Helen Sommers Building

The Helen Sommers Building is a 215,000 square foot, four-story with basement, build-to-suit office building located on the state Capitol Campus in Olympia, Washington for the Department of Enterprise Services. The building is designed to perform within the top 1% of buildings nationally in energy efficiency.

PSF was responsible for the design of the mechanical systems for the building. Mechanical features include the use of 30 geothermal wells that use the earth’s energy for both heating and cooling. One challenge PSF overcame was an extensive smoke control system associated with an asymmetrical four-story atrium. 75% of the heating comes from heat recovery chillers and ground source heat exchanges that use geothermal energy from the earth.