Overlooking the heart of downtown Seattle stands the 31-story Cielo luxury residential high-rise. With 335 modern apartments, 24-hour concierge, and Seattle skyline views at the rooftop terrace, residents can enjoy amenities including a fully-equipped fitness and yoga studio, wine bar, gourmet kitchen, onsite dog park and dog wash, and game room, along with ample parking below ground.

When the project broke ground and excavation began, 30,000 gallons of groundwater leaked daily into the site from a nearby natural spring. PCL’s team addressed this challenge upfront by installing additional de-watering wells and equipment to mitigate the amount of water that infiltrated the excavations. A gutter was also installed to catch water coming through the shoring wall, which prevented soil saturation and allowed for the installation of the bentonite waterproofing system. With the installation of the waterproofing system and gutter complete, the team continued to build their way out of the ground and into the sky. 

Cielo was one of Seattle’s first high-rise residential buildings to pass the city’s new whole building air leakage requirements. Uncontrolled air leakage across the building envelope can cause heat exchanges, resulting in more energy consumption needed to maintain comfortable interior conditions, higher energy costs, a less efficient building, and ultimately higher carbon emissions. To combat this, our team maintained a continuous air barrier throughout the building envelope and communicated this priority with everyone on site, leading to a successful air barrier installation. Lessons learned from this installation have been shared with other high-rise construction projects striving to achieve energy efficiency.  

When Cielo was completed ahead of schedule, residents enjoyed a life of comfort and convenience with spectacular 360-degree Seattle views.