Design review: New look for ‘Taco Time building,’ final step for 601 E Pike

A new look for the “Taco Time building”

Tuesday, CHS looked at some of the first fruits of the labor to create a Conservation Overlay District in Pike/Pine. Wednesday night, the East Design Review Board will take a second and, perhaps, final look at an E Pike project that plans to forego the incentive program and wipe the old Mercedes garage it will replace from the street. Meanwhile, new investors bought the E Madison land planned for the Taco Time building for $3.6 million — but they didn’t buy the much-criticized design. More on both projects, below.

1420 E Madison
News that Seattle-base developers Metropolitan Companies was slapping down $3.6 million for the former home of an E Madison fast food joint had CHS asking: Will new owners mean new life for design-challenged Capitol Hill ‘Taco Time’ building?

Because, honestly, people pretty much hated the original plans. A year ago, the building’s plans were rejected yet again by the East Design Review Board.

Despite DPD’s decision that the development keep the same project number, we’re told the new owners are starting over after considering how the previous design reviews had played out. They’ve brought on Johnson Architecture + Planning to create the new proposal. That team was also responsible for what you see today at the Trace North, Trace Lofts and just-completed REO Flats apartment building on 14th Ave.

A representative says the new six-story design “reflects the Seattle and Pike/Pine guidelines and responds to several expressed concerns” and, while the number of apartments, amount of commercial space and parking stalls is basically the same, “the new proposal differs in several key design areas.”

The most significant change at this stage appears to be an overall shift in the building’s massing concept to reflect a more “classic Pike/Pine mercantile architecture” and a shift of building activity to Madison where the building entrance and garage entrance are both now planned to be located. The architect is also planning for masonry and “strong, darker exterior colors.”

The building is slated to eventually be home to 70 living units, 3,000 square feet of commercial space and parking for 77 cars. Its neighbor across the street is the super-green Bullit Center office building and sustainability showcase. A new mixed-use project is also planned just down E Madison to replace the old Piecora’s building.

Will there still be space for a Taco Time now that the chain’s family ownership is out of the picture? One can only hope! We’re guessing the design review board doesn’t want to hear about your love for Mexi-Nuggets.

601 E Pike
Also on Wednesday’s docket is one of the few projects moving forward on E Pike without benefit of preservation incentives. We first told you about the plan for a new mixed-use building on the property where the now empty auxiliary garage for the former Mercedes dealership stands at E Pike and Belmont back in December as the development was set to take its first run through design review.

With the go ahead to move forward, developer Intracorp now has Tiscareno Associates in charge of taking its project ahead to get final approval for the planned design for the six-story, 60-unit, 3,000-square-foot, 30-parking stall building. Across the street, construction is already underway on this preservation incentive-laden, seven-story project utilizing the facade of the old Mercedes dealership.