505 First is a 288,000-square-foot class A office building that is on track to become the first existing building to obtain Core Green Building certification (Core) from the International Living Future Institute. In a world where most green building certification schemes are usually only attainable for new developments, 505 First demonstrates the power of existing […]
The Othello Square Affordable Homeownership Building demonstrates that equitable affordable homeownership can be good for both the well-being of people and the planet. Developed by Seattle-based nonprofit housing developer HomeSight, the project aims to improve the health of communities affected by generational barriers to holistic wellness and economic stability. The project will include 68 permanently […]
Executive Summary HopeWorks Station North is a net zero–ready development at which affordable housing, workforce development, and job training combine with innovative sustainability elements to improve the life of residents and help the planet. Owned by HopeWorks and Housing Hope, the mixed-use retail and multifamily housing development provides comprehensive housing, social services, and job reentry […]
High Point is a 129-acre (52 ha) mixed-income redevelopment project in Seattle focused on resident well-being and an enhanced quality of life in the surrounding area.
Health-promoting features at High Point include a community clinic, pedestrian-friendly design, and homes designed to reduce the risk and severity of asthma.
In August 2003, Kemper Development Company (KDC), owner of the successful, adjacent Bellevue Square and Bellevue Center retail projects, took on the challenge of turning around the Lincoln Square project—a massive risk in the uncertain economic climate of the early 2000s. After four years of redesign and innovative construction, the 1.4 million-square-foot (130,064-m2) mixed-use project, replete with 300,000 square feet (2,787 m2) of retail; a 28-story, Class A office tower; 148 luxury condominiums; and a 19-story hotel, has resuscitated a moribund development and brought much-needed density to a suburban environment. The two towers rise from five stories of underground parking and a three-level retail podium, featuring a luxury cinema, restaurants, home-related stores, and upscale entertainment.
The first-tier suburban city of Shoreline, just north of Seattle, began its ambitious redevelopment of the heavily used Aurora Avenue North corridor just three years after the city’s incorporation in 1995. Before reconstruction, Aurora Avenue North was an automobile-centric highway featuring gas stations, shopping centers, convenience stores, adult clubs, and tobacco and alcohol stores. The four-lane road had an average of 40,000 to 45,000 vehicles and 7,000 bus riders per day and one of the highest crash rates in the state, at nearly one per day and one fatality per year.
The city knew that the redevelopment of Aurora would take a long-term commitment, and for the next 18 years, Shoreline worked to address land use and safety issues and to improve the conditions of the corridor and the surrounding neighborhoods. The three-mile project was completed without debt in 2016 using a mix of 21 different funding sources, including Shoreline’s capital improvement program as well as county, state, and federal funding.
Grow Community, a master-planned development on Bainbridge Island, Washington, has social interaction at the core of its design and programming. Asani Development partnered with Davis Studio Architecture + Design LLC and Cutler Anderson Architects, to develop the project, which will include 132 residences, a community center, an early childhood center, and nearly two acres of community gardens and open space at buildout.
Their One Planet Living framework encourages “active, sociable, meaningful lives to promote good health and well-being” and promotes zero-net-carbon buildings, water use reduction, waste reduction, and the use of sustainable, healthy building materials. This framework guided the development of affordable housing for young families, people on fixed-incomes, and single households. Parking is located on the perimeter and underground to minimize impervious surfaces and to promote spontaneous encounters between residents using the interior footpaths. In place of a playground, natural play elements such as flat granite rocks were incorporated into walking paths. A solar-powered electric charging station is provided for an on-site carsharing program to reduce automobile dependency.
Via6 is a 654-unit mixed-use apartment complex spanning an entire city block of downtown Seattle, Washington. Developer Pine Street Group LLC and designers GGLO and Hewitt created this two-tower development as a “vertical neighborhood” of residential, leisure, and commercial spaces in an area formerly devoid of housing and street life.
The central location of Via6 ensures walkable access to a major transit hub, ground-floor retail, and carsharing services. The numerous amenities and facilities of Via6 itself aim to promote social interaction and physical activity. The ViaBike Club and the Velo Bike Shop are located on-site to provide residents and visitors with a bicycle washing station, a storage facility, lockers, showers, mechanic classes, stands, tools, and a bicycle lending service. An eighteen-foot chronograph in the lobby and two in-house event coordinators facilitate social events for residents to meet their neighbors. This LEED Gold certified building also features a green roof pavilion with indoor and outdoor gathering and barbeque spaces, rain water collection and irrigation, motion-detected lighting and climate controls, a ground-floor theater area, and a mezzanine with a fitness center, a game room, and communal lounges. Via6 remains, to date, the largest private development in Seattle’s history and has received commendation as a 2014 Urban Land Institute Global Awards of Excellence finalist, a 2014 high rise project of the year merit award from the Multi-Family Executive, and a 2013 Multi-Family Development of the Year from NAIOP Washington State.
Chophouse Row is the last phase of a multiyear redevelopment of a cluster of properties in the Pike-Pine neighborhood of Seattle. Completed in spring 2015, Chophouse Row is a small-scale, mixed-use project that includes 25,317 square feet of office space, 6,379 square feet of retail space, and three penthouse apartments totaling 4,795 square feet; total gross building area is 43,543 square feet. The development includes a mix of vintage and modern structures, a pedestrian alley/mews that provides a walk-through connection from 12th to 11th Avenue, and a courtyard and pedestrian plaza at the center of the block that ties together Chophouse Row and the other properties on the block.
Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood was a primarily industrial area in the late 1990s when Vulcan Inc., a real estate development company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, envisioned working with the city and the community to redevelop the nearly 60 acres (24 ha) it owned there into a vibrant, sustainable, and pedestrian-oriented urban center. The opening of Vulcan’s flagship 2200 project in November 2006 represents another milestone in South Lake Union’s rapid transformation into a diverse and thriving urban community.
Occupying an entire city block—nearly 2.5 acres (1.0 ha)—at the gateway to South Lake Union, a neighborhood that lies on Lake Union just north of Seattle’s central business district, 2200 represents one of the largest mixed-use developments in downtown Seattle. The $226 million, 455,500-square-foot (42,317 m2) project features 261 condominiums, a 160-room Pan Pacific luxury hotel, a Whole Foods Market, a variety of shops and restaurants, and distinctive works of art. The South Lake Union line of the Seattle Streetcar, which is expected to begin operations in late 2007, will stop directly in front of 2200.