East Review Board signs off on early design for 600 Broadway E development

The planned massing of the preferred “u-shaped” design

The East Design Review Board got its first big decision of 2024 squared away Wednesday night as it signed off on the early design elements of a proposed six-story development planned to rise on the 600 block of Broadway E.

Wednesday, the board recommended the project move forward with its Master Use Permit application where the group’s attention will turn to elements including “scale mitigation, street edge composition and high-quality exterior materials.”

Studio Meng Strazzara is leading design on the Cascade Ridge Partners development and presented a set of three concepts for the general massing of the development including a preferred design that “continues the character of the Broadway E. corridor massing vernacular” with a U-shape concept. Continue reading

Design review: Developers want QFC block project to make room for 10 businesses, 170 apartments, 1 ‘tier 2’ tree — and they want to rise 6 stories on 15th Ave E to do it — UPDATE

(Images: Runberg Architecture Group)

The Capitol Hill developers behind the project to transform the old QFC block of 15th Ave E into new apartments, businesses, and plaza space want the new building to give the neighborhood a vibrant streetscape with a mix of trees old and new, small retail spaces to add to the street’s eclectic mix, and 170 new homes.

The only catch? They’ll need an extra story to pull it off. Wednesday, Hunters Capital will present its first public proposal for the property to the East Design Review Board and start the discussion about the tradeoff it is requesting to allow the project to reach six stories high in exchange for keeping two mature and well-loved European hornbeam trees on the north end of the property along E Republican.

“The scale of the property provides an opportunity to develop a variety of retail and restaurant spaces that will fit into the scale of the existing commercial context,” Hunters Capital’s design proposal reads. “Enhancing pedestrian life and access through the neighborhood is another priority that will contribute to the viability of the commercial spaces and help make this project a destination that draws neighborhood residents and visitors alike.” Continue reading

Eight-story E Olive Way development finally ready for last step in Seattle design review process

(Image: MG2)

There will be a small burst of design review activity around Capitol Hill as summer becomes fall including a project that could be key to the next steps in the long, slow climb of change reshaping E Olive Way. The major project replacing the former curving street’s Coldwell Banker building and three other with an eight-story mixed-use project from Canada-based real estate investment and management company Low Tide Properties is set to take what the project’s backers hope will be its final pass through the public review process this week and onto construction.

The plan for 1661 E Olive Way calls for tearing down the four existing buildings spanning the block between Boylston and Belmont on the south side of Olive. The project area is currently occupied by the former Coldwell Banker building which fronts Olive. It stretches along Boylston/Belmont to include the low-slung office/warehouse buildings and also includes the existing parking lot.

In its place will rise an 8-story building with space for about 160 apartments, about 2,400 square feet of commercial space and 90 underground parking spaces. The proposal calls for the commercial space to be split into two storefronts, with one providing access from Olive and the other from Belmont. Residential access, both for pedestrians and cars, would be on Belmont. Continue reading

Design review: Two projects, 500 new apartments, and a new home for Photographic Center Northwest along 12th Ave

The future Focus Apartments

A pair of development projects that would add more than 500 new apartments to the Central District along 12th Ave will come before the Central Area Design Review Board this week including a building that will create a new home for the Photographic Center Northwest and the restart of a long-delayed project at 12th and Spruce,

900 12TH AVE: The plan for the redevelopment of the Photographic Center Northwest at 12th Ave and E Marion continues to, well, develop.

Plans call for the demolition of the current building and parking lot, though the center will live on in the new construction. The new building is planned to be seven stories. The photo center will occupy about 10,000 square feet on the ground floor. Above will be about 170 apartments, 20% of which will be set aside as affordable housing. The building will run the length of the block along Marion. Continue reading

Reshoot: Design for new Photographic Center Northwest mixed-use project goes back to review board

 

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Maybe projects that create cool new homes for neighborhood arts nonprofits should also be freed from design review. The Photographic Center Northwest will soon get that new home — and about 170 new neighbors in the new Focus Apartments — if a redevelopment proposal about to get a reshoot in the first stage of the city’s design review process can finally move forward.

The developer had proposed three alternatives at its first design guidance meeting back in September but none fully satisfied the Central Area Design Review Board. Now they’re back with two newly refined options.

The proposal for 900 12th Ave, at the corner of 12th and Marion, calls for removing the existing two-story building, longtime home of the photography center and the existing surface parking lot. In its place would be a new building spanning the blocks from 12th Avenue to 13th Ave along Marion.

CHS reported here earlier this year on the project and the opportunity for Photography Center Northwest to redevelop its long-held 12th Ave property.


900 12th Ave

Design Review Early Design Guidance for a 7-story, 171-unit apartment building with institution (Photographic Center Northwest) and retail. Parking for 42 vehicles proposed. View Design Proposal  (29 MB)    

Review Meeting
December 8, 2022 5:00 PM

Meeting: https://bit.ly/Mtg3039185

Listen Line: 206-207-1700 Passcode: 2487 511 7365
Comment Sign Up: https://bit.ly/Comment3039185
Review Phase
EDG–Early Design Guidance  See All Reviews

Project Number

Planner
David Sachs

The new building is planned to rise seven stories. The center would have about 10,000 square feet space on the ground floor, with its entrance at 12th and Marion, across 12th from Seattle University. There will be about 600 square feet more for ground floor retail, and 169 apartments perched atop the center’s new digs. About 20% of the units are expected to meet the city’s affordable housing guidelines, though that number has not be finalized. There are also plans for underground parking for 44 cars.

The project is proposed by Seattle-based developer Vibrant Cities and designed by Link Design Group of Kirkland which has brought photography-inspired design concepts to the project they say presents special challenges due to its relatively narrow width and depth and required setbacks due to utility lines.

The developer’s new proposal involves a ground floor that’s fairly rectangular. But on the above floors, there’s various degrees of articulation to the building. Continue reading

Seattle proposal would free affordable projects from design review — and give all developers path to skip public meetings

The affordable mass timber Heartwood project from Community Roots Housing at 14th and Union (Image: AIA Seattle)

The city’s COVID-19 emergency has ended but its affordable housing emergency continues. New legislation shaped by the pandemic and championed by the mayor and city council would speed up the public approval process to create new low-and-middle-income apartment buildings by exempting the developments from time consuming and expensive design reviews. The effort could also produce a two-year test where any major development in the city could choose to undertake a public review as is currently required or pursue the streamlined administrative design review with public feedback but without public meetings.

Mayor Bruce Harrell sent legislation to the Seattle City Council this week to begin the process of winding down what critics say is one of the city’s largest bureaucratic barriers to more rapidly addressing its housing issues. Continue reading

Design review: Eight stories, mass timber, and within view of Capitol Hill Station

(Image: CHS)

Revived redevelopment plans for a new project that will demolish E Olive Way’s All Seasons Cleaners will come in front of the East Design Review Board this week a vision for an eight-story mass timber building within sight of the Capitol Hill Station entrance.

The building at 1800 E Olive Way, the corner of Olive and Harvard a block west of Broadway, is home to one of the remaining dry cleaners on the Hill. Back in 2018, the then-busy drive thru laundry and home to one of the Hill’s busiest little weekend flea markets was being lined up for a project that would have risen seven stories and created around 45 apartments, and 3,200 square feet of retail just off Broadway — but longtime business and property owners the Kim family opted not to sell, putting any redevelopment on hold.

Four years later following the pandemic, the opening of hundreds of new apartments above Capitol Hill Station nearby, and an important land use change, plans are back in motion for a building that can now rise eight stories thanks to the new Mandatory Housing Affordability zoning. Continue reading

Seattle makes plans to sustain hybrid virtual and in-person design review meetings

The Seattle City Council is working on legislation that would allow important land use meetings including public design review sessions to be held virtually and in-person as the official state of emergency around COVID-19 is lifted.

“The proposal would allow SDCI and Office of Housing to hold meetings in a modern, convenient manner, with an option for the public to attend a virtual meeting at a physical meeting venue for people who don’t have access to a computer or prefer an in-person meeting,” the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections director’s report and recommendation on the proposal reads. Continue reading

Design review: With ‘quirkiness’ and trees on the table, eight stories proposed at 13th and John

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. Continue reading

With eight stories, brick veneer, and preserving an ‘exceptional’ birch tree, development plans rise again across from Broadway Hill Park

(Images: Grouparchitect)

A plan to bring new development to the corner of E Republican and Federal Ave E neighboring the area’s mix of single family-style homes and old apartment buildings stalled during the pandemic, but now it’s coming back and will appear before the East Design Review Board this week.

Three existing homes, each dating to the first years of the 20th century, will be demolished. According to tax records, two of the three are single family homes, while the third is a duplex. In a trade a city desperate for new housing should be happy to make, an eight-story, 75-unit building will rise across from Broadway Hill Park.

In the works for years, developers began meeting with the Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council in November 2019. There were more community outreach meetings in November of that year and in January 2020. Then 2020 happened. There was another, email evaluation by Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council. There was some movement later in 2020, but then things seems to have stalled. That earlier version had called for a 117-unit building, but there’s no longer any mention of that number.

And now, it’s back in the building pipeline with a recently released plan for design review (PDF). Continue reading