I am an East facing home buyer at Escala and attended the design review meeting for this project last night. Apparently this block is zoned DOC-2 (mostly office use) and has no tower spacing requirements, although the block immediately to the North is zoned DMC and would require 80 feet of spacing. This means that the twin towers will be built an alley width, or about 20 feet, from the Eastern face of Escala. This is the same situation that residents of Cosmopolitan are facing.
I was surprised by the Design Review Board's lack of concern with the eradication of light, air space, privacy and view for both the Escala building and the proposed tower. John Midby, the Escala developer, and an attorney were also present to make clear the severe impact this building will have on Escala. The board said that it's not really their position to preserve individual views, and rightly so. But it seems to me when we're talking about 60-80 residential units that some consideration should be given to it.
Also, the architect, Ismael Leyva, was present to offer revised designs of the base of the tower as suggested by the Board. The height of the base has been cut from around 170' down to 140'. This will eliminate the multi-level retail environment that was originally proposed, which is too bad, since the initial design looked very vibrant. But a 140' tall base still seems enormous. Basically that will put a wall in front of EVERY unit left to right at Escala, up to about the 12th floor. Part of the wall will, however, be a "living wall" with plants and an irrigation system.
At the end of the meeting I spoke with a member of Multi-Capital, the financier of the Heron/Pagoda Towers and I asked what made them confident that a nearly billion dollar project would succeed in this real estate climate. He didn't have an answer, but according to the recent PI article they feel the recession will have blown over by the time the buildings are complete. He also said that they didn't really want to build both towers, but the city owned both properties (the parking lot and vacant retail spaces on 5th) and wanted to sell them as a package. So they purchased both and decided to build on both. I find it very strange that the developer has chosen to finance and construct a building that they didn't initially conceive. It will have no views for many West facing units which I imagine would make them a very tough sell (especially at $1000/SF).
I know mhays will say you should have done your research, and I guess he's right. At the time I purchased my unit I was aware of Heron Tower, which seemed like a great addition to the block. Pagoda Tower, however, came much later and disrupts 75% of the East face of Escala. I find it unconscionable to allow this kind of density because it's just not warranted in Seattle. (I don't intend this post to start flame war, just expressing my thoughts).