LIVING
Home
is where your
Healthis Where you spend your time has an impact on your health. Choose wisely STORY BY LISA WAANANEN
T
he large brick building was dilapidated, almost condemned. Once a railroad hub, where streetcars and then freight cars were repaired and maintained, the tall windows had been sealed with cinderblocks years earlier. Mold had found a welcoming place to thrive, and mice had taken up residence. The building firm McKinstry decided to make it their new Inland Northwest headquarters. Kim Pearman-Gillman, McKinstry’s director of strategic market development, remembers how musty it was inside. They found lead paint and hydrocarbons from the engines and oil. And the company had to consider the whole site: The soil was contaminated with lead and arsenic, and BNSF arranged to have more than 3,000 tons of hazardous waste carefully removed from the site. In just over a year, the structure was transformed into a light-filled, LEED-certified office space, both sustainably built and energy efficient. “We wanted to take an older building and make it something very ...continued on next page
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