Taylor 28

Pioneering Public Realm

Seattle, WA

Creating People-friendly Streets

As the first residential, mixed-use apartment building in the Denny Triangle neighborhood, Taylor 28 presented an opportunity to set the urban design standard for five blocks. The transformational design reorganizes the street right-of-way and creates a linear urban plaza for people to enjoy, introducing a vibrant human dimension in a previously desolate area with an underutilized street.

Groundbreaking Strategies

A holistic approach to rainwater harvesting allows water from the private roof to be used for irrigation in the public right-of-way. City approval of a hybrid cistern means the number of residents can increase but the potable water use remains the same over time.

First of Five Blocks

These changes have been approved for application down Taylor Avenue to ensure a complete transformation of the street. Raised crosswalks will connect streets and plazas in this growing, pedestrian focused neighborhood.

Client

BRE Properties

Overview

Mixed-use redevelopment of an infill site near Seattle Center, including reorganization of the street to create public gathering space and a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood

Program

197 market rate apartments, underground parking, 48-foot wide public plaza, rooftop courtyard, streetscape

Size

160,000 sf; 1.19 acres

Sustainable Metrics

LEED Silver, Certified

Completion Date

2009

Services

Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design & Planning

Awards

ASLA Washington Chapter Professional Awards, Merit Award, General Design, 2010

News & Ideas

The Evolution of Performance Metrics in Practice

All planting areas on-site and in the public right-of-way is irrigated by water captured within an on-site cistern located beneath the lowest level of parking.

After: By transforming roadway width into pedestrian space, the Taylor 28 project developed opportunities for realizing streets as open space, establishing a neighborhood identifier.

The project incorporates an array of built and natural materials to provide a warm, inviting streetscape plaza space.

The design incorporates infiltration planting areas throughout, achieving the goal of zero-discharge for a 25-year storm event.

Before: A wide road with angled parking on both sides that carried limited traffic provided an opportunity to create a privately maintained public space in a downtown neighborhood with limited open space.

To ensure success within the urban environment, a specific design solution was developed for raingarden planting areas within the sidewalk zone.

Patterning and geometries abstract the idea of ‘flows’–of people, light, wind and water–within the space.

This dynamic field of water gathering “flowers” screen views to and from a rooftop courtyard–a creative solution to a location with limited soil depth.

Pioneering Public Realm

Taylor 28