UW - Merrill Hall Center for Urban Horticulture

The University of Washington (UW) Center for Urban Horticulture is the first academic center in the U.S. devoted to growing plants in cities. Its building complex lies between the Laurelhurst neighborhood and the Union Bay Natural Area, and its academic and outreach programs attract more than 65,000 people a year. The Center's rebuilt Merrill Hall opened in January of 2005 as the first green building on the UW Seattle campus. Housed in Merrill are the Elisabeth C. Miller Library, the Hyde Herbarium, academic offices and labs, and the WSU Cooperative Extension and Master Gardener offices. Among Merrill's many green features is a stormwater collection system, exceptional indoor air quality, a demonstration green roof, naturally-ventilated offices, renewable and recycled materials, and a 10-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system installed on the roof of the Library. Thanks to the support of Seattle City Light, energy monitoring provided to UW by the Solar 4R Schools program made the live performance data from their PV system available for educational purposes at the time of the project.