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SMACNA and SMART Bring Form and Function to Stillaguamish Administration Building
SMACNA and SMART Bring Form and Function to Stillaguamish Administration Building
By / Jessica Kirby
The Stillaguamish Administration Building in Arlington, WA. is a work of tribal art. It is a success story in sustainable building, and it is a signal for the future of the sheet metal trade. The construction team brought to life the Stillaguamish Indian Tribe’s vision of combining the functional components of an operational headquarters with culturally appropriate aesthetic elements, while SMACNA- Western Washington contractor Johansen Mechanical, Inc. and tradespersons from Local 66 made important contributions to the building’s green mandate.
And although this project was completed in 2017, it stands as an important beacon of the growing market for architectural sheet metal projects and well-trained craftspersons to complete them.
The building was designed to resemble a canoe when viewed from above to recognize the Stillaguamish Tribe’s heritage as River People. This meant many of the interior architectural elements, including the continuous plenum behind the wall created for linear supply air diffusers, had to curve with the shape of the building.
Keith Johansen, owner of Johansen Mechanical, Inc., says this is just one feature that made the project unlike anything the company had done before. “This was both a unique and challenging project,” he says. “The building owners wanted the building to showcase its tribal heritage and the finished product is incredible.”
From the ground, the 57,000-square-foot building combines various natural textures and Indigenous elements throughout the complex. Carved wooden eagles perch on the branches of a manufactured tree situated in an atrium between the first and second floors. A wall in the chamber room features a wooden finished canoe with metal figures hand-crafted from aluminum and powder-coated with a black finish.
Joe Hryciuk, field foreman for Johansen on the Stillanguamish project, says one of the most important elements was the level of craftsmanship on the artistic finishes, “from the custom made totem poles to the fabrication and installation of the unique metal pieces exclusive to the northwest, including fish and trees around a flowing river.”
The river reference appears again among shades of blue on the atrium’s bottom floor, and in the middle of this river is an historic dugout canoe recently returned to the tribe by the Stanwood Area Historical Society. Railings showcase metal salmon – worked with such skill the welds are invisible – and the walls are a stunning gallery of art from Northwest Indigenous Tribes. Warm woodgrain on the exterior complements the hues of the surrounding landscape and the interior material palette.
Gaffney Construction oversaw the design-build project, awarding Johansen Mechanical the HVAC, architectural metal, and controls portions. Johansen won the bid because it was able to create an energy and cost-saving solution for the owners by replacing a proposed ground loop heating and cooling system with a high efficiency LG variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system.
“The VRF fulfilled the project’s green objectives for far less than the ground loop system, which would have added about a million dollars to the cost,” Johansen says. “We also added a high-efficiency chilled water system for heating and cooling, which is multi-purpose so does not require separate boilers. These improvements resulted in the client receiving a $21,000 efficiency grant from the utility company.”
Photos courtesy of Johansen Mechanical Inc.
The VRF system has six outdoor heat pumps, four energy recovery ventilation (ERV) units, and 60 indoor fan coil units serving offices, conference rooms, and a large archive room, which also has a complex fire rating and fire suppression system so that the Stillaguamish Tribe can safely secure artifacts from its longstanding heritage in the Pacific Northwest.
Photos courtesy of Johansen Mechanical Inc.
The building’s art collection, offices, and meeting rooms require various comfort levels in different spaces, which was achieved with multiple fan coils and refrigeration piping running between the VRF system and the central chiller.
Another stand-out element of the finished product was the large airfoil fans installed in the open atrium. “These fans span 12 feet in diameter and efficiently circulate air throughout the large entry way and atrium, operating in different directions depending on the season,” says Hryciuk. “The colors we coordinated to match and resemble many of the other native inspired pieces throughout the facility.”
Between the shop and field, five craftspersons completed the installation and three worked on the fabrication, including some of the architectural work, Johansen says. “We did the controls, too, which comprise a DDC system we can monitor remotely from our office.”
“We have built a 4300-square-foot building inside our training facility in Everett that has multiple types of roof lines to help with our training,” says Executive Administrator for the Western Washington Sheet Metal JATC, Jeff Reinhardt. “We are also currently in discussion with Centria, an architectural panel manufacturer, to set us up to do factory training at our facility.”
The Stillaguamish building is testament to an important shift in demand for the sheet metal trade. With its unique and complex architectural metal requirements, it draws attention to the need for skilled tradespersons to complete this type of work. The Western Washington JATC has connected with its contractors for several years to expand classes and cater to infield requirements in the Seattle area, and is working to meet fierce demand in all sectors.
One of the JATC trustees heads up the architectural metal department at McKinstry and has been working with Travis Elliott, a Local 66 business agent, “helping the training centre align its training with industry demand,” Reinhardt says. “We are also in design for a smaller architectural mock up to install in our DuPont facility that, if things go right, will be complete by the end of this summer.”
The $13.8 million Stillaguamish Administration Building is built on tribal trust land adjacent to the Stillaguamish Reservation, and brings together previously scattered departments. ▪
Jessica Kirby is a freelance editor and writer covering construction, architecture, mining, travel, and sustainable living for myriad publications across Canada and the United States. She can usually be found among piles of paper in her home office or exploring nature’s bounty in British Columbia’s incredible wilderness.
