Bertschi School Living Science Building

In the summer of 2009, the board and administration of the Bertschi School, an independent pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade school in Seattle, weren't quite ready to begin the science building that was the last component in their long-term master plan. The year before, they had achieved LEED Gold certification for a facility for art, music, and physical education that opened in 2007, and they were still raising the last of the funds required to pay for the $3.4 million project. "We have a very small donor community," says Stan Richardson, director of technology and campus planning at the 235-student Bertschi, which occupies a city block in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

But then Stacy Smedley and Chris Hellstern, two associates in the local office of KMD Architects, made Bertschi an offer: KMD would assemble an architecture and consultant team that would provide design services free of charge. The contractor Skanska USA was also willing to waive its fees for preconstruction services, eliminate its profit margin, and donate some of the materials. For its part, the school would be responsible for construction costs and had to agree to target Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification—no small feat, since there were not yet any buildings that had earned the "beyond LEED" designation.