P l a c e o f H i d d e n W a t e r s
Senior / Family Housing and Community Center, Puyallup, WA
C O M P L E T I O N
2012
S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
LEED Platinum
“Designed to emulate the rectangular, shed-roofed form of a traditional Coastal Salish longhouse using a variation of the modern townhouse courtyard building typology, this LEED Platinum certified affordable housing project is a culturally and environmentally responsive new model for the Puyallup Tribe in the Pacific Northwest. ”
The Place of Hidden Waters Senior / Family Housing and Community Center project in Puyallup, Washington, was recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council LEED for Homes, Outstanding Innovation, 2012 Project of the Year. It was also awarded the Social Economic Environmental International Network’s 2012 SEED Award for Excellence in Public Interest Design. The project includes affordable housing—10 1BR accessible senior townhomes, 10 2BR family townhomes, and 27 renovated townhomes—with a 6,000 SF community center, park, dance circle, walking trail, and sweat lodge.
Located on traditional Puyallup tribal lands on a hill overlooking the Puget Sound tidal flats, the Place of Hidden Waters demonstrates the beauty and value of sustainable design principles. The traditional plank house has been reinterpreted for both the housing units and the central community living room space where family, friends and community interact.
This LEED Platinum project demonstrates how an ancient culture like the coastal Salish can reinterpret their ancestral forms, building technologies, building programs, storytelling tradition, and a desire for an interconnectedness with nature, in a contemporary way which serves modern needs. The Puyallup Tribal Housing Authority provided a construction force representing Native Americans from all over the country. The project utilizes several green strategies, including adaptive re-use of existing structures, ground source heat pumps for both domestic hot water and hydronic heating systems, a super-insulated structural panel building envelope, passive solar design principles, native planting, rain gardens, and permeable pavement. Modern technologies adapted to and supplemented natural design, leading to homes that are much more energy efficient than current Washington State energy code.
