Bonneville Power Administration Ross Fleet Services Building

The 17-acre Ross Complex in Vancouver supports the Bonneville Power Administration’s regional heavy vehicles, equipment, and administrative staff. We helped the BPA articulate safety, efficiency, and design quality as the goals for this project to reshape a third of their campus. Our operations center design included significant site updates to support a logical workflow and safely segregate activities with distinct zones for heavy equipment, personal vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. With pollinator-friendly landscaping and onsite stormwater treatment, the historically paved environment now features colorful wildflower fields.

Office areas feature open workspaces, conference rooms, lounges, and wellness and locker rooms designed to promote a healthy work environment. The new service shop reduces vehicle repositioning with 10 pass-through bays, putting equipment back in the field more quickly. BPA’s “safety orange” color clearly delineates a north-south circulation axis that serves as a barrier to the active service areas. Bright orange accents are also carried throughout the facility, signifying to staff and visitors the primary non-shop entrance and other safety corridors. We turned to BPA artifacts for inspiration to celebrate the agency’s history and personnel; the result was a custom glass insulator chandelier hung in the double-height entry and an historic image supergraphic on the shop wall.

To achieve LEED Gold certification, the design maximized long-lasting, low-maintenance, and efficient systems and materials while allowing for flexibility to accommodate future expansion and new technologies. Despite its significant energy demands, the new building is estimated to use 42% less energy than code baseline. Our operations center design also supports resilient disaster response and continuous functioning for this critical service provider. Learn more about these net-positive design features here.