September 18, 2017

Moriguchi family's ID high-rise will be designed by Shigeru Ban

Image by PortLiving [enlarge]

Tomio Moriguchi met Shigeru Ban through his work in Vancouver, B.C., on Terrace House, which is billed as the world’s tallest hybrid timber structure. It is shown here next to architect Arthur Erickson’s 10-story Evergreen Building.

The Moriguchi family, which owns Uwajimaya, is working with the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to design a major mixed-use project on a parking lot at 500 S. Jackson St.

The complex will have apartments and possibly a hotel, as well as retail and commercial space, but details about the number of units and the height aren't specified.

Kirkland-based Freiheit & Ho is listed as the local architect, with Shigeru Ban Architects as the design architect. The firm is based in Tokyo and has offices in New York and Paris. In 2014, Ban won the Pritzker Architecture Prize for his work.

The developer is PortLiving of Vancouver, B.C.

The 27,000-square-foot site is on the northeast corner of Jackson and Fifth Avenue South. New zoning for the International District permits residential structures there up to 270 feet. The site is in the International Special Review District, and the project would have to be approved by the ISRD board in addition to the city's design review.

“I purchased the site with my family,” says Tomio Moriguchi, the family patriarch who stepped down earlier this year as Uwajimaya chairman. He handed the reins to daughter Denise, who became CEO.

The new project will be a family venture, with no connection to Uwajimaya.

The family's Fujimatsu LLC acquired the parking lot from the company in 2004 for $3.1 million. Uwajimaya had owned it since 1995.

Fujimatsu Moriguchi, Tomio's father, founded the family business in 1928. Tomio was CEO from 1964 to 2007, and chairman of the board after that.

Design hasn't yet begun, says Moriguchi. “Hopefully, we'll send out a press release soon. We're working on maximizing the zoning allowance. The majority of the project will be housing.”

Moriguchi says he'd like a hotel to occupy about 35 percent of the space, “but that's complicating things. It requires more equity. It's not gonna be easy sailing. That part of the city could use a quality hotel.”

Moriguchi notes the site's proximity to transit and the sports stadiums. Hotel guests could wheel their luggage from the light rail station right across Jackson.

Underground parking is planned, likely accessed from the alley to the east. The property is also bounded by South Main Street.

Moriguchi

Moriguchi says that about 15 percent of the space would be retail-commercial.

“There will always be some opposition to any kind of development,” he says, “but we can't live in a cave. We've been doing some outreach and had some favorable comments. I know it'll have some pushback.”

Having Ban on the team will be a huge selling point, though Moriguchi admits, “Average people don't know his name.”

Moriguchi met Ban because he is designing Terrace House in Vancouver, B.C. The 19-story, 20-unit condominium is billed as the world's tallest hybrid timber structure. It's about to begin construction, and is Ban's first project on the West Coast. PortLiving is the developer.

PortLiving founder Macario “Tobi” Reyes made the introduction.

Ban has said Terrace House, which will also use concrete and glass, will be a companion piece to its next-door neighbor: architect Arthur Erickson's Evergreen Building. The terraced, 10-story office tower is in Vancouver's Coal Harbour neighborhood.

Moriguchi says his partner Reyes has mostly done condos, “but I told him, ‘No, I don't want condos.'” He intends to keep the asset in the family.

“Shigeru Ban is great,” says Moriguchi. “I've met him a couple of times. He's very pleasant. Mr. Ban has been interested in Seattle. I guess he has been wanting to do something in Seattle and the Northwest for a while.”

Ban visited Seattle in 2001 to give a lecture, and Moriguchi says he is supposed to be here in November.

Ban has designed high-profile international projects like the Aspen Art Museum, Centre Pompidou-Metz and La Seine Musicale, but he also is known for creating disaster-relief structures out of cardboard tubes and recycled paper. One acclaimed example is a temporary cathedral built in Christchurch, New Zealand, following the 2011 earthquake.

Ban trained as an architect in California and New York, and is known for his sparse, elegant brand of sustainable modernism.

In 2007, The New York Times' Michael Kimmelman wrote that Ban “is an old-school Modernist with a poet's touch and an engineer's inventiveness.”

The team may have preliminary renderings to show in November. Right now, says Moriguchi, “Because the zoning is relatively new, they've been spending a lot of time interpreting the code.”

The city's Mandatory Housing Affordability Act will also affect the building specifications and height, but to what extent, “We haven't determined yet. It might be in the 240-foot range, the 230-foot range. We might not want to max it out.”

At the street level will be storefronts facing Jackson.

“Ban knows some very high-level retailers in Japan,” says Moriguchi, who plans to meet with some of them about leasing in the unnamed project. “We're going to Japan next week.”

The tenant entrance might be on the uphill side of the property, on Main.

Moriguchi sees local demand continuing for both hotel rooms and high-quality apartments.

Last year, Uwajimaya opened The Publix, a renovation and addition project that created 125 units and retail space at 504 Fifth Ave. S., opposite Union Station. “We were pleasantly surprised [by how quickly it leased]. There seems to be a demand for larger units.”

Also last year, a Moriguchi LLC sold a parking lot at 450 S. Main St., where the 18-story, 202-unit Koda condominiums are now being planned. Several other residential projects are underway in the ID, chiefly owing to the upzone. Excluding Yesler Terrace, about 1,389 units are being planned in the area, according to the website Seattle in Progress.

Moriguchi says he expects his project will take about five years to complete. “It's very exciting... I just hope I'm breathing then.”