The West Slope Of First Hill

Long underutilized, but finally starting to see some more action. The above rendering shows the Landes Apartments, currently under construction at the corner of 8th and Marion. Designed by Baylis and NBBJ, developed by Harbor Properties, with 81 units, 3850 SF of retail, and 72 underground parking stalls. Just across the street on 8th Ave is the 17-story M-Street Apartments, with 220 units over a grocery store, which opened about a year ago.

But hold on, there’s something big missing in that Landes rendering, and that would be the building shown in the rendering below…

…namely, 7th and Madison, a 9-story, 200,000 SF office building developed by OPUS and designed by NBBJ, also currently under construction. Unlikely that anyone living in Landes will be seeing much of the WaMu Tower from their window.

It is curious how neither of these new projects maxes out the NC3-160 height limit. Perhaps OPUS didn’t want to block the views from M-Street, which it also owns. As for the Landes, Harbor may have opted not to build more than five stories above the concrete, since that would have precluded the use of wood frame construction.

Status as of early May is shown in the photo above. M-Street, visible to the far right, illustrates the available zoning envelope. It’s probably safe to assume that parking lot in the foreground will eventually sprout 160-foot tower(s), though nothing is planned yet as far as I know.

More action is in store two blocks east at 8th and Seneca: the 25-story, Seneca Towers (large pdf), rendered above, is scheduled to begin construction this summer. Designed by MulvannyG2, and developed by CA-based Laconia, the project will provide 285 condo units with 315 parking stalls.

And there’s more: a few blocks south, Skyline at First Hill, a full-block, 26-story “life care” project is currently under construction. More on this in a future post…