March 6, 2024

Gemdale USA makes bold debut with Skyglass

Photo by Lara Swimmer [enlarge]

Skyglass comprises a 26-story glass-wrapped apartment tower atop a brick and board formed concrete podium level.

Gemdale USA in January opened Skyglass in South Lake Union. The 31-story luxury apartment building, at 757 Thomas St., is the developer's first project in Seattle and is certainly a statement entrance into our market.

I recently had the opportunity to tour the building which stands out for several reasons. Not the least of which is a shimmering 25-story glass tower with a distinct undulating facade designed by architect Hewitt, spearheaded by the firm's senior principal and director of design Julia Nagele.

The tower houses most of the development's 338 apartment homes, in a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units. The remaining units, which include three bedrooms designed for families, are in a five-level podium located beneath the tower perched at the corner of Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street. A transitional “gasket” level connects the tower and podium at level six. That level also houses some apartments, as well as the building's high-end gym amenity space (with private yoga room included), and a communal lounge with plush furnishings.

SHIFTING VISIONS

Gemdale playfully refers to Skyglass's tower portion as “the largest public sculpture in the United States” and it is fair to say that the apartment building has the potential to become a new city icon with its atypical form.

Photo by Hero Creative [enlarge]

The tower has the potential to become a new city icon with its distinctive undulating form.

The development benefits from being surrounded by mainly low and mid-rise buildings to the north and west which gives the rippling tower prime real estate in the SLU skyline.

The tower is wrapped in partially reflective glass comprising vision glass and two types of spandrel glass. These different glasses reflect the moving sun and react to the surrounding weather meaning the tower never looks quite the same at any one time. Adding to the tower's unique presence is its concertina-esque facade that switches at different levels to either face the sky or the street creating its distinctive shifting form.

“The facade is designed to have multiple readings,” Nagele explained, “because of the shifting glass, the tower looks more compacted or expansive depending on where you are looking at it from.”

While the exterior of Skyglass is certainly striking, PJ Santos, senior managing director of acquisition and development at Gemdale USA, explained that the tower's form was actually primarily dictated by what it would engender inside the building, rather than exterior visual impact.

The expansion and contraction of the glass curtain wall creates unique floorplates in each unit which like the glass itself are either expanded or contracted depending on their location in the tower and whether the facade is facing the sky or street.

For example, one of the tower's one-bedroom unit types have floor plates that incrementally vary from 571 to 647 square feet (in increments between 18 to 20 square feet) depending on where the specific unit is in the tower, with rents also shifting accordingly. The basic layout in each unit is the same, with uniform kitchen, bathroom, and closet locations and sizes, but the mass of the main living area shifts slightly.

At Skyglass, unit choice is thus baked into the architecture of the building rather than simply stemming from different layouts or amenities.

“We believe these micro differences in the floor plates will mean a lot to renters,” Santos reflected.

Photo by Hero Creative [enlarge]

Skyglass’s shifting curtain wall means each tower unit has a unique floor plate.

Given the size of the site and its zoning, the tower's floorplates end up being shallower than most competitors, which Gemdale says allows greater daylight to reach each unit.

In juxtaposition to the glass tower is Skyglass's podium level, which is fashioned with dark brick and board formed concrete. In addition to more apartment homes, the podium houses the building's ground level ‘welcome center' which includes an expansive entry lobby and communal living room/co-working lounge amenity space. The future plan is to add a retail tenant to this level, which Gemdale says would likely be a cafe/coffee shop.

Whereas the tower is designed to relate and respond to the sky and clouds and feels light and bright, the podium is more human scaled with a heavier expression inspired by the earth and surrounding properties. Its dark brick facade complements industrial warehouses and low-rise buildings that face Skyglass across Dexter Avenue North (Skyglass itself replaced several industrial warehouses).

Several of the development's three-bedroom units are located at the ground level of the podium and have townhouse-style entrances facing Dexter. These entrances reinforce the human scale of Skyglass's podium component. An outdoor children's play area and mews, located on the south side of the podium and separating Skyglass from Compass Housing Alliance's mid-rise affordable apartments next door at 220 Dexter, is another human-scaled element as well as a series of ‘welcome' messages which are carved into concrete slabs at different entry points to the building.

Nagele explained that the design of Skyglass is an example of site pluralism; meaning the building is intentionally fashioned to operate at two scales and with two distinct expressions. The podium responds to the streetscape on a human scale, while the tower connects with a larger, more distant context, including Elliot Bay, the Cascade and Olympic Mountains, and South Lake Union.

The impact of that site pluralism is most apparent as you approach the building. When farther away, the shimmering tower certainly has your attention, but when up close you don't feel dwarfed by the skyscraper above. This is achieved in part by the decision to set the tower back south from Thomas Street and to have the first shifting facade facing the sky and leaning away from the ground level.

The contrast of podium and tower, earth and sky, is also leaned into on Skyglass's interior. As you ‘journey' up the building color and materials palettes notably shift from more natural materials, earth tones and lots of greens (and greenery) - especially in the welcome center - to bolder colors, sparkling whites, and more reflective surfaces. An ethereal aesthetic reaches its pinnacle at Skyglass's crowning rooftop amenity space, aptly dubbed the Celestial Terrace and Lounge.

The lounge has ample seating space and a bar area. The terrace includes a ‘sky tub' infinity edge pool and wraparound deck with 360-degree views of the surrounding city and landscape.

Skyglass's podium and tower levels come together at another of the development's main amenity spaces, Basecamp. Basecamp is located at the top level of the podium and is an outdoor patio space with facilities that include outdoor seating, ample grills, ping pong tables and a dedicated space to workout outside (this connects to the large indoor gym in the gasket level).

From here, residents get another unique view of the tower. Looking up from the patio it appears as if the tower is cascading downwards, almost like a glass waterfall, towards Basecamp.

A UNIQUE ANGLE ON THE CITY

Skyglass has been designed to maximize view corridors.

At the higher levels, the tower's Dexter-facing side looks out to unobstructed views of the Space Needle, Seattle Center, and Elliott Bay. The Thomas-facing side looks across South Lake Union towards the North Cascades Mountains. The south and east sides of the tower offer more urban views looking towards downtown. The southeast corner of the project directly overlooks Denny Park which is connected to Skyglass via an alleyway on its east side.

The tower's unique sloped curtain wall also makes for one-of-a-kind views in units. Another unique in-unit view comes by looking upwards and seeing the rest of the tower poking out above. Nagele says this is one of her favorite design quirks of Skyglass.

THE STORY OF SKYGLASS

Also of note is the lore that Gemdale has crafted for the tower which is told through a series of art pieces throughout the building, created in collaboration with local design group House of Sorcery. From the development's parking levels (which comprise three underground levels with 122 stalls) to the rooftop lounge, a deeply thought-out story infuses the community.

The concept revolves around a set of three ‘guardians' that live at Skyglass and act as way finders in the building. A mural of each guardian, by House of Sorcery, is found at each of the parking levels.

The guardians have collectively found, forged, and repurposed a series of gemstones into art pieces at Skyglass. The crowning piece is a stained glass-style window wall in the Celestial Lounge said to be made from the gemstones found at the lower levels of Skyglass.

This story is also reflected in common area furniture and furnishings in common areas which often have geometric gem-like shapes.

Santos explained how this lore was derived from the architecture of the tower and how its undulating shape mimics cut gems. “The question was how can we take the story embedded in the architecture to guide the story elsewhere,” he said. “It's been really great to see Gemdale so motivated and excited by the architecture of the building,” Nagele added.

Additional storytelling at Skyglass is focused on the structure's sustainability features and the history of its site. One of the old industrial buildings the tower replaced featured an exterior mural by TenHundred. That has now been repurposed by House of Sorcery as an art piece in the welcome center lobby. Another of those buildings housed a radio studio. Gemdale says it is currently working on an interactive element in the lobby that will explain this history.

The first residents moved into Skyglass Feb. 15 and it appears that the development's unique story, amenities and form are already a hit with renters. Gemdale says it is currently ahead of pro forma on the lease up.

Greystar manages the building for Gemdale. The project team also includes, Venture General Contracting, general contractor; KPFF, shoring and structural engineer; Navix, civil engineer; GeoEngineers, geotechnical; Rushing, energy; BBA Surveying; MacMiller, mechanical and plumbing; Rushing and Nelson, electrical; RDH, envelope; Dulce Design, branding; and Weber Thompson, interiors. Hewitt was also the landscape architect.