Essentially unused for a decade, this eight-acre property with its landmark railroad station close to the city core represented a rare opportunity to weave divergent and competing development threads into a civil urban fabric.
Close to Seattle's central business district, the local transit authority saw the site as a potential southern terminus to its planned underground bus tunnel. The owner viewed it as a major opportunity for extending the Central Business District through development, and the local communities to the east and west recognized an opportunity to complete local street patterns and revitalize the isolated fringes of the International District.
As urban design consultant to the owner, ZGF with Don Miles Associates developed a consolidated program for the coinvestment, which illustrated how all of these agendas could be fully addressed and, at the same time, respond to the broader civic responsibilities of the property and its relationship to the junction and organization of the downtown.
Summary
Given each land use - transit, plaza, retail, and office space - required the full site to satisfy their individual needs, the program created favorable conditions such that all could be built over time in a manner consistent with the original concept.
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Its transportation management strategy permitted the development of 1.3 million square feet of occupied buildings without compromising the capacity of the adjacent streets, already operating at or near capacity.
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Its relative building envelopes for the entire site scaled in relation to the existing neighborhood and created a sequence of public open spaces along Fifth Avenue.
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Its open space and pedestrian circulation system anticipated access to the Waterfront Trolley and expanded on precedents already established in the downtown to connect the International District, Pioneer Square District, and Kingdome development areas.
Views of the site from surrounding streets and public spaces communicated key urban design principles of the program, for example:
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A special building shape visually terminated the view along 2nd Avenue Extension South from the downtown core.
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Building masses preserved, framed, or enhanced important views through the site.
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The backside of the project was given equal attention as the front, being an important gateway to the bus tunnel system.
Awards
"This project responds positively to all of its urban design responsibilities. It also responds to constraints imposed by programmatic needs, height limits, solar access and any other consideration. The logistics of accommodating free movement of transit vehicles under half of the site added yet another layer of complexity to the massing for proposed buildings. This project exemplifies the fundamental importance of a keen understanding of urban design principles in shaping a major building complex."
Meritorious Planning Award
American Planning Association
1986
"The designers really have paid attention to views and vistas to the building. It is difficult to separate the new buildings from the old ... it suggests the strength of the weave."
Citation Award
Progressive Architecture
1985
Role
Site and regulations analysis, site planning, delineation, illustrations, brochure production, model-building, bus queuing and building column placement scenario testing.
Met with public agencies and collaborated with engineers on traffic circulation planning and transportation management strategies to inform the project on codes and transit requirements.