By DAVID WRIGHT
Bumgardner Architects

Fremont has stayed true to it's turn-of-the-century beginnings as a mill town with only tenuous connections to downtown Seattle. Nestled between the Lake Washington Ship Canal to the south, Phinney Ridge to the north and the Aurora Bridge to the east the neighborhood has grown in a disorganized, piecemeal fashion.

With place names like Rhubarb Alley, The Still Life Cafe, The Dusty Strings, Deluxe Junk, Glama Rama and the Longshoreman's Daughter, the residents celebrate diversity, commerce, creativity and their own kind of cheerful chaos.

Definitely not the typical corporate environment.

But 10 years ago the Quadrant Corp. secured a 20-acre site in Fremont. It was to become the company's first technology related-urban development: Quadrant Lake Union Center, a 700,000-square-foot master planned campus on the Lake Washington Ship Canal.

Quadrant's Lake Union Center, as envisioned by The Baumgardner Architects. Sound Mind & Body, now complete, appears at front left

After completion of the Red Hook Brewery and Burke buildings, Quadrant began planning a 140,000-square-foot, three-building second phase of development at the west end of the waterfront site.

For high technology businesses, the site has an appealing proximity to universities, downtown Seattle, the ship canal, a variety of residential areas, restaurants, shopping, services and convenient public transportation links. It holds the possibilities for attractive open space and campus amenities for employees.

Quadrant's Jim Fitzgerald felt that his company was doing the right thing by putting jobs in an urban environment where commuting would be reduced and where existing infrastructure could support increased density. These company goals are now supported by the City of Seattle's Comprehensive Plan and the state's Growth Management Act.

Clearly, Quadrant wanted to do right by Fremont, but the first design proposals were met with dismay. Quadrant's Barbara Chilcote, project manager, began searching for a better process. The size of the project and potential traffic and parking impacts were daunting, but she noted that the core of neighborhood resistance actually involved the physical design of the buildings.

Accordingly, Chilcote asked the Fremont Neighborhood Council and the Fremont Chamber of Commerce to participate in the design process.

Then the design team, The Bumgardner Architects and The Berger Partnership, were chosen and a new chapter in the project's evolution began.

The design team began by studying old newspaper articles and historical photographs. They met and talked with community activists. They visited shops restaurants and industrial companies. An architectural vocabulary began to emerge that reflected Fremont's idiosyncratic character.

The public introduction of the new design team was a well attended evening meeting in the basement lounge of the Fremont Baptist Church. Chilcote explained that overall project area and parking capacity were not negotiable but that circulation through the site, architectural character, scale, color, texture, fenestration and building geometry were areas that could be influenced by the community. The Bumgardner firm showed slides of historic Fremont and landmark buildings that still exist.

They proposed that the new buildings along the water would take their cue from big, tough mill structures with simple geometry, sloping roofs, textured siding and exposed structural connections. The building closest to the retail core would evoke existing commercial buildings with more facade breakup and careful attention to cornices and pedestrian friendly materials and detailing at sidewalk levels.

The landscape architects explained their vision for site circulation, lighting, connections to the water and the use of native plant materials. No designs were presented.

As the presentation developed, the atmosphere in the room changed perceptively with nodding heads and helpful remarks. A productive question and answer period yielded many worries, some useful ideas and many positive suggestions.

This was the beginning of a dialogue that lasted five months. Regular evening meetings gave the design team the opportunity to present the evolving design for public comments. Suggestions were incorporated wherever possible. At the final meeting, when the design was complete, Quadrant and the design team received a standing ovation.

There were many supportive public comments:

"It will help expand the downtown and put Fremont back in touch with the waterfront."

"It will give us more of Fremont rather than less of Fremont."

"I think this is the best thing that has happened not only to Fremont, but to Seattle."

It is instructive that the process worked when all parties understood the ground rules and the public was included in the decision making process. The five-month evening meeting stage of the project was time consuming and costly in the short run but it gave the design team the opportunity to learn and respond to community goals and concerns.

Each meeting started with a re-cap of the previous one, and then a presentation of the ways in which the design was modified in response to suggestions -- or an explanation of why it was not. Over time, the atmosphere of mutual respect produced designs that succeeded for all parties.

The first building at the canal's edge near Phinney Avenue North was completed this spring and houses Sound Mind and Body, a long time Fremont business that found a permanent home at Quadrant Lake Union Center. The remaining two buildings are fully permitted.

David Wright is a principal with The Bumgardner Architects.

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Copyright © 1997 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.