Dexter Avenue N Renovation

Seattle, WA

Offices, Parking, Common outdoor space

When it was designed in 1979, Dexter Avenue N was a perfect example of the car-centered ‘future’ of office building planning.  It was a generic box, lifted above an open parking lot.  The parking lot served as the building’s de facto lobby, creating a building-scale porte-cochere that led to an ungenerous elevator lobby.  But the building had good bones, a well-proportioned volume, and wonderful siting, lifted above as asphalt landscape with a wonderfully difficult pitch. Our Vancouver, British Columbia, based client asked us to help them use a light touch to transform this diffident, 1980’s era structure, into a contemporary core-and-shell office building that could foreground the site’s surrounding landscapes.

Location
Seattle, Washington

Client
Burrard︎︎︎

Status
Design: 2018-2019
Construction: 2020-2021

Program
Offices, Parking, Common outdoor space

Size: 
24,000gsf; 0.51ac

Collaborators
Interior Design: Ste. Marie︎︎︎
Landscape Architect: Fazio Associates︎︎︎
Structural Engineer: Quantum Consulting Engineers︎︎︎
Civil Engineering: Red Barn︎︎︎
Mobility: Nelson Nygaard︎︎︎
Building Systems: HV Engineering︎︎︎
Lighting: PLS︎︎︎
Survey: Terrane︎︎︎
General Contractor: Goudy Construction︎︎︎