1916 Boren

Project Overview

A cadence of green open spaces bisect Stewart Street, starting to the south with the 9th and Terry green streets. The Seattle Children’s Cure Building has a corner plaza on Terry and Stewart that expands this green street and adds to the “string of pearls” along Stewart.

The intent of the 1916 Boren Office Building project is to continue that rhythm to the north and provide a small corner plaza for pedestrian respite along Stewart. Making connections to the existing bike lane, green streets, and public transit route along Stewart, the project seeks to enhance the multi-modal Denny Triangle neighborhood experience while integrating a vibrant streetscape activated by retail and a public corner plaza and lush plantings.

location

Seattle, WA

client

Trammell Crow Company

Design Partner

CollinsWoerman

The plaza design takes inspiration from natural and manmade earth processes in context of the history of the Denny Triangle neighborhood. Harkening back to the prehistoric glacial activity that formed the greater Seattle area to the more recent Denny Hill regrade in the early 1900s, the project team connected this history to the natural process of water that cuts, erodes, and deposits sediment on the banks of rivers, paralleling the monumental efforts that were required to flatten the Denny hills. With these processes in mind the design team used the forms and materiality of the plaza to tell a bit of this story.

With the building setback along Stewart there is an open space opportunity for pedestrians to gather outside the corner retail space. In response to EDG guidance an added retail space at the southeast corner opens out to and activates the plaza, providing an anchor to the plaza space and shielding views to the neighboring loading dock area.

A rain garden at the shear wall is depressed to create a void at the base of the shear wall to highlight its expression. Seating forms are cut in irregular forms by a swath of accent paving with a pattern inspired by the moving of earth. In-grade trees and pedestrian light poles bring light and openness to the plaza while bringing down the space to a friendly pedestrian scale.