Catalyst Building, 601 E Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99202
Catalyst includes three key innovations identified by McKinstry for reducing waste in construction:
- Sharing heating/cooling systems across a campus, enabling thermal waste transfer and economy of scale, substantially increasing efficiency while reducing cost
- Use of timber for structure and decking, instead of heavier steel/concrete construction
- Mass assembly and alignment of disparate interior mechanical, electrical, fire, low voltage, and IT systems
The Catalyst building is the city of Spokane’s first zero-energy building and is one of the largest zero-energy buildings in North America. The building is part of the South Landing of Spokane’s University District which includes the Scott Morris Center for Energy Innovation. The Catalyst building is on path to zero-carbon and zero-energy certification from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), and the Morris Center is the heart of an innovative shared energy model called an EcoDistrict. An all-electric central plant powers the two buildings and with capacity for additional buildings to be added in the future. It was constructed with cross-laminated timber, which significantly reduces the building’s carbon emissions since the wood was a substitute for steel and concrete. The project is a collaboration between Avista, McKinstry and Eastern Washington University, and several other partners. Dorse & Company worked with McKinstry to provide the air comfort solution for this four-story building. The building was designed as commercial tenant spaces for rental as well as college classrooms (it houses EWU’s Spokane campus and has provided a new space for the university to provide students with unique experiences and to be part of creating innovations and change in Spokane). In addition, it houses the McKinstry Spokane office headquarters.
Catalyst is served by an all-electric heating and cooling plant housed within the neighboring Morris Center. This groundbreaking system combines eight different mechanical devices to provide heating and cooling to all buildings, including Catalyst, within the larger Spokane EcoDistrict. The district system also includes a thermal storage system, which will enable it to be used as a testbed in partnership with Avista to investigate minimization on electric grid peak demand.
Each component plays a particular role, including heat recovery, thermal storage, and peak demand to maximize the efficiency of the total system at the lowest possible cost — resulting in a net efficiency that is four times greater than a boiler/chiller type heating/cooling system that would be typically seen in a building such as Catalyst.
Climate change and keeping up with accelerating energy demand is a growing issue for every industry. Commercial buildings are responsible for 40% of all energy demand. Traditionally commercial buildings are built one at a time and have dedicated systems within each building along with their own grid connection. The innovative South Landing buildings work in sync with the utility grid to produce, store, and reduce energy demand on the electric grid. The centralized heating, cooling, and electrical system housed in the Morris Center for Energy Innovation is the energy hub and serves the energy needs of a group of buildings. The buildings are designed to communicate with each other and with the energy grid to maximize the building efficiency and optimize the grid. This makes the system four times more efficient than a traditional system. That’s a big win for everyone.