UW Foster School of Business Founders Hall

Team

Architect

LMN Architects; Gustafson Guthrie Nichol

Contractor

Hoffman Construction Company

Stats

PROJECT TYPE

Education

COMPLETION

2022

PROJECT SIZE

85,000 ft²

MKA ROLE

Structural Engineer

Seattle, WA

UW Foster School of Business Founders Hall

This five-story structure represents the university’s first hybrid mass timber building and replaces MacKenzie Hall, which served Foster School of Business students for more than a half-century.  Founders Hall offers classrooms, office space for programming and career services, research centers, and areas for amenities. Upon opening, the project was named the university’s “greenest building,” designed to achieve a 76% carbon emission reduction, and use 70% less energy and 53% less water compared to typical facilities built with conventional methods.
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall

A Structural “Three-fer!”

When the University of Washington decided to expand the Foster School of Business, it did more than replace MacKenzie Hall, which served faculty and students for 60 years but had become outdated. The university made a bold statement by constructing Founders Hall, the campus’ first hybrid mass-timber building and one of the few structures of its kind in America.

MKA brought an innovative approach to hybrid mass timber construction that included an intelligent blend of glue-laminated and cross-laminated timber, along with strategically placed concrete and steel, using each material where it is most efficient.

MKA resolved area separation code-related challenges around fire, as well as seismic integrity and building acoustics, through a three-in-one solution that framed the building’s central event space walls out of concrete, the floors out of long-span steel beams, and the floor slabs out of a combination of concrete on metal decking and cross-laminated timber.

In addition, mass timber was used for exposed columns outside the event space and for its topping slab to meet acoustic and architectural aesthetics.

When completed in 2022, Founders Hall’s environmentally mindful design and construction, which uses locally sourced timber from Washington state, will result in a building whose embodied carbon is reduced by nearly 60 percent.

University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
University of Washington Foster School of Business Founders Hall
Aerial daylight view of the University of Washington Foster School of Business’ Founders Hall, a five-story structure surrounded by trees, other academic buildings, and students walking along campus trails

Awards

2023 Education Facility Design Award - American Institute of Architects

2024 Wood in Architecture Award Winner - WoodWorks – Wood Products Council

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