SCB Seattle: Recent Work

Solomon Cordwell Buenz

Design for a changing world.

Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) is an architecture, interior design, and planning firm with a thoughtful design vision and a dynamic national imprint. Since 1931, SCB has made a lasting visual impact on skylines, campuses, and neighborhoods nationwide. From offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle we offer our expertise to clients across the country, helping them achieve their goals, serve their constituents, and create unique built environments. Our approach is to ask questions, listen, and develop the best design solution for each individual project. We are future-oriented, continually challenging ourselves to design to a higher standard, innovate at every level, and give our clients more as we achieve design excellence.

615 8th Avenue

SCB is designing a 400,000-square-foot, 27-story residential tower located next to Seattle’s historic 1892 Gothic-revival Trinity Church. The project represents a larger trend emerging across the country in which faith-based organizations are leveraging their land ownings in crowded urban centers to spur revenue through land-leases to fund much needed program space. The new tower will house 226 condominium units, with the first four floors of the building dedicated for use by Trinity Church including office space, classrooms, meeting rooms, event space, and a community art gallery. The design pays particular attention to the relationship of the building base and tower forms, utilizing similarly scaled elements to break down the apparent mass of the tower to suit the neighboring church’s scale. A courtyard and memorial garden framed by the two buildings links the historic church with its new 30,000 SF of program space, while the transparency of the new building allows for the new space to remain visually connected to the church.

The tower rises elegantly from the base, responding in materiality to the church at the street level and transitioning to glass to offer sweeping views to Elliot Bay, South Seattle, Mount Rainier, Bellevue, and the Cascades. The juxtaposition of the contemporary façade language of the tower body with the human scale and materiality of the forms at the base also provides clear legibility of the uses within the building and reinforces the strong identity of both the Parish in the neighborhood context and the residences on the overall city skyline. The residential tower offers two and three bedroom condominiums, as well as a shared amenity space on the 27th floor.

Location Seattle, WA

Size 400,000 SF / 27 Stories / 226 Condominiums

Client Caydon USA

The Ives

The Ives is a 7-story mixed-use residential and retail project in burgeoning downtown Bozeman. Designed with respect to the guidelines set forth by the city’s North Central Master Plan, scale, in reality and perception, was a key design driver for the 100-unit apartment project. Conceptualized as the ‘rock and feather,’ the architecture of the building presents a linear form juxtaposed in its materiality to reflect its location at the transition point between the urban core and a residential neighborhood.

On the western side, the ‘rock’ sits closer to Main Street and stands proud, rhythmic, and structured with its detailed dark masonry expression accented with lighter wood recesses around punched windows and inset balconies. To the east, the ‘feather’ reads as a design foil: it floats as a lighter, warmer, and more playful response to the neighboring residential district scale, punctuated by darker accent materials. Located at the center of the two expressions, and purposely aligned with a planned future pedestrian thoroughfare, a glass ribbon runs the height of the building to demarcate the main residential entry.

Carefully concealed between the street level retail and residential levels is one level of parking, offering 200 spaces to residents in the building and those in neighboring developments under the same ownership. Above, the apartments range from studio to two-bedroom units. Shared residential amenities include a fitness center, coworking space, and an elevated outdoor courtyard with a grilling area. SCB’s interior design for the project continues the conceptual juxtaposition of dark and light with contrasting colors, materials, and textures.

Location Bozeman, MT

Size 185,000 SF / 7 Stories / 100 Apartments

Client HomeBase Montana

12th & Idaho

At 26 stories, 12th & Idaho is the tallest residential tower in Idaho, designed with an intentional simplicity to emphasize the unique rooftop amenity experience at its peak. Inspired by Boise’s Sawtooth Mountain Range, the designers used the topographical concept of a basin, plateau, and summit to organize the 298-unit building.

Offering generous amenities, 12th & Idaho’s 12,000 square-foot amenity program seamlessly blends the indoors and outdoors across two levels at its crown. The “plateau,” or first level of the terraced amenity deck, is focused on active uses and interaction: a co-working lounge provides residents with individual workspaces as well as meeting rooms; a gaming room offers an indoor golf simulator; a social lounge opens onto a pool deck. The “summit” on the top level encourages private uses, featuring a club room with kitchen for reserved events. Fire pits, a garden area, and a private standalone spa complete the outdoor offerings on this level. A grand staircase connects the “plateau” to the “summit,” envisioned as a representation of traversing a mountain trail.

At the “basin,” or ground level, 12th & Idaho brings 8,700 square feet of retail space to the area. An enclosed parking garage also adds 323 much-needed parking spaces for residents and underserved adjacent buildings. The parking garage utilizes a fabric enclosure featuring a mountain-inspired graphic that allows for natural light and fresh airflow, reducing the need for fans and exhaust mitigation. An additional private terrace for residents sits on top of the parking garage.

Location Boise, ID

Size 438,000 SF / 28 Stories / 298 Apartments

Client White Oak Realty Partners LLC, Ponsky Capital Partners, Oppenheimer Development Corporation

The Henry

Named after one of the founders of Bozeman, The Henry is a boutique luxury condominium building that is inspired by the timeless architecture at the turn of the 19th century, with a modern touch. Proportion, scale, and details are all studied and celebrated on this building, blending East Coast architectural tradition with a mountain modern aesthetic.

The Henry offers 44 larger-than-market-sized units, ranging from one- to three-bedrooms and seven two-story townhomes at the street level. Five large penthouses occupy the top floors of The Henry, each with a generous-sized covered terrace. Select amenities include a fitness center, a ski and bike workroom, and storage directly accessible from the outside.

The exterior of the building combines a dark metal base that mimics charred wood, lighter wood accents, and a red brick façade with inset brick accents, gesturing to the East Coast architectural reference for the project. Large 8’ by 9’ windows allow for an abundance of natural light to fill the central living spaces and frame views to the mountains. The interior design for the building, also completed by SCB, features luxury finishes including marble, granite, and wood.

Location Bozeman, MT

Size 120,000 SF / 7 Stories / 44 Condominiums

Client HomeBase Montana

AMLI Redmond Way

AMLI Redmond Way represents the redevelopment of a former retail strip mall into a vibrant, transit-oriented residential community. Located amidst a commercial retail district, the site is unique in its proximity to a smaller-scale historic district to the west as well as the Redmond Central Connector, a new light rail line, running along its south side. The project is comprised of two buildings: on the east side is a six-story building which provides 127 two- and three-bedroom units, while on the west sits a seven-story building with an additional 249 units. The project is targeting LEED Gold.

The design for the two buildings offers two distinct, yet complimentary, architectural expressions. The east building draws its inspiration from the original BNSF railway that previously ran along the Redmond Central Connector, utilizing a playful series of railway tracks on the elevations. The west building draws inspiration from the design vernacular of the historic structures in the area.

With the intention of sharing amenities between both buildings across multiple demographics, the design team worked to create a program with universal appeal. For the west building, outdoor amenities are offered within two landscaped courtyards. The east building courtyard offers an extensive amenity deck with a serpentine path that circumnavigates a central landscaped play area. Residential patios located alongside the path give the deck a neighborhood park-like feel. Prioritizing indoor/outdoor connections, an indoor amenity program offers ample additional space for resident activities in response to the Pacific Northwest climate. Along Redmond Way, the development brings 10,000 square feet of retail, connecting to an existing city-owned plaza and adjacent retail space.

Location Redmond, WA

Size 581,000 SF / East: 6 Stories, 127 Apartments / West: 7 Stories, 240 Apartments

Client AMLI

Cascades

Cascades is a 217-unit transit-oriented development near the Downtown Redmond Station, where light-rail service will begin in 2024. Rising eight stories, the building is defined by its u-shaped massing around an elevated multi-level courtyard. A series of setbacks along the east and west residential wings maximizes views to the Cascade Range and Mount Rainier. SCB’s design for Cascades also dedicates part of its site to public space, adding increased value to the city. The project is targeting two Green Globes.

Opening to the south to capture the most of the Pacific Northwest’s intermittent sunlight, the courtyard was conceived as an architectural response to the region’s topography, terraced across three levels and lushly landscaped to evoke the experience of hiking Redmond’s nearby mountains. Spaces for informal gatherings like picnics and performances are located throughout the courtyard, as well as moments for smaller social groups around fire pits. The main courtyard is located on the fourth floor, stepping down to the second floor to connect to the building’s shared amenity spaces, including a fitness center, communal lounge, and coworking area. Three levels of parking in the building are hidden behind the courtyard steps.

Location Redmond, WA

Size 285,000 SF / 8 Stories / 217 Apartments

Client White Oak Realty Partners LLC, Ponsky Capital Partners

Design for a changing world.

Architecture | Interior Design | Planning www.scb.com