Located in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, 400 Dexter is part of a flagship property designed to be a statement of quality, creativity and uniqueness. The 268,500-square-foot high-rise building is the regional research and development headquarters for Juno Therapeutics, a cancer research tenant, and the Seattle hub for Alexandria Real Estate.
A captivating exterior of glass, ACM and pre-patinated copper create a powerful expression
Designed by CollinsWoerman, Seattle, the building had to conform to the constraints of a long and narrow site, providing limited opportunities for the architectural massing to provide a powerful expression. To achieve that goal, CollinsWoerman used a distinctive exterior skin of glass, Alucobond aluminum composite material (ACM) from 3A Composites USA Inc., Davidson, N.C., and a unique, custom pre-patinated copper.
As a natural material, copper will oxidize, and the project team embraced that reality as part of its beauty and expressed honesty. “That organic characteristic—an appearance that changes over time—was viewed as another positive and discernable quality of the material,” says James Walker, LEED AP BD+C, architectural designer at CollinsWoerman.
Keith Panel Systems Co. Ltd., North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, fabricated more than 740, 1-mm-thick panels into its KPS System A Pressure-Equalized Rainscreen System. A. Zahner Co., Kansas City, Mo., applied four separate Dirty Penny patina process on the panels, each with a distinct tone from light to dark. Krueger Sheet Metal, Seattle, installed approximately 30,000 square feet of the panels in a predetermined pattern over different façades up to the building’s eighth floor, where they were primarily oriented to the adjacent major street frontages and public realms.
To contrast the copper panels, the architects specified Alucobond ACM in an off-white Oyster finish. Keith Panel Systems fabricated the 4-mm Alucobond Plus FR core into approximately 22,000 square feet of its System A rainscreen panels. The project also features SuperNeutral 68 low-E glass in UltraClear and SNR 43 low-E glass in CrystalGray from Guardian Glass, Auburn Hills, Mich.
Keith Panel Systems also fabricated a variety of metal composite details for the interior, which is bright and airy with natural wood elements, and light, neutral colors throughout. An oversized rolling copper door at the elevator bank creates continuity with the exterior façade.
Completed in June 2017, the LEED Gold-certified, 12-story biotech building features 15,0000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, a rooftop deck, and has a 174,500-square-foot below-grade parking garage. The 457-space parking garage includes 832 square feet of secure bicycle parking, along with dedicated spots and charging stations for electric vehicles. Tenants also have access to a private 3,100-square-foot health and wellness spa, and an attached 1,600-square-foot shower facility.