Congressman Jay Inslee Presents Kenmore City Council with LEED® Gold Certificate for City Hall Project

Congressman Jay Inslee, left, presents the Gold certificate
to Mayor David Baker, right

Congressman Jay Inslee presented the Kenmore City Council with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certificate at a meeting on December 21, 2011. 

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded the City of Kenmore with LEED Gold certification for its City Hall in early 2011. The LEED rating system is a nationally accepted standard for green design and construction. LEED Gold is the second highest level of certification.

Inslee commented the community should be proud of the new LEED City Hall as the sustainable features present an opportunity for green education, reduce stormwater pollution which affects our streams, and provide cost savings to taxpayers. Inslee was also the featured speaker at the Kenmore City Hall Dedication Ceremony in May 2010.

“As stewards of a beautiful city at the top of Lake Washington, we wanted our new City Hall to be a steward of public resources and a model for the development of our city,” Mayor David Baker said. “The LEED Gold certification is the culmination of our achievements on this project.”

Kenmore City Hall
Photo by Jerry Pickard

The key to achieving the green building goals of the project was good, green design, including features like daylight design, raised floors for energy efficiency in heating and ventilation, water efficient plumbing, energy efficient lighting and controls, and extensive use of green building materials. A rain garden, the 4,500-square-foot vegetative roof, and a permeable-concrete parking lot minimize runoff, reducing the demands on the city’s stormwater infrastructure and Swamp Creek. Solar panels on the roof will provide at least 2.5 percent of the building’s energy. The sustainable features earned the project a conservation grant from Puget Sound Energy and a King County LEED Grant.

Construction of the LEED Gold City Hall began in March 2009, and the new city hall officially opened for business in May 2010. With this certification, Kenmore joins a half dozen other Washington State cities with LEED Gold city halls. In addition, Bastyr University’s Student Village project was awarded LEED Platinum in 2010 and received the USGBC 2010 outstanding multifamily project award.