McKay Block: Early Design Guidance

Early design guidance begins tomorrow for 601 Westlake Ave N, the site of the McKay buildings and Vulcan's proposed 6-story office building.

nbbj

As reported two weeks ago, the design proposal (pdf) states that the interior showroom of the Pacific McKay Building and the terra cotta clad facades of the Pacific and Ford McKay Buildings will be removed and reconstructed approximately 70 feet to the north of their current locations as part of the full block project.

nbbj

The preferred alternative architect NBBJ is putting forward consists of two connected buildings around a public open space directly behind the relocated Pacific McKay Building. The green space will be separated from the two-way Mercer Street by a new screen wall "that recalls the former Pacific McKay garage facade".

The building will provide 225,000 sq ft of office space, below-grade parking, and be built to LEED Gold standards.

No final word on what use the Pacific and Ford McKay Buildings will take on, but it has been speculated that they will act as either the office lobby, retail, or restaurant space.

The review meeting will be held at 6:30pm in the Queen Anne Community Center.

Vulcan Unveils Plans for Lake Union Auto Showrooms

Vulcan went before the Landmark Preservation Board on Friday to present their plans for moving the Ford and Pacific McKay Buildings.

At this preliminary stage, Vulcan is pushing to dismantle the buildings and store certain historic elements for later use in a six-story office building.

The buildings' terra cotta facades would be restored as would the Pacific showroom's interior—complete with vaulted ceiling, tile fountain, and twin staircases—to be used as either the building's lobby, or retail or restaurant space.

See the Seattle Times for more.

Wheels for Abandoned South Lake Union Auto Showrooms

Pacific McKay Building. Photo: Seattle Times

The old Ford and Lincoln dealerships on Westlake and Mercer are going to get some new wheels, just not how you think.

The Ford McKay Building and Pacific McKay Building, designated historic landmarks, will find themselves in new surroundings as they stand in the way of the Mercer fix (which just got a $43M down payment) and Vulcan's plans for a six-story office building on the block.

SDOT and Vulcan are both committed to preserving the historic buildings, but it's still unclear whether the entire buildings will be moved intact or only the facade will be preserved ala the C.B. Van Horst Building.

Vulcan will present their plans to the Landmark Preservation Board June 13 and will go before the Queen Anne-Magnolia Design Review Board with their redevelopment plans July 2.

Seattle Times has more.

South Lake Union tiles provide a step back in time

From the South Lake Union Photo Pool:

South Lake Union's 1st grocery store?, originally uploaded by JHP -- Freedom for ALL!

For anyone who is familiar with South Lake Union, you've probably noticed these tiles in the pavement below your feet. There are dozens of these scattered all over the neighborhood, documenting it's history since the days of the Western Mill. This tile, located at the corner of Harrison and Dexter, holds on the oldest images I have seen. It appears to be from the neighborhoods early history, which dates back to the 1880s. As you can see by the 'now' shot, the site has not been improved.

Jonathan Hanlon

Republican Houses

VintageSeattle.org has been doing a fantastic job of chronicling South Lake Union's historical buildings lately.

Most recently, they featured four early 20th century homes on Republican St—close to all that remains of the original Cascade neighborhood. Record has it that the homes were once lived in by workers at Troy Laundry, also profiled on VintageSeattle.org.

Photo: VintageSeattle.org

South Lake Union Sketches by Gabi Campanario

Astute readers may have begun to notice photos in the South Lake Union photo pool (see right) that aren't photos at all—but fantastic sketches!

Take a look at this South Lake Union cityscape:

And this rendering of the C.B. Van Vorst Building, future fixture of the Amazon.complex:

Who is the man behind these works? Gabi Campanario, news artist for the Seattle Times, which explains why South Lake Union appears in many of his pieces. Gabi also finds time to update his blog, El blog de Gabi Campanario - living and drawing in the Pacific Northwest, with sketches from the day gone by.

I'm a Spanish graphic artist and illustrator transplanted to the U.S. I've been in the news business since getting a journalism degree in 1992 (University of Navarra, Pamplona), working at newspapers in Spain, Portugal and the U.S. before settling in the Pacific Northwest with my family. This blog is for everything I draw, in my spare time and at my news artist job for The Seattle Times.

For more of his work, check out the South Lake Union photo pool, or the entire Seattle sketchbook on Flickr, or the aforementioned blog.

Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant

Photo: VintageSeattle.org

Vintage Seattle recently profiled the old Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant on Mercer & Fairview:

Heading down Fairview Ave toward Lake Union you’ll find one of the city’s finest examples of industrial age architecture in the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant (now Public Storage). It was designed by architect John Graham Sr and constructed in 1913. Model T’s were assembled at the plant for years and in 1932 operations moved to another location in the city. In 1998, the building was designated a City Of Seattle Landmark.

Click on to see more pictures of this beaut.

What's Old is New Again: Amazon.com HQ

After receiving some flak here and here last week, the architects of Amazon.com's new headquarters told the Times what their inspiration was for the new set of buildings, saying "[the design] is really a modern interpretation of the warehouse". I like where their heart is at, I just hope it gets fleshed out a bit more as the design review process wears on.


The Seattle Times piece also details Callison and Vulcan's plans for preserving the 93 yr. old Terry Avenue Building that sits on the proposed Amazon.com campus. The Terry Ave. building will fare much better than the C.B. Van Horst building which also sits on the site, as Vulcan plans to convert the warehouse into shops and restaurants. The warehouse's garage doors would make great storefronts and Vulcan could go a number of directions with the second floor lofts.

Photo: Seattle Times

The article also points out that Vulcan will have two more chances to show its historical preservation chops on two more designated landmarks — the Pacific McKay and Ford McKay auto showrooms at Westlake and Mercer, and the Supply Laundry Building on Pontius and Republican.

Will SLU's Industrial Soul Disappear?

Photo: John Methot

VintageSeattle.org has a piece about the historic C.B. Van Vorst Building being *nearly* demolished. There was talk from Schnitzer West about renovating the building for use as a conference center for biotech companies, but it seems that now only the facade will be saved and incorporated into the design of one of several buildings to be occupied by Amazon. VintageSeattle.org had a negative take on the development, but I think it's a decent nod to the neighborhood's industrial past, much like Alley 24's brick lofts.

Upon a recent visit to Portland, I noticed several commonalities between the Pearl District and South Lake Union, which is probably no coincidence given developers Schnitzer and Vulcan's Portland connections. South Lake Union would do well to follow the Pearl District's model of urban renewal.