Seattle Convention Center - Summit Building
Seattle, WA
Category: 2023 Hospitality/Public Space, Unique Installation Challenge
Architect: LMN - Seattle
Starnet Member:
Great Floors, an ADG Company
Starnet Preferred Vendors:
ARDEX, Futura Industries, Johnsonite By Tarkett, MAPEI, Milliken Commercial, Roppe, Starnet High Performance Carpet Tile by Milliken, Tarkett Collection Hard Surfaces, Tarkett Soft Surface, Tred-MOR, Uzin Utz North America, Inc., Wagner Electronics, Xpress Global Systems
Project Strategy
The 1.5 million sq ft Summit Building occupies four city blocks in the heart of Seattle's urban core and is situated at the nexus of seven of the city’s most densely populated and rapidly developing neighborhoods. Framing four of the city's most prominent street corridors, the building is an ambitious addition to the Seattle Convention Center that embodies Seattle's history and culture with a distinctive and welcoming presence in the urban streetscape. The Summit Building is an integral component of Seattle’s cultural tapestry and a testament to the city’s enduring civic spirit.
The Summit Building has many unique interior spaces, including a Ballroom, with materials that interpret the forest floor and tree canopy shadows. Social gathering spaces are embellished with the warmth of vibrant color accents. The Ballroom (60,700 sq ft) carpet design features a large-scale multi-color composition inspired by the colors and textures of a Pacific Northwest forest floor. The deep rose colors of the Ballroom floor recall the darker tones at the center of a rose blossom. The Flex-Hall (109,000 sq ft) acts as the heart of the building, and is covered with a custom Milliken carpet tile. Embodying an actual forest, the Flex-Hall carpet design evokes tree trunks and branches.
Unique Installation Challenge Strategy
The Challenge: The Summit Building consists of three floors of convention exhibit space utilizing carpet tiles over concrete sub floors. Due to the nature of the high water vapor emission in the concrete, the basis of design PVC backed carpet tiles required that the concrete maintain a relative humidity reading of 75% RH for warrantied installation. In order to proceed with the basis of design carpet tile, moisture mitigation of the concrete would have been required, which would have delayed the completion date and other trades on the project. In addition to the delays this would have been an add to the project of approximately $1,700,000.
The Solution: We provided an alternative carpet tile with PVC-free polyurethane open cell cushion back by Milliken throughout the entire Exhibit space. This backing requires no moisture testing, therefore eliminating the need for moisture mitigation. This allowed us to keep the project on schedule without additional costs.
