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May 26, 2017

Lennar's final design for 2 towers on Town Hall block includes a woonerf

By BRIAN MILLER
Journal staff reporter

Images by Perkins + Will [enlarge]
Lennar wants to vacate the alley between Seneca and Spring to create a landscaped woonerf between the towers.

In addition to 565 residential units, the towers will also have 8,400 square feet of retail, office and restaurant space.

Lennar Multifamily Communities and architect Perkins + Will will show the final design next week for two 32-story towers at 1101 Eighth Ave., on the Town Hall block.

The design review meeting is set for 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 31 at Seattle University's Student Center Building, 1000 E. James Way.

The First Hill site, just above the freeway, is home to Town Hall, which will not be touched by Lennar. But the nonprofit will share the public amenities and a new public plaza that are part of Lennar's project, now called Spring Street North Block.

The L-shaped site is bounded by Seneca and Spring streets, Eighth Avenue and Hubbell Place, and is presently used for parking.

First Presbyterian Church sold the 37,000-square-foot property in 2014 for $9 million to British Columbia Investment Management Corp., Lennar's development partner.

In addition to 565 residential units, the two towers will also have 8,400 square feet of retail, office and restaurant space. Parking for 387 vehicles will be on eight levels below grade, and accessed from Hubbell Place, on the west side of the block.

Tenants will have two large bike rooms, a package room, a gym, fourth-floor decks and dog runs, and roof decks with amenities.

Total project size, including the parking, is about 770,000 square feet.

Lennar is asking the city to decrease setback requirements from the property line to allow more separation between the towers — about 42 feet — and more public space. That public space would also allow extra height, up to about 345 feet.

Lennar is also proposing to vacate the alley between Seneca and Spring. If approved, that space will become a new landscaped woonerf that splits the block and separates the two towers. A new east-west pedestrian mews will also connect to the 5,785-square-foot public plaza on the block's northwest corner.

Outdoor restaurant seating will face the plaza, which has a terraced design and a large open space for musical events, public markets, outdoor movies and the like. About 3,000 square feet of office space — described as cowork space — would face the mews. A small 1,300-square-foot retail bay would face Eighth. Three residential live/work units would face Spring at street level.

Lennar's team also includes JTM Construction, general contractor; Coughlin Porter Lundeen, civil engineer; PFS Studio, landscape architect; DCI Engineers, structural; Glumac, MEP engineer; and PanGeo, geotechnical engineer.

Separately, Town Hall is about to close for a long-planned $27 million renovation on the landmarked 1916 former church. That work will include full seismic bracing, a new roof and HVAC system (which will add air conditioning), improved acoustics, a new downstairs bar and pub, and a new ADA-accessible west entrance facing the woonerf.

Weinstein A + U is the architect for Town Hall, Point32 is the owner's rep and Rafn Co. is the general contractor.

Town Hall expects to reopen in the fall of 2018. By then, Lennar plans to be actively building next door.


 


Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517.




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