Capitol Hill developments preserving parts of past in new construction
Nov 11, 2014, 5:53 AM | Updated: 5:03 pm
The facade of an old building at Pike and Bellevue is one of many being incorporated into new developments taking advantage of incentives by the city. (Josh Kerns/MyNorthwest.com)
(Josh Kerns/MyNorthwest.com)
Amid the ongoing building boom on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, vestiges of the past are not only surviving, but thriving, as developers work to incorporate old buildings into massive new projects.
Over a dozen new developments going up in the Pike/Pine corridor have preserved facades and other parts of existing buildings as part of a long-term effort to maintain the character of the neighborhood in the face of change.
The Seattle City Council has been working for several years on evolving plans to create a program that gives developers incentive to preserve pre-1940 buildings, promote mixed-use development, encourage diverse businesses and keep new development in character with the neighborhood.
First passed in 2009, the Pike/Pine Conservation Overlay District – amended last summer – allows developers to build larger projects if they preserve some of the existing structures.
Among the first to take advantage of the city’s new program is Sunset Electric at 11th and Pine. The developer preserved the original two-story facade in exchange for authorization to increase the number of apartment units above the commercial spaces below.
The most ambitious of the numerous projects on the Hill is the Pike Motorworks at Harvard and Pine. The former BMW dealership is being turned into a massive seven-story, 260-unit apartment complex spanning an entire city block with a number of restaurants and shops on the ground level.
The facade of the neighboring longtime Phil Smart Mercedes Benz dealership is also preserved in another massive development just down the street on E. Pike, with upwards of 300 apartments and approximately 20,000 square feet of retail taking up an full block like Pike Motorworks.
The developments feature a variety of creative solutions to preserve the character of the area, with one dismantling and then reassembling and aged building brick-by-brick, says Dennis Meier, a strategic adviser with Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development.
“The folks up there have worked really hard to deal with this challenge of trying to identify what makes their area special, he says. “They’ve embraced the fact that it’s changing, they’re not trying to freeze it in place, but they’re struggling with how to identify what’s really important and essential to the character of the place and how do you keep that alive.”
