By Scott Thompson
Scott Thompson passed away December 12th, 2017 after a long fight with cancer. We remember him as a great mentor and good friend, who cared deeply about the people at Weber Thompson, and made sure that everyone who worked for him had their contributions and worth acknowledged and celebrated before his own. He is missed.
A Founding Principal at Weber Thompson, Scott Thompson retired at the end of 2015 with over 35 years of architectural and planning experience, specializing in high-density, urban infill and mixed-use buildings. He also worked on commercial structures, planned-unit developments, high-end condominiums, multifamily housing, hospitality projects, health clubs and custom single-family residences during his career.
As we continue to prepare to move into our new building on April 4, we want to be clear that this transition is more than about the building. This project symbolizes our overall business model, which fully embraces environmental sustainability.
Operationally, a recycling program at our new headquarters is mandatory. All tenants in the new building must commit to using recycled and environmentally friendly products — both in their tenant improvement and in their daily operations and cleaning. In our office, every TI includes at least one sustainable aspect, from the low-emitting VOC finishes and recycled content of furnishings to the fully dimmable, computer-controlled, indirect fluorescent lighting system. We already operate sustainably in our current office space, and we’re developing a building operations manual and a tenant manual for our company and other tenants of the new building.
At Weber + Thompson, we’ve been working to operate more sustainably for a long time. We established an active Green Team, a group of dedicated staff members who are committed to “greening” the firm and making Weber + Thompson carbon neutral. The team calculated the firm’s carbon footprint by examining the office’s energy use, employee commuting habits and business travel and is taking steps to offset our consumption by encouraging alternate transit operations, replacing the employee parking subsidy benefit with a transit FlexPass, purchasing green power, and organizing weekend tree planting parties in the greater Seattle area. We also take steps to reduce waste by donating money to local charities in lieu of giving out trinkets at the holidays and giving scrap paper to the nearby New Discovery School and Cascade People’s Center to be used as art supplies.
Our firm has been a part of the South Lake Union neighborhood for 17 years, and it was important for us to demonstrate commitment to the evolution of the neighborhood. We hope our building contributes not only to the physical revitalization of the neighborhood, but to the greater good of our community and society as a whole.
We’re anxious to show off our new building. During tours, we’ll explain the green features of both the building and our operations.