Location: Mount Vernon, Washington
Project: North Cascades Institute Campus
HKP Architects was founded as Henry Klein and Associates in 1952, the first full service architectural firm in Skagit County. Founder Henry Klein, a native of Europe, was educated in Switzerland and Cornell University in New York. He came to Mount Vernon after several years in the Portland, Oregon office of Pietro Belluschi (a formative architect of Northwest architecture).
Sustainable design principles have always been at the heart of most of our design decisions, particularly when it comes to natural ventilation, passive solar strategies, light, views and material expression in the Pacific Northwest. HKP architects actively incorporates sustainable design principles in all of our work and we attempt to help clients understand the long-term benefits both to our environment and to their operation and maintenance costs.
Many of the firm's public buildings also contribute to the larger community by their siting in relationship to the surrounding context. In the imagination of HKP, a building can become more than the sum of its program, budget, and square footage, thus providing inherent value not only to the client but to the community.
Being rooted in a small, mostly rural community has called HKP Architects to account for every building it designs. Awareness over time of its impacts and successes makes HKP sensitive and very capable. Even when the firm has taken on large commissions further away, such as the Todd Hall Addition and Renovation at Washington State University, the Kent Library, or Stadium High School Renovations and Additions in Tacoma, HKP architects has emphasized care for each commission. The firm has developed long-standing relationships with its clients, whether public or private. With this attention to local responsibility and concern for personal connections HKP architects has gained regional and national recognition for its design work.
(Description from HKP Architects website)
Green Review: What was the length of time from when the client (North Cascade Institute) contracted with the firm and the completion of the project?
Julie Blazek: HKP was hired in 1997 and spent an entire year working with Seattle City Light, The National Park Service and North Cascades Institute building a program for the project before design began. There were four design phases that occurred between 1998 and 2002. Construction started in 2002 was completed in 2005.
GR: How many buildings were designed and built from the ground up and how many were renovations of older buildings? (I noticed that the old dining hall was renovated).
JB: There are a total of sixteen buildings. All the buildings are new except the Dining Hall, which was originally designed as a Restaurant for the Resort by Henry Klein Partnership in the 1970’s. The existing cabins could not be repurposed and were removed. The new building locations incorporated previous roads and building pads where possible to minimize site disruption.
GR: The project is impressive garnering a Silver LEED certification, using 84% FSC certified wood, using 53% regionally manufactured materials and 57% regional harvested material, cutting down on light pollution, creating a pedestrian only campus, construction waste management etc, out of all the above practices, which ones proved the most challenging to meet?
JB: One interesting point to note is that when this project started, LEED was not in existence. Yet the design easily qualified for the LEED Silver certification adopted during the design phases based on the initial goals of the partners and the design team. The 84% FSC Certified Wood was most challenging because of limited availability, which has improved since this project was built.
GR: What were the most attractive features of this project to you as architects? Was one of those attractive features mimicking nature?
JB: Our biggest challenge and ultimate success was to fit the buildings into the landscape while still providing accessibility and preserving as many large trees close to the buildings. When given the opportunity to build in such a pristine environment, we focused on one guiding principle, which came from sign at the entrance to Tasmania’s Manyara National Park and reads ‘Let no one say, and say it to your shame, that all was beauty here until you came.’
We developed the cluster of main service buildings with outdoor cover that is meant to act like the forest canopy. The buildings on the hillside are hunkered into the slope so that they did not interfere with uphill views. Some describe them as natural outcroppings, which to us is a success.
GR: What was the learning curve? What would you do differently and what are you most proud of as an accomplishment?
JB: If we had the ability to pre-quality the contractor rather than selecting the low bid, the process would have gone much smoother. The first Contractor ultimately went out of business and was replaced with a qualified firm to complete the work. A lot of time was spent during that process that impacted the construction schedule. Our most proud accomplishments were working with the second Contractor to finish the project and hearing many good things about from people who have stayed there and attended classes.
GR: Out of all the buildings and structures which one gave you the most satisfaction to design and then to see manifest?
JB: This was a project that involved the entire office and each of us took responsibility for executing certain buildings, so it will depend on who in the firm you ask. David Hall was the lead designer and was responsible for the overall design of the main buildings. For most of us, it was the buildings that we each worked on; seeing the buildings come to life. We are proud of the renovation of the Dining Hall as a piece of our firm’s continuing history.
The Main Services Buildings are perhaps the most appealing architecturally, especially the small library. And in some ways, the Compost/Waste building is that little gem that functions well and tells its own story within the campus sustainability way of life. Ultimately, the way in which all of the unique buildings work together and in harmony with the topography and foliage is what is most satisfying.
VIDEO of North Cascades Institute Environmental Learning Center:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ncascades
WEBSITE HKP Architects: http://www.hkpa.com/