SEATTLE | 4700 Brooklyn Ave NE | 24 Stories | 240 Feet | 73 m

31096 Views 143 Replies 31 Participants Last post by geoffloftus, Jan 14, 2022

Midwest_Product

Discussion Starter · Sep 22, 2017

If 240' buildings in SLU get their own threads, this one probably deserves its own as well. The Design Review Meeting is next week, and they just uploaded the preliminary design proposal.

This is from the "Project Vision" section:

The project is designed as an elegant, tall, “skinny” tower on top of a 16 foot tall podium. Located at the key intersection of Brooklyn Ave and 47th Street, the façade will contain retail uses at the sidewalk, holding the street, and bringing life and interest to the pedestrian environment. The main residential entry will be located mid-block on Brooklyn Ave, just south of a new active neighborhood park that will be open to the public.

Despite what that says, the designs in the packet are probably better described as "short and squat" than "tall and skinny", but 240' is better than what we've seen in the U District in decades so it's not nothing. Hopefully the EDG meeting will lead to some aesthetic improvements. I'll try to upload some of the images when I get a chance.

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Midwest_Product

Discussion Starter · #2 · Sep 22, 2017

6

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Midwest_Product

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 22, 2017

I didn't see anything like this in the packet, so I made my own MS-Paint-assisted attempt to show the massing of the building in context (this is, to put it very mildly, unofficial):

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Tespia

· #4 · Sep 22, 2017

Exciting, the first non-Downtown/SLU/First Hill Seattle highrise!

I personally am more interested in the potentially 325 ft project on 11th.

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geoffloftus

· #5 · Sep 23, 2017

Tespia said:
Exciting, the first non-Downtown/SLU/First Hill Seattle highrise!

You mean recent high-rise, right? Since there are already two in the U-District (or three if you count the Hotel Deca).

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Xiyatu

· #6 · Sep 23, 2017

geoffloftus said:
You mean recent high-rise, right? Since there are already two in the U-District (or three if you count the Hotel Deca).

And two more in Madison Park, of all places...

mhays

· #7 · Sep 23, 2017

Also a couple on Beacon Hill. And the UW campus itself.

This region surprises me sometimes. We have nearly zero highrises outside the obvious districts, but they do exist. Bremerton has a couple 10-story residential slabs on the Navy base. Tulalip Casino. Downtown Everett and also Providence Everett. Suddenly Renton and Southcenter. Factoria. SeaTac. Madison Park(!). Obviously Tacoma including at least one outside the core. If you use the 100' standard, we have plenty of others like hospitals (Evergreen and the VA for example) and even factories (Boeing). (Realizing the point was about the city of Seattle.)

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c33f

· #8 · Jan 26, 2018

^^
Maybe highrises will appear sooner rather than later; I saw the Chevron @ 4700 Brooklyn Ave NE was closed and fenced off on MLK Day. Looked like the gas station was about to be demolished.

I also saw the Hotel Deca parking lot was fenced off, but this could be just a staging area for Hotel Deca's renovation.

Looking forward to the day when the U District skyline is large enough such that I-5 appears to snake its way past clusters of highrises in Denny Triangle, First Hill and the aforementioned U District, as viewed from Muni Tower.

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mhays

· #9 · Jan 26, 2018

That sounds like the often-lengthy period of remediation that can go before reuse of a gas station site.

geoffloftus

· #10 · Jan 26, 2018

Yeah, there's a sign on that fence indicating remediation well into 2019. I'm not holding my breath.

Ruffhauser

· #11 · Mar 27, 2018

From todays DJC.

http://www.djc.com/news/ae/12109603.html

March 27, 2018

24-story U District apartment tower ready for final design review April 9

By BRIAN MILLER
Journal Staff Reporter

The apartment tower planned for 4700 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. — likely to be the University District's first new high rise in over three decades — will have its second and probably final design review next month.

Now called The M, the 24-story tower is being designed by NBBJ for Fields Holdings of Los Angeles. It will replace a gas station on the 16,462-square-foot northeast corner of Brooklyn and Northeast 47th Street, south of the Safeway.

The M will have 227 units, 5,495 square feet of retail or commercial space and one level of underground parking for 25 vehicles, to be accessed from the alley to the east. A bike room will have 86 stalls.

The site is two blocks north of the light rail station expected to open in 2021.

Levels two and three will be “family friendly” townhouses with two and three bedrooms, and shared terraces. The units above will range from studios to five-bedroom apartments suitable for students to share.

The M is being designed by NBBJ for Fields Holdings of Los Angeles. About 227 units are planned, including townhouses, studios and five-bedroom apartments.

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bgwah

· #12 · Mar 27, 2018

Love it. Nice to see them include apartments with more than 2 bedrooms.

Tespia

· #13 · Mar 27, 2018

It'll be interesting to see if any families actually end up living there.
I think it's more likely you'll see well-off students rooming together in those larger units.

I'll post the pictures later, but I caught the demolition of the gas station building last week. It's been razed, along with the former Chevron station on the catty-corner property. Looks like soil remediation has begun, though I'm too lazy to verify via permitting (plenty of heavy digging equipment onsite).

geoffloftus

· #14 · Mar 27, 2018

How long does soil remediation take? I seem to remember from the sign that it was a long time

Tespia

· #15 · Apr 9, 2018

3

As promised... demolished gas stations at 47th and Brooklyn. First is of the cleared southern site, which I don't see any permit activity for anything other environment remediation. Kind of odd.

IMG_8244 by Nicholas E, on Flickr

Second, of course, is 4700 Brooklyn, the U District's likely first new tower (building is now completely gone and excavators are doing work).

IMG_8246 by Nicholas E, on Flickr

IMG_8245 by Nicholas E, on Flickr

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fordgtman1992

· #16 · Apr 9, 2018

The underground storage tanks are yet to be removed from the gas station. If at that time they find any contamination in soil the process will be dramatically extended.

Seasun

· #17 · Apr 9, 2018

I'm seeing dirt remediation and new building info here:
http://web6.seattle.gov/DPD/PermitStatus/default.aspx?a=4700,,BROOKLYN,AVE,NE

mhays

· #18 · Apr 9, 2018

He's referring to the opposite corner. Without opening a bunch of documents it looks like everything is about demo. Maybe they're nailing down the remediation work before getting a development plan together or selling. With three years before Link opens they might not care about opening on the same day.

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fordgtman1992

· #19 · Apr 9, 2018

I looked into it. Remediation has been ongoing since 1990. The tanks were removed last year so all that is left is to remove an estimated 6300-tons of petroleum contaminated soil during excavation and shoring. Contamination goes down as deep as 33 feet, amazingly.

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smerfylicious

· #20 · Apr 10, 2018

http://web6.seattle.gov/dpd/eplan/G...46&src=WorkingDocs&n=Design Proposal: 3028621

This plan set was linked somewhere here for 4700 Brooklyn Ave N right? Can't see a post the last few pages on it, and it was uploaded yesterday.

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