January 29, 2018

Proposed First & Pike hotel loses twist, adds setback

Rendering by Ankrom Moisan Architects [enlarge]

As viewed from the northwest, the hotel would have an 11-foot setback facing First above its podium. The entire second floor would be a bar and restaurant.

The owners of the Green Tortoise Hostel building, at 103 Pike St., will show their revised plans next week for a 14-story hotel overlooking Pike Place Market. It would replace the 1897 hostel, also called the Hahn Building, which is not a landmark. The second design review is set for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6 at City Hall, 600 Fifth Ave., Room L2-80.

Last October, Ankrom Moisan Architects presented a twisted-mass proposal that would pivot the upper glass facade slightly to the south over the lower masonry podium. That idea was not rejected by the design review board. However the board opposed the proposed departure from setback requirements facing First, which the pivot design entailed.

The new pivot-free design is more conventional, with more setbacks on First, beginning above the second floor level, and more masonry cladding on Pike.

Otherwise, the basic program is about the same for the 6,272-square-feet corner property, which Lars Jonsson and Doug Buck bought in 1986 for $1.2 million. The hotel would have between 140 and 160 rooms above about 6,700 square feet of retail, restaurant and lobby space on the first two floors.

The 14th floor could have five residential units, which could be apartments or extended-stay suites. No parking is required or included for the project. Three levels below grade would be used for back-of-house operations.

A rooftop bar and almost 2,000-square-foot terrace, facing west toward Elliott Bay, would be open to the public.

The hotel would be separated from the Newmark Condominium, east across the alley, by about 35 feet.

Total project size is a little over 83,000 square feet. Hewitt is the landscape architect, and Spectrum Development Solutions is the owners' representative. No hotel operator has been named.

Green Tortoise Hostel has a lease through the spring of 2020, and is actively looking for a new location.