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On Friday, as construction crews added another layer of steel to the building, the skyscraper passed 772 feet, the height of Seattle’s former second tallest building, 1201 Third Avenue. Construction crews are expected to top out Rainier Square Tower at 850 feet later this month, according to a spokesperson for Wright Runstad, the building’s developer. Columbia Center, at 937 feet, is the only building taller in Seattle. — The Stranger
NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower will be a 1.7-million-square-foot "mix of ground-floor retail, underground parking, 722,000 square feet of office space, and 200 luxury apartments." Upon completion, it will become the seventh-tallest building on the west coast. View full entry
A quasi-Gothic, Kengo Kuma and Associates-designed 40-story mixed-use skyscraper could be headed to downtown Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. The project, developed in collaboration with architects Ankrom Moisan, landscape architects Berger Partnership, and developer Pacific Virginia, will... View full entry
With earthquakes in the news following a pair of recent tremors in California, it’s important to remember that seismic design is an integral and increasingly complex aspect of building design architects work hard to address. An ever-improving standard, seismic codes not only save lives, but also... View full entry
A vote this week by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has put the city on a path to virtually end youth incarceration, the first major city in the United States to do so. — Next City
Following an 18-month study guided by formerly-incarcerated teens, city officials have agreed to a plan that will close San Francisco's Youth Guidance Center juvenile jail by the end of 2021. The move will make San Francisco the first large city to eliminate its youth incarceration program. ... View full entry
Besides its amazing landscapes, Washington state is home to several architectural structures. From the iconic Space Needle, Gehry's Museum of Pop Culture, and the Seattle Public Library, the "Evergreen State" is a cornucopia of architecture and design. For this week's weekly job roundup, we... View full entry
The specter of unwanted change has loomed over a quiet corner of Seattle’s Chinatown-International District for nearly the past four years. [...] Displacement is a genuine concern in Network cities, which, in addition to Seattle, include Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Toronto. — Crosscut
Several city staples like Chinatowns are facing the effects of gentrification and urban displacement. "White populations in Chinatowns grew faster, for example, than the overall white populations in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, according to a study by the Asian American Legal Defense and... View full entry
Seattle’s upzoning plan is set to take place throughout the city, but only 6 percent of single-family neighborhoods will be affected. These neighborhoods will be rezoned to allow for smaller, denser housing, while encouraging developers to keep existing structures and turn them into multifamily housing — like duplexes — in order to preserve a neighborhood’s aesthetic. — NBC News
Since 2010 Seattle's population has seen a hike of 16%, so have the rents and the property prices. And while real estate in the city is booming, little of the development is targeted towards the growing demand for affordable housing. Today 75% of Seattle's residential land is zoned for... View full entry
The buildings, which resemble glass jars, preserve an image of Amazon’s supposed benevolence as a company and an image of neoliberal capital as growth, as opposed to absence and austerity... Amazon’s decision to abandon plans for its New York–based HQ2 still fresh in everyone’s mind, it’s hard to see The Spheres as anything but an oversized swear jar brimming with half-hearted promises and watery intensions. — Los Angeles Review of Books
Though the greenhouse is one of the oldest building types, its conflation with the office building types in the 20th century was still regarded as a wondrous spectacle. Kevin Roche's Ford Foundation building, for example, was a marvelous example of the combination of corporate modernism and... View full entry
This week Ken and I are joined by Alan Maskin, partner and co-owner of Seattle-based Olson Kundig. Alan shares his story growing up on the East Coast, working as an artist and arts educator before moving onto architecture school in his 30s. He tells us about how he finally landed a job at Olson... View full entry
Seattle’s construction frenzy turned deadly Saturday afternoon when a tower crane working on a new Google campus fell like a thunderbolt from the roof of a South Lake Union building, smashing into six cars and killing four people. — The Seattle Times
"The four-building, 607,000-square-foot project will house a new Google Seattle campus, and also include about 150 new apartments," reports The Seattle Times about the tragic incident at a South Lake Union site at Fairview Avenue and Mercer Street. "Construction began in 2017 and is set to be... View full entry
Amazon is abandoning a prominent downtown Seattle office project 10 months after it threatened to do so if the city imposed a new business tax. [...]
Amazon confirmed Wednesday it will not occupy the 722,000 square feet it had leased in the Rainier Square tower under construction at Fifth Avenue and Union Street. The lease was one of the biggest in Seattle history — enough space to hold at least 3,500 employees and perhaps up to 5,000.
— Seattle Times
Sounds familiar, said Long Island City. Aerial view of construction progressin February 2019. Image: Rainier Square.Designed by NBBJ, the 58-story mixed-use Rainier Square tower is currently under construction right next to Minoru Yamasaki’s famous Rainier Tower in downtown Seattle and will win... View full entry
The new year is upon us! There are plenty of things the architecture community can learn from 2018. With trends rising and falling out of style, to practices learning how to embody an ethical and inclusive model, industry leaders are looking to start the new year on the right foot. This week's job... View full entry
Researchers found the sedimentary basin under [Seattle] can amplify the type of ground motion that’s hardest on high-rises by a factor of two to five — much more than previous estimates.
In response, Seattle and Bellevue are boosting seismic standards for new buildings 240 feet or taller [...] But the prospect of stronger shaking also raises concerns about older high-rises
— Seattle Times
With 2018 slowly coming to a close, firms are prepping for the new year. This week Archinect has picked west coast-based firms who are still searching for the perfect candidate to join their team. Ranging from four major cities along the west coast, check out firms hiring in San Francisco, Los... View full entry
SHED Architecture & Design's Ghost Cabin isn't exactly a haunted house like its name suggests. The new courtyard art installation pays tribute to a site dubbed “Grandma's House” in the Chophouse Row development in Seattle's Capitol Hill. While building the Chophouse Row in... View full entry
