Capping a year of awards for Weber Thompson’s sustainable projects, great news came out of the recent Greenbuild conference. A team of four young designers at Weber Thompson beat out sixteen entries to nab first place in the 2008 Natural Talent Design Competition for their Eco-Laboratory project – a conceptual high rise development that meets Cascadia’s Living Building Challenge.

The team re-envisioned a site in Seattle’s downtown Belltown neighborhood, incorporating the site’s existing structures and uses. The result is a financially-viable residential development that harnesses numerous alternative energy sources to create a net-zero building, where the energy sources tapped create the same amount of energy used by the building.

A huge congratulation goes out to the Eco-laboratory team – Myer Harrell, Dan Albert, Brian Geller and Chris Dukehart – for the national recognition they received for their design and, of course, the $5,000 awarded as part of the competition.

If you are interested in learning more about the project, and seeing more images, please visit our portfolio.