Western Ave, the alleyway entrance to the Owl and Thistle, the pedestrian walkway to the ferry terminal and an on ramp to the Viaduct there will soon (2009) stand a 12-story office tower that's making the case that there is a market for "green" office space in Seattle. What's particularly environmentally friendly about an office building, apart from the whole consolidation of resources thing? According to the building's website: LEED certification, a green roof, reclaimed water irrigation, low-flow showers and toilets and a community bicycle fleet, among a few other more boring features. While some of those sound cool (particularly the bikes, although we imagine they will never get used) if you really want to do green building right--and in Seattle we really should--you should go all the way. How about using reclaimed water for those low-flow showers as well as irrigating the green roof? How about a carbon-neutral building? How about solar power?

It's impossible to tell from the website or the P-I's recent article whether the building is really going to make an effort at being Earth-friendly or if these features are just an attempt to green wash the project into a hip market.

"This building is a Macintosh," said architect Blaine Weber, of Weber + Thompson. "Most buildings in downtown Seattle are PCs."

Uhg. Since any building at all could hardly be more damaging to the Sound that's a block and a half away than a parking lot it probably hardly matters, but we're hoping the Colman Center makes good on its promise.