Leading architect opens new office in Seattle

Michael Carlson, one of the leading sustainable and green building architects in Florida, is opening an office in Seattle.

Carlson's firm, Sarasota-based Carlson Studio Architecture, plans to open an office later this month in Seattle's famous Bullitt Center, according to a release. The Bullitt Center, the release adds, is the first urban in-fill commercial building that seeks Living Building Challenge certification through sustainable features such as net-zero energy, net-zero water and onsite treatment of sewage. Tenants at the building, in Seattle's Capitol Hill, include Sonos, the Bullitt Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council's Cascadia chapter.

Carlson has done some work in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, but this the first time he will have an office there. Seattle's penchant for policies and programs that advance energy efficiency, air quality and water conservation was a big draw. “Because the green building industry is integrated and collaborative, we produce great design when we are surrounded by the synergy of best practice innovation,” Carlson says in the release.

Carlson has been an architect in Sarasota since 1986, and he founded Carlson Studio Architecture in 1997. The Florida-based architecture practice has since completed 14 projects statewide with some level of LEED certification.