Seattle's advisory Northeast Design Review Board has approved the proposed design of developer Skanska USA's controversial deep-green office building on the border of Wallingford and Fremont.

The five-story building is taller than city rules now allow, but the board assumed the city council will approve amendments to permit it.

Opponents, led by the Wallingford Community Council, contend the project is out of scale with the neighborhood. But Skanska says the building, which aims to use one-quarter as much energy and water as a conventional building, needs the extra height to be economically viable.

Skanska has signed running-shoe and -apparel maker Brooks Sports as anchor tenant for the building, at Stone Way North and North 34th Street.