Photo: Nic Lehoux

100 Stewart Hotel and Apartments

Seattle, Washington

Located in the heart of downtown Seattle, 100 Stewart Hotel and Apartments serves as a contemporary landmark that visually and physically responds to the surrounding urban context, including the historic Pike Place Market District.

Design Concept

The design concept, which takes into account the unique intersection at First Avenue and Stewart, responds to the urban form through a gestural move at the terminus of the street grid. The focal point “glass lantern” design incorporates geometric shifts that physically mimic the street grid alignment, with the adjoining frame of solid façades providing a visual counterpoint. The result is a visual “hinge” or articulation that accentuates the site’s location as a gateway between Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood and the terminus of Pike Place Market.

The focal point “glass lantern” design incorporates geometric shifts that physically mimic the street grid alignment, with the adjoining frame of solid façades providing a visual counterpoint. The result is a visual “hinge” or articulation that accentuates the site’s location as a gateway between Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood and the terminus of Pike Place Market.

The overall design was a result of rigorous collaboration with the city, particularly in the creation of the interior courtyard, which offers a quiet, protected area as an entry point to the hotel. The Pike Place Market District has a pattern of existing pedestrian circulation through courtyards and alleys that evoke a sense of wander and exploration. The courtyard at 100 Stewart endeavors to connect the building to these pedestrian pathways, in addition to bringing in natural light, air, and ventilation.

Punched openings higher up in the structure also allow people to see into the building, invoking a sense of visual accessibility. This sense of transparency is enhanced by the glass and steel hotel façade, which becomes illuminated by the glow of hotel room lights at night. Unitized 16-foot by 10-foot glass and composite resin panel systems form the façade of the residential towers framing the hotel’s curtainwall, enfolding the development back into the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood.

Transparency, activity, and openness between 100 Stewart’s storefront and street-level presence create a vibrant urban space. The building’s street-facing structure is a cement panel façade system toned to fit with the surrounding historic brick buildings. Open entry points and variations in paving materials and textures help to orient pedestrians toward building entries where large open portals in the façade provide access to the interior courtyard. The building is denoted by both introverted and extroverted spaces, while the iconic glass lantern is symbolic of the building’s relationship with Seattle, the Pacific Rim, and wider world—it serves as an inviting and luminous entity.

The site, which is located at an important intersection, is really at the heart of Seattle. The shifted axis of First Avenue―where it curves to meet the city’s typography―offered us an opportunity to really mark that place, an important intersection that joins the surrounding districts. Kirsten Ring Murray, FAIA
Principal
It was an honor to work on such an important corner and intersection in Seattle. The project is adjacent to one of the city’s most important cultural institutions—Pike Place Market—and so even today with all the changes Seattle has experienced, the area still carries a little of the Seattle I recall when I moved here in 1974. Tom Kundig, FAIA, RIBA
Design Principal

Light & Air

Perforated terraces bring light and air into the courtyard. Thin floorplates and operable windows increase cross-ventilation. Light surfaces on the residential towers bounce light into the courtyard.

Austrian Alps Spa Hotel

Austria

The Pierre

San Juan Islands, Washington

Something isn't loading properly.

Please and try again, or use the main menu above.