Here’s the plan for the development set to replace Broadway’s post office building

The “preferred” option: “The new building engages both E. Denny Way and Broadway E. with retail spaces at street level along the pedestrian way,” the designers write. “It facilitates the pedestrian link between North and South Capitol Hill with an un-interrupted retail presence along the Broadway E. frontage.”

The Yeti Bar isn’t the only thing that has surfaced this week at Broadway and Denny. The developers of the mixed-used building have revealed the first early look at the project that will replace the structure home to Capitol Hill’s post office. Henbart and architects Studio Meng Strazzara will bring their design for the six-story, mixed-use building in front of the design review board Wednesday night.

CHS reported in August on the plans to move forward with the development following its 2012 purchase. A Henbart representative told CHS at the time that it was too early to say whether the US Postal Service would return to the corner after construction is completed in coming years. Meanwhile across Broadway, a handful of firms bidding to build the housing, commercial, and community space around Capitol Hill Station are readying their final proposals.

Unlike the station development, some of which will reach 85-feet high, the project planned to rise on the northwest corner of Broadway and Denny will be 65-feet tall, and will include 44 units, ground level retail and limited, four-stall surface parking accessed via the alley. There will be no underground parking for residents living across the street from one of the soon-to-be busiest public transportation hubs in the region.

Here’s how the developers describe their project:

You can see other examples of Capitol Hill projects from architects Studio Meng Strazzara here in the CHS archives.

The new corner development will join a block of new buildings surrounding Dick’s Drive-in including the Lexicon Harvard Ave “boutiquement” project and the Hollywood Lofts project under construction in the former Hollywood Video building.

Crosby Capitol Hill
We can learn a few things in the early design guidance packet for the new building dubbed Crosby Capitol Hill proposed for Bellevue Ave mid-block between Pike and Pine. One, developers can squeeze seven stories into 69 feet. Two, that giant project around the corner utilizing preservation bonuses to transform the once and future home of Bauhaus and more into a new, humongous mixed-use project? It’s called the Excelsior:

The massing of the building is informed by its use, materials, light, and views. The core and circulation are pushed to the North edge of the project against the blank wall of the Excelsior Development, therefore maximizing the floor plate for units, views, and light penetration. The building is defined by a heavy spine at the North side of the lot that houses the vertical circulation and acts as the backbone of the project. The spine creates a transition opportunity from the larger scale Excelsior to the smaller scale Louis Arms. The proposed building sits at the same height as the Excelsior and is set back from the Louis Arms in a gesture to its smaller scale.

According to developers, you live in this Venn diagram

The Excelsior Motorcycle and Bicycle Company, by the way, was the first documented tenant of the old Melrose building.

The old building making way for the Crosby? The two-story Garden Studios is a goner — slated for demolition. In its place will eventually rise seven stories (plus a penthouse level) and around 50 apartment units plus 2,400 square feet of retail. There will be no parking. That’s OK. The Excelsior will have space for more than 170 vehicles in its underground parking structure.

The project is designed by B+H Architects and is being developed by the owner of the Garden Studios, Daniel Klein.