Seattle, Washington, USA
Pickard Chilton has created a welcoming space for the community in the heart of downtown Seattle with 2+U is a 1 million gsf Class-A office tower comprising a 19-story podium and 38 story tower.
For its sustainability directives, 2+U won a recent 2021 Green Good Design® Award from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum.
Located next to the Seattle Art Museum, the project knits together the Waterfront, Business District, and Arts District by lifting the tower 85 feet above the street, providing connectivity at the pedestrian scale, and views through the block to Elliott Bay.
Conceived during a “design hack-a-thon” selection process, the concept for 2+U creates a strong connection between the building’s form and the Northwest’s character, resulting in a true Pacific Northwest building. Sharing the block with the Diller Hotel, 2+U is sensitively designed to respond to the iconic 1890 brick structure.
Four low-rise buildings hold the street edge around base of the tower, mapping onto the datums set by the Diller, and responding to its materiality with a layered terracotta facade.
The space beneath the elevated tower creates a high forest-like canopy above 24,000 square feet of publicly accessible open space that serves the entire neighborhood.
Envisioned as a first-of-its-kind Urban Village, this multi-level pedestrian experience traverses a 30-foot grade change within a network of ramps, steps, and terraces that recall the passages at nearby Pike Place Market. Publicly accessible elevators and ramps fit seamlessly within the city’s system of hill-climb assists to help people of all abilities.
While the tower above provides year-round weather protection akin to a tree canopy’s warmth and comfort, the dynamic open-air retail experience below serves as a gathering space for the public.
With five access points, the Urban Village fuses local retail, art, culture, and nature to offer 16,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space and The Studio, a free community arts and culture space.
Designed to be a very porous and welcoming pedestrian experience, the village also accommodates event and entertainment spaces and large-scale art opportunities within the public plaza.
Collaborating with a multidisciplinary team committed to the latest sustainable and high performance solutions, the project began with a sustainability visioning session that shaped the design process.
Impactful goals included maximizing daylight, optimizing energy efficiency while exceeding the stringent Seattle Energy Code, and minimizing water usage.
A side core allows for open floor plates with unobstructed views of Peugeot Sound and natural daylight in the tower’s toilet rooms and main egress stairs. The energy efficiency of the tower is made possible in part by an active chilled beam system. Bioretention planters on multiple levels and a drought-tolerant garden on the level 19 terrace serve to mitigate runoff.
Spanning the entire three-level Urban Village, a GeoWall is the first in Seattle and one of the world’s largest rammed earth walls. Made from local soils, the more than 220-foot-long structural insulated rammed earth wall curves through the site connecting the tower’s two lobbies.
Project: 2+U
Architects: Pickard Chilton
Architects of Record: Kendall/Heaton
Client: Skanska USA
Photographer: Benjamin Benschneider
