Thursday, January 27, 2011

And the Winner is…

Not Jan in Mississippi (although I thought "the cleared land at my old high school" was an excellent guess!)

The winner is Betty Derricott! Yes, the picture from Tuesday's post is a rooftop garden. And it’s a rooftop garden on the brand new roof of the brand new building for my brand new humble employer, Nintendo.

The 300,000 square foot, four-story building for Nintendo of America headquarters in Redmond, Washington, opened in May 2010. And it has one of the largest green roofs – 75,000 square feet – in the area.

The roof supports low-water vegetation that diverts rain water, shields the roof underneath to increase longevity, and insulates the building. Plus, it’s just cool to look at. The fourth floor of the building houses conference rooms and access outside to take in the view. And THAT is where I took the pic from Tuesday's post.

The roof is also home to several large skylights that bring natural light inside - some skylights are two stories deep so that even Floor 2 gets natural light. In fact, the lighting was constructed in such a way that indoor overhead lights adjust throughout the day depending on the natural light that is coming in. Very high tech and very energy conscious.

Nintendo believes in having fun. So much so that the original headquarters building was demolished and replaced by fun things.


Here we have fun things like a soccer field, tennis court, basketball court and even a volleyball court - with sand - well, I think it's sand. There is also a nice walking/running/skating trail winding past randomly placed benches and the landscaping is luscious.


One last picture. It's the front of the front of the building with the lights on at dusk. The quadrant you can't see is to the very far right and it is yellow. Do you like it?

1 comment:

Ron and Betty said...

Well, I was a little off on the location - but it is beautiful! I
am so glad you are writing again. I so enjoy your posts! It gets hard to find something useful to write about - but it is always fun to hear from you. Thanks Cynthia.
Love
Betty