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roosevelt station

Seattle’s Roosevelt Neighborhood Association (RNA) may have started the Northwest’s “Yes in My Front Yard” (YIMFY) movement.  In the early 2000’s, during the route planning for North Link Light Rail Extension, they convinced the Sound Transit board to build its new station underground- in the heart of the neighborhood’s commercial district, rather than elevated in the median of the nearby Interstate.  After that success, the City of Seattle followed suit with zoning changes to increase allowable densities to support ridership, and the neighborhood.

Nearly 15 years later, ahead of the line’s opening, RNA came to us with an equally bold proposition: develop a unified vision to guide new public-private projects on the former construction staging sites next to the station.  As a result of that successful effort, we were asked by the Low Income Housing Institute and Burrard to design a building in response to Sound Transit’s Request for Proposals.

We formed a building by designing the network of pathways and public spaces to support transit ridership, to support the neighborhood.

Location
Seattle, Washington
Program
Architecture, Urban Design
Size
205,000 gsf
265 affordable apartments
Preschool early learning center
25,000 gsf commercial/ retail
Client
LIHI
Burrard

Collaborators
AOR: Runberg
Landscape Architect: Hewitt