March 4, 2015

Lewis makes new HQ in old Union Stables

Photos by Benjamin Minnick [enlarge]

Union Stables originally was home to about 300 horses that pulled the city’s streetcars and fire engines.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is coming into the homestretch on a big renovation project: turning the old Union Stables into its new headquarters.

On March 16, the general contractor plans to move into the 1909 brick building at 2200 Western Ave. after a nine-month renovation. Union Stables originally was home to about 300 horses that pulled the city's streetcars and fire engines.

The $9.5 million project added a fifth-floor penthouse behind the horse head medallion high up on the facade. A lot of work was done on the inside, where horses once marched up and down ramps between the floors, similar to a modern parking garage. A hay loft was once located in the middle of the building.

Boris Castellanos of Allegra Properties, which owns the building with Lewis, said a high tech company called Tune is taking the second floor and half of the third.

Weinstein AU, the project architect, is taking the other half of the third floor.

Lease Crutcher Lewis will be on the fourth floor and in the penthouse, with 85 employees.

Castellanos said Tune now is in three buildings in Seattle, including one next door owned by Allegra. He said construction crews made an 8-foot opening to connect Tune's current space with Union Stables, replacing the brick wall with a roll-up fire door.

Castellanos said two local restaurateurs may form a new venture and take all 12,000 square feet of the ground floor. He said no deals have been signed, but crews are installing a larger gas meter that could support a restaurant.

David Rauma, senior project manager at Lewis, said they had to re-point brick mortar that had softened over the years, but the “Denny-Renton” road bricks used in the 1909 construction were in great shape.

[enlarge]

The $9.5 million project added a fifth-floor penthouse behind the horse head medallion high up on the facade.

Rauma said crews repaired the terra-cotta horse head and also replaced the two main front doors that horses and carriages once used. The door frames were retained but the new doors had to pass muster with the National Register of Historic Places and the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board.

Crews re-framed the outer third of the 61,000-square-foot building to support the penthouse. Some of the floors were rotting and the steel bracing was rusted. Crews also added steel brace frames from the foundation to the fourth floor to withstand earthquakes.

A new stairwell is now in the center of the building where the hay loft once was. The stair will be flanked by an art piece made from nails in an outline of the Puget Sound region. Blue nails will represent projects that Lewis has built.

Carey Crutcher Smith of Lewis said they chose to use nails in the piece because they've been part of the contractor's business from the start.

Much of the original timber framing was preserved, but Rauma said they had to replace a handful of wood columns because horses had chewed and rubbed against them.

About 127,000 board feet of timber was reused to make counters, desks, benches and flooring. The wood came from old columns, beams, a stairwell and sloped floors that made horse-related cleanup easier.

Other upgrades included new windows, mechanical and electrical systems, a lobby, stairs, elevator and restrooms. New spaces were created for locker rooms, showers and storage for 26 bikes.

Matthew Aalfs of Weinstein AU said they had to rebuild brick arches around many windows that were damaged in the 2001 Nisqually earthquake.

Aalfs said the penthouse is set back from the edge of the building to limit its visibility from the street. He said the space was designed to be 30 percent more efficient than energy code.

The building is expected to get LEED gold certification and Lewis' space could be platinum.

Aalfs said the penthouse uses perforated aluminum louvers to block out sun on the south. Perforations allow tenants to see through the louvers at a distance when they are closed. Louver operation is automatic.

Coughlin Porter Lundeen is the structural engineer. MacDonald-Miller is the mechanical design-builder and Veca Electric is the electrical design-builder. The Miller Hull Partnership is the architect for Lewis' offices.

Bola Architecture was the lead consultant for historic designation.

Allegra Properties is run by the Moscatel family.