(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

With time and waves of development, there are fewer and fewer remnants of the past to preserve in the Pike/Pine Conservation District. Most of the neighborhood’s best examples of auto row-era architecture have been incorporated into multi-story mixed-use development. Most of the rest were either long ago gutted — or torn down.

A long ago Capitol Hill auto garage that has survived all of that to stand on Boylston Ave for more than 100 years now is ready to begin its new life after an adaptive reuse overhaul, “excavating and restoring the building’s historic character, while selectively and tastefully upgrading it for a new phase of life.”

Capitol Hill-based architectural firm Graham Baba says the newly completed Boylston Garage project stands out in Pike/Pine.

“Many neighboring buildings of it’s era have been gutted and replaced, some leaving only the original facade behind,” its announcement of the building’s reopening reads. “Much of the original construction of the brick and heavy timber structure survived behind decades of renovation and modification, providing the opportunity to rediscover and celebrate the existing character both inside and out, while adding the modern touches needed to provide an authentic but contemporary creative work space that sits beautifully in the fabric of the vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood.”

The project is now begin marketed for new tenants with “15,000 square feet of open office space across three levels” — a 5,000-square-foot upper floor, another 5,000 at ground level, and a nearly 5,000-square-foot basement that the certificate of occupancy says could be used as a restaurant.

(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

We’ve asked property owner and developer Asana Partners for more information on its plans for the building.

CHS reported here in October on the “mystery project” to overhaul the former Heath Printers building and home to Capitol Hill-born coworking company Office Nomads before that venture went fully virtual during the pandemic. The project is part of Asana’s transformation of the corner where CHS also reported the 2022 opening of zero packaging grocery concept the Naked Grocer in August. The corner’s longtime tenant Capitol Loans has moved across the street and added a new emphasis on musical gear.

More change is coming around Pine and Boylston. Ownership of Little Saigon’s Tamarind Tree has purchased the former R Place building with plans for an overhaul and new Capitol Hill restaurant in the space. In the meantime, The Teal Building lives on as a temporary community arts space.

The Boylston Garage project, meanwhile, represents a rare recent Pike/Pine upgrade to an auto row building that does not involve housing. The Asana project designed by Graham Baba and executed by the contractors at  Dovetail added “new storefront windows and entry doors” along Boylston Ave and created a small lobby space with access to the stair and to the elevator via an accessible ramp up to the main level “with 14-foot-high ceilings exposing the original 3-foot-deep heavy timber beams and nail-laminated deck above.”

With a construction date of sometime in 1917 to 1921 depending on the source, the masonry building also needed to be brought up to modern seismic codes.

“The most conspicuous intervention is the addition of large steel seismic braces at the interior along the East and West walls, extending the life of the building for many years to come,” Graham Baba reports.

Upstairs, the designers says the the attic floor was removed “to reveal 8-foot-tall timber trusses within an 18-foot-high space” and skylights, “boarded up long ago to give way to low-maintenance artificial lighting,” were restored and augmented, “bathing this level in openness and natural light.”

The basement, currently being marketed as more office space, has 12-foot-high ceilings and “unique exposed column assemblies, with the office oriented to take advantage of natural light along the West façade.”

While it is rare, every now and then a Capitol Hill auto row structure gets this kind of love without being part of a major mixed-use development. In 2014, Capitol Hill developer and property manager Hunters Capital completed a full overhaul of the Greenus Building on E Pike that continues to be home to shops and food and drink projects.

As for the larger developments, not much is preserved beyond a facade and the general shape and feel of the neighborhood’s character buildings under the Pike/Pine historical preservation incentives for developers. The latest to utilize the incentives will be the Pride Place affordable senior housing project set to open later this year on Broadway between Pike and Pine that is preserving the Mission Revival architectural elements of an old service station that once stood along the street.

The Knights of Columbus project is under construction just up Harvard off Pike

Another current Capitol Hill area construction project will overhaul the landmarked Knights of Columbus building at Harvard and Union amid a new apartment development that is not utilizing the neighborhood’s preservation incentives to construct a larger building.

Back at the Boylston Garage, the brokers at Newmark are in the process of seeking out new tenants for the overhauled building. CHS reported here on reported ongoing strong demand for Capitol Hill commercial real estate despite slowdowns as Seattle emerged from pandemic restrictions. Meanwhile, there has been increased development activity dedicated to creating new office space including the 2019 opening of a Capitol Hill WeWork in the preservation-boosted 11th Ave Kelly-Springfield building.

For the Boylston Garage, like in the WeWork development, the opportunity is being presented as a chance for one major player to claim the building including the “rare custom branding and signage opportunity” the building’s exterior affords.

“Unique opportunity to lease and brand a 3 story creative office renovation in the heart of the Pike/Pine corridor on Capitol Hill,” the pitch reads.

No pricing information is included in the listing.

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