November 2, 2022

Diamond shaped mixed-use building opens on Capitol Hill

Photos from Walsh Construction/Walsh Group [enlarge]

The diamond shaped site was formerly a parking lot.

This summer, Pivot, a new mixed-use building, opened at 1208 Pine St. on Capitol Hill. Pivot is an eight story, approximately 75,000-square-foot development with 65 residential units, a 30-key hotel, 4,500 square feet of restaurant and retail space, and below-grade parking with space for 18 vehicles, two motorcycle spaces, and a bike storage room.

The project gets its name from its unique shape and massing which is roughly diamond shaped. This shape creates units with floor plans that pivot to views of both downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill. “Essentially, we took our massing envelope, cut a line at two stories, and rotated the upper mass to align with the Capitol Hill grid, while the base held tight to the downtown grid,” Bill Barton, architect at Tiscareno Associates, who designed the building, shared in blog post. “Due to the massing turn, residents get good views to the north, east, west and southwest, which is rare in Capitol Hill,” he continued.

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The development is sited right where the street grid of downtown intersects with the Capitol Hill grid.

Level one of the building houses the development's retail spaces with tenants that include Wasabi Sushi & Izakaya and Blossom Restaurant. Floors two and three are dedicated to hotel rooms and short-term furnished rentals and floors four to eight house the rental units in a mix of studio, one-and-two-bedroom apartments. Building amenities include a fitness room and a multi-functional and sustainable rooftop with outdoor deck/amenity space, green roof landscaping and community firepit.

The architect shared that the design of the building, specifically its lower two levels, were inspired by the auto-row history of Capitol Hill. These lower floors are clad in masonry and speak strongly to the existing context of the Pike-Pine corridor which has many brick buildings dating back to the neighborhoods auto-row era (c.1900-1925). Light-hued exteriors on the higher levels are designed to contrast with the darker brick below and a vertically proportioned pattern of color and material lends a rich depth to the skin and interlocks the building's shifted masses.

Pivot is also a fitting name for a project which initially was slated to include office space in lieu of the hotel portion. In the blog post, Barton explained how the project had originally been designed with two floors of office space and how late in the project the team had to pivot to design and permit a hotel instead. “You might not even realize the hotel is there, but it makes a lot of sense being so close to the convention center and next to all the great offerings of Capitol Hill,” he said. The hotel, which is open and booking, is operated by Sonder,

Pivot broke ground in the summer of 2019 and opened in June 2022. The Walsh Group was the general contractor. The project team also includes, Vibrant Cities, developer; DCI, structural engineer; KPFF, civil engineer; Blueline Group, landscape engineering; Pressler Engineering, energy consultant; Two9 Design, interior design; Rushing and EC Electric, electrical; MacDonald-Miller, mechanical and plumbing; GeoEngineers, geotechnical; Chadwick & Winters, surveyor; and Ground Support, shoring.