By Kate Snyder
A project that would bring more than 100 new apartments to Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood was recently approved to move forward in the design guidance process by the city’s Northeast Design Review Board. The board met on Monday for a recommendation meeting to discuss the proposal, and board members were pleased with the project’s current iteration.
The owner and project developer is Jenkins Properties with designs by PUBLIC47 Architects. The landscape architect is Karen Kiest Landscape Architects, the civil engineer is Pacland Engineers and the general contractor is Sierra Construction.
Located at 917 NE 63rd St., the site is positioned near the new Roosevelt light rail station, a number of public parks and the University of Washington. Roosevelt Way NE and NE 65th Street are the commercial corridors anchoring the mixed-use and mixed-density neighborhood, which consists of single family homes, townhomes, apartment buildings and large commercial buildings. The project site itself has a gentle slope from east to west with view opportunities for the structure’s upper floors of Mt. Rainier, the University District, downtown Seattle, South Lake Union and the Olympics.
“Situated with easy access to Cowen Park, Ravenna park, Greenlake, the commercial along 65th and Roosevelt and University of Washington to the south, the project site is a prime candidate to be redeveloped into a stand out example of pedestrian oriented, responsible urban development much needed to address Seattle’s housing crisis,” project plans state.
During the meeting, Scott Carr, partner at PUBLIC47 Architects, shared more information about the project’s design.
“Ownership is a local family who have helped shape the development objectives,” Carr said, “which are to provide 131 high-quality housing units, integrate 39 underground parking stalls, and the project is also using a mass timber floor system … taking advantage of our renewable regional material.”
In addition to the apartments, the development team is also planning to provide 2,810 square feet of street level commercial space. Overall, the structure will span approximately 102,192 square feet. The massing preferred by both the development team and the board during a previous early design guidance meeting consisted of an eight-story building featuring interlocking courtyards. The courtyards would break down the scale along Roosevelt Way and 63rd Street and allow for a “visually unique and interesting” massing, project plans show.
During his presentation to the board, Carr noted that the courtyards are not only beneficial to the residents but also the street frontages on the site.
“The 120-foot by 120-foot site requires courts to get light and air into the units,” Carr said. “We have embraced this age-old idea with two interconnected courts that respond to the corner and the different characters of each of the streets.”
The landscape plan of the project involves plantings on both sides of the sidewalks that surround the building as well as streetside bioplanters, the proposal shows. The courtyards will include indoor and outdoor amenities with landscaping that caters to uses for games and pets.
Overall, the board was happy with the design and appreciated the development team’s responses to previous comments from a previous early design guidance meeting. Board members highlighted specific elements of the structure’s design, including an emphasis on the project’s more impactful massing evolution as well as the strength of the materials used, such as the brick framing.
