February 11, 2026

GO'C office reno reflects historic setting

Photos by Kevin Scott [enlarge]

Custom furnishings made of Douglas fir timber echo the site’s Skid Road past.

Seattle architecture firm GO'C has made its new, larger home in Pioneer Square just four blocks from its original office, which opened in 2012.

The new location allows the firm to continue an active role in the neighborhood. The firm celebrated the new space with an open house at the First Thursday Art Walk in September. GO'C hosts work by local artists, a tradition it continues this year with exhibits planned to open in March, June and September.

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A solid fir partition wall in the entry opens to the kitchen with an oversized pivot door.

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Light from arched, clerestory windows bathes the conference space.

The new space GO'C designed showcases its craft-driven design language while also reflecting the neighborhood’s material history. Located at 89 Yesler Way in the portion of the Schwabacher Building facing Yesler, the firm leveraged the street’s historical moniker “Skid Road,” thus referred to because the road was used to “skid” timbers to the waterfront for shipping.

Modern on the inside, solid Douglas fir-constructed furnishings and partition walls harken to the neighborhood's timber past. Desk side walls are composed of stacked fir planks, stitched with oversized tongue-and-groove joinery. A large, framed fir wall in the entry pivots open to the kitchen. Original fir floors anchor the entire space, another bridge to the building and neighborhood's history.

Photo courtesy of Samis [enlarge]

“Before” photo shows the beginning of demo on the way to restoration and renovation.

The workspace occupies the top floor of the building, benefitting from light-filled, arched, historic clerestory windows along the north facade on Yesler. Within the tidy 1,600-square-foot space is a conference room, a book and material library, workstations, kitchen, print room, and entry foyer. Many features were designed to increase space efficiency by serving double duty, such as desk backs doubling as bookshelves.

Praxis Builders led the construction, and longtime collaborators contributed custom details, including Ryan Shaeffer's steel handle set and foyer display, and Matt Kelly's steel-plate entry sign.

The GO'C project team included Jon Gentry, Aimée O’Carroll, Max Hunold and designers Wenya Zhao and Jeremy McGlone.