The concept for 13th and John
Part of the new wave of eight-story — and smaller — projects coming to the E Olive Way-E John corridor
Capitol Hill’s East John-East Olive Way corridor continues to fill with redevelopment including an eight-story 13th Ave E project slated to come before the East Design Review Board later this week.
The board will also be considering a proposal for neighbors in Eastlake that will replace a commercial strip home to a grocery market and restaurants with a new six-story apartment building.
Nearly a year after its first go-round, a plan to bring an 8-story, 49 unit building to 13th Ave E will come before the board. The proposal, which had its first design review meeting last October, is proposed by G2 Development and designed by Skidmore Janette.
The site is at 131 13th Ave E., just south of the corner of East John. On the block currently are a mix of single-family and multi-family homes. The proposal calls for tearing down an existing two-story building and detached garage. The structure was built as a single-family home in 1912, but has since been carved up into three apartments. The 1903-built single family home on the corner would remain in place and neighbor the new project.
During the October meeting, the developers presented three options, the board seemed most interested in Option B, and this meeting will reflect the developer’s refinements of that option. The changes added two units to the project, bringing the total to 49. All but one of the units will be 2-bedrooms, with the last being a studio. The building will include bike parking, but no car parking.
The developer plans a variety of techniques including fenestrations, balconies, differing materials and modulation to break up the exterior mass of the building. The plan hasn’t gotten into colors yet, but the plan calls for some masonry frame, cement panels and cement fibers, along with an accent material.
Design review: 131 13th Ave E
Design Review Early Design Guidance for an 8-story, 47-unit apartment building. No parking proposed. Existing building to be demolished. View Design Proposal (26 MB)
Project Number
Crystal Torres
Wednesday night’s review session could end up being one of the last of its kind on Capitol Hill as the city’s process to overhaul the design review system continues.
During the earlier meeting, the board acknowledged public comments noting the area’s “quirkiness” and asked that the developer try to incorporate some of that spirit into the plan. The developer responded that trying to make something quirky often backfires, and they’d rather not engage in “contrived efforts” to meet that goal.
The project will set the building back a bit from the sidewalk, and set the basement back even farther, in order to preserve the roots of the trees along 13th Ave. Plans call for retaining two of the existing three trees in front of the building, though the third, northernmost tree will need to be removed. Another tree just south of the property, which has roots extending onto the site, will be retained.
The developer is also changing the balcony setup from the earlier proposal. There will be fewer balconies, and they will be incorporated into recessed portions of the facades to better integrate them into the building.
The main entrance off 13th Avenue will be adjusted so that it better works with the pedestrian portion of the street. The board also asked the developer to consider the secondary entrance, off an alley behind the property. That entrance is closer to the light rails station, a bus stop on John Street, and will have access to the bike storage area. The board reasoned that these factors may lead to residents using it more often than the front entrance, so they asked for more information about it.
The developer responded with details about the alley entrance, and noted that it will be in a recessed area, under balconies. The design will echo the entry on the front of the building to make it easier for residents to notice. The façade facing the rear will also have many of the same kinds of material and style details as the rest of the building.
The developer is asking for three departures from zoning codes for the building. Departures are fairly common in larger projects, as the city code can’t possibly account for circumstances at every property.
The first departure is a request that they not meet the requirement that a street-level unit facing the street be four feet either above or below the street level. Only one of the buildings units is going to be impacted. In this case, the developer argues that the property’s configuration makes this not feasible. They suggest they can achieve an adequate level of privacy through some landscaping.
A second departure is required because the site would require a triangular part of the property on the southeast corner would not be buildable. The developer argues that the existing plan is sufficiently set back from the property lines. They further say that lopping off the corner of the building would give it a look that does not match the neighborhood.
The final departure also involves encroachment into the setbacks, this time along the southern property line. Code requires a 10-foot setback, while the building has portions which are set back only seven feet. The developer notes they could build a single flat wall, but that their modulated wall makes for a more attractive design which also better meets the spirit of the setback requirements.
Meanwhile in Eastlake
A commercial strip the Eastlake birthplace of Capitol Hill restaurant great Sitka and Spruce will make way for a planned six-story, 71-unit mixed-use apartment building in a project set to share the design review bill Wednesday night.
The 2240 Eastlake Ave E project from developer Grancorp Holdings and architect Alexander Heijer would include underground parking for 37 vehicles and “a large rooftop amenity space.”
The old commercial strip would be demolished. It is currently home to the Eastlake Market, a Subway sandwich shop, and Korean BBQ joint Son of a Butcher.
Design review: 2240 Eastlake Ave E
Design Review Early Design Guidance for a 6-story, 71-unit apartment building with retail. Parking for 37 vehicles proposed. View Design Proposal (39 MB)
EDG–Early Design Guidance
Project Number
Theresa Neylon
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Abolish design review.
Note that the preserved 1903 home at the 131 13th Ave E. project is treated as an afterthought and is barely represented in the proposals. Looks like a band-aid setback to hide what’s really being done to the neighborhood. You see these of all over the immediate area which are just patches of opportunistic blight. They end up being far too expensive to fill any real need.
god forbid people have a place to live.
“I got my spot on the hill, screw everyone else”
There is unfortunately no evidence that the city is serious about fixing, reforming or getting rid of design review. The current process to convene a stakeholder group doesn’t seem like it is moving toward creating a path for any of those things. The idea that this meeting will be the last of its kind is very much not based in reality.
If people want design review reforms you’re going to need to talk to the Mayor, your council members, and there is going to need to be budgeting for an environmental study that is mandated by the state to do any land use changes (SEPA).
This will require a steady, consistent push from advocates and a lot of different voices and organizations telling the city that the current plan is failing to build housing that we need to house people.
Housing isn’t being built on the Hill?
Design review is a necessity. What needs improvement is the initial designs brought to the table.
On this project, at the initial meeting the applicants proposed a building footprint well within the critical root zones of the ash trees, which are some of the largest remaining street trees in the neighborhood.They have already cut down a large tree on the west side of the parcel. The neighborhood design guidelines call fro the preservation of mature street trees and existing canopy. That’s a good thing, and it’s public information available to all developers. There are parcels without such significant trees where new structures can be built closer to the sidewalk. We can have trees and housing.
I agree. Design review is vilified by the developers and basic b*tch commodity architects that don’t have the chops and their useful idiots, but the problem is that Seattle has already allowed them to set a very low bar, not design review. We can have lots of new buildings to meet the housing need and good design, but it will take everyone working together to demand both. The framing of design vs housing is a false dichotomy.