Stuff I'm Digging (and not) ... Condo Tower Designs

Seemingly 2-3 times a week the Daily Journal of Commerce in Seattle, a daily paper that A Bollen Design receives, publishes an article about a new condo tower planned for downtown. For me, it's the equivalent of the SI Swimsuit Addition. I love to look at renderings of potential new buildings (swimsuits are good too). The Daily Journal of Commerce is pretty aware of the fact that a lot of other people like these images too, as they give them the headlines in their paper. Even with the current national economic downturn, Seattle still has a plethora of building cranes, and a ton of interest from world developers. With the herd of people stampeding back to downtown living, Seattle is seeing many tall new condo towers sprouting up on the field to house the horde...

Some of them I dig, and some of them I still dig - but for the wrong reasons. Huh? Right. Okay the main thing happening that I think is WRONG with many of these designs is that they seem better suited for commercial buildings rather than residential buildings. My blog, my opinion. Somehow I think a more organic (yeah, it's a trendy word) approach for overall design elements would be more successful at conveying "Live Here" rather than the angular overload as of late. Actually, there are some new ones that have a curved face. But even those lack any details that convey residence, though they're indeed nice buildings. Anyway... take a look:

The first example is being designed by Weber Thompson of Seattle, and would be located in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. I think it's a fairly nice building, not breaking any molds or anything, but nice. It'd be cool if they went with those colors too, but I'm fairly certain they were just for the rendering and the actual colors would be more typical. That said, does this building speak commercial or residential? All I see is an office building. The focus as of late has been to make these types of projects tall and slim, somewhat like Vancouver does in B.C. However, Vancouver has way better examples that should be used for inspiration than the rectangular proposals we're getting down here in Seattle. Simply adding Tall + Slim + Glass isn't enough. I want to be both blown away by the design AND feel as if my friends are in that building and not my dentist.

Example number two by Ismael Leyva Architects of New York: mixed use building with living starting where the balconies can be seen jutting out from the corner. The plan is to build 400 condos, a 200-room hotel, 300,000 square feet of office space and 12,000 square feet of retail, and planned for 5th avenue in Seattle. Again, all I see is a commercial building. Seriously, what's going on here? I guess people like living in buildings such as this, or investors and designers wouldn't be building them. But there must be better solutions that would be even more successful. This building is nice enough though for commercial use, and I'd be happy to see it taking up space downtown. What a massive project, but I feel appropriate since the urban core of a city should be dense and tall. But living?? Huge opportunity here for a double tower that plays with its tower neighbor the way single family homes do on a residential block... (unfortunately, homes are doing this less as well - but that's for another post)

Example number three, again by Weber Thompson (the local condo king of design): apartment tower planned for Belltown. This example I think lays somewhere between what I'm digging and what I'm not digging for the new condo approach. It definitely feels more residential, and that goes beyond simply having obvious visible residential features as a cue. Perhaps it's the semi more organic look (semi). Rather than just a looming singular glass face, you can start to imagine lots of different characters habituating in all the nooks and crannies. I wish they'd break up the verticallity (my word . my blog) of the design though by changing the upper footprint and highlighting the top. Hey, I know! Add a round bit on top as a roof and put some trees there... oh, wait. Still, it'd be pretty neat to have that view. Just like Fraiser.
BUT check out the lot! This building will have it's own tiny block, which is pretty cool. My problem here is that I don't feel the design of the building really takes advantage of such an awesome and unique lot shape. And really, overall the building falls a little short in potential with its monotony... but at least looks residential.

Final example: condo tower up in Vancouver B.C. that I actually can't remember who designed. If you know, make a comment for me and I'll revise this post. Okay so this one is a fantastic design. If you've ever seen it in person, you'll be able to relate. Stunning architecture. Still a looming wall of glass, but the organic bend and curves lend themselves to the right feel for a residence. The human-scale town homes located at the base of the tower seal the residential deal. This tower has another that mirrors it just to the left of this image. Regardless of whether or not you dig modern, I feel this development clearly speaks to residents, not business. Also, the property sits right on a park that sits right on the harbor looking over to Stanley Park. So the massive curvy bend reminds one of the masts and sails of all the boats floating around. Vancouver is a fine city with some amazing examples of successful designs for condo towers - of which they have more than any city I've ever seen. They also have bad ones too though, but more often than not... they win.

Interior Design of Retail Boutique Bossi & Ich Ky in Seattle... Created by A Bollen Design

Pioneer Square has just welcomed the latest opening of Seattle's newest retail boutique store, Bossi & Ich Ky. This high-end fashion establishment will sell men's and women's designer clothing and accessories. Owned and operated by a young couple who travel extensively to bring the most current trends and labels to downtown Seattle, Bossi & Ich Ky has raised the bar for the Interior Design of local boutiques. This project required the use of all the services offered by A Bollen Design, and allowed for total creative freedom due to the rush nature of the project. The owners basically said, "We're thinking of boutique stores in Europe, we've only got a couple months until opening (including construction!), we want you to run with it." A dream job for sure! Our first site visit (the day after new years) found an empty shell void of any walls, flooring or lights.

We were hired to transform a blank vanilla box into a hip yet classic space reminiscent of boutiques found in Europe in older urban centers. This feel was achieved with the use of current trend colors and materials coupled with classic wallpapers and design elements. Rich wood flooring adds to the overall scheme by complimenting the classic feel with its dark stain, a finish which was continued in the shelving and column wraps. A dark brown paint ceiling treatment helps to bring the space down (overall height is 18') to human scale, and add to the historical exterior of the building.


Additionally, the architecture and space planning bring out the boutique flavor by creating niche spaces and recessed interior lit merchandising areas to highlight the one-offs expected in a small shop. By lining the perimeter of the space with tall built-in merchandising elements, crowned with over scaled moulding to accentuate their varying heights and depths, we were able to successfully create a large scale feel with small store appeal. A full set of AutoCAD construction documents were produced by A Bollen Design for this project in order to communicate this detailed architecture accurately to the contractor, as well as to ensure permitting from the city building department. Shown in this paragraph is the overall floor plan, at a very reduced scale. The front entry is on the left, the cash wrap is in the middle, the spiral stairs lead to the upper loft office area, women's area is above and the men's is below. For some images taken during construction showing the framing of the built-ins we designed, as well as the initial site visit showing the blank vanilla box we transformed, view this previous blog.

Of course, the best way to experience our latest creation is to simply visit the boutique! (112 1st Avenue) The owners will be more than happy to show you around their store, and are continuing to add merchandise to fill the spaces we created for them, as you can tell from the empty shelves in the picture to the right taken by the women's fitting rooms. In the meantime, we'll be tweaking the finishing touches and details and checking off a bullet list of post-construction revelations as we go. Bossi & Ich Ky is our most amazing retail design yet, and best of all, it's open to the public (unlike our residential projects) so we can share this success with everyone! Drop us a line and let us know what you think...

For previous blogs on this project please view:
1) Retail Boutique Coming Together
2) Retail Boutique Under Construction

Designing Plazas and Public Spaces in Big Box Architecture

This post continues on with the opinions expressed in an earlier submittal, that being Stuff I'm Digging. Though this time I'm writing about the middle ground... being that big-box developments have a difficult time not overwhelming a city block. And by big-box i'm referring to low-rise buildings covering an entire city block, where preferably a few different buildings would reside side by side. While big-box developers at least hopefully attempt to have a good street presence for pedestrians, albeit usually poorly, there's still always the issue of a large uniform mass looming above. Modular design and mini-insets for storefronts simply do not suffice.

My Stuff I'm Digging post praised the block intersected by Pike Street and 12th Avenue. This block has at least 8-10 different buildings making up it's presence. And what's amazing is that new buildings are taking the place of the old buildings, while keeping the amount of buildings the same. Lately, developers looking simply to profit would only proceed forward on a project like this if all or most of the buildings could be torn down making way for one cash producing behemoth. Sure, there's the bottom-line for the developer to take into considertion. After all, it is they with the initiative and means to implement this version of urban renewal. And most of the time it is indeed rundown buildings that are being replaced. But surely a responsibility to be of benefit to the neighborhood from whose ground you are profiting exists... an accountability of sorts. The picture in this paragraph should serve as inspiration for mid-block developments.

So, this is the case on a new development, The Chloe, that I'm posting about now. However, the architect, Runberg Architecture Group, is including a pretty cool feature to the design and footprint of the building to offset the nature of the project. In this case, we still have big-box architecture happening. But you'll notice how the footprint of the main building is "L" shaped, with the open space facing the street rather than the interior, thereby creating a nice pedestrian friendly presence. This approach creates the appearance of multiple buildings, yet still shares the same structure and facilities. And it brings a one story building into the fold, removing the looming large mass above and bringing the building down to human scale. Additionally, they've created a plaza-like space between the buildings, allowing for people to gather and socialize off-street.

Of course, there are codes and lot restrictions for how much a building can occupy of the footprint. And developers are indeed required to provide open space. Usually, however, this is achieved with interior courtyards that are both unappealing to the pedestrian, and to the dweller. Have you ever stood on someones balcony that faces an interior courtyard in one of these big-box buildings? It's somehow a little creepy, and in my opinion detracts from the very experience the developer is hoping to create. Community does not enjoy voyeurs, intentional or not! Not to mention, it's these balconies where tenants go to smoke... so usually blinds are kept drawn and sliding doors shut.


Selfishly, I'm looking forward to the potential opening of a bakery being that this development is only two blocks from our office... and is in fact only two blocks from the Stuff I'm Digging block as well! Also, if you take a look at the plan above, you'll notice a handful of retail spaces rather than just a couple big ones. That means cool boutiques and local shops... Critical mass has already been realized in this neighborhood, and with the addition of new projects like The Chloe, that mass will only grow.