capitol hill station

The Capitol Hill Station is sited in the heart of Broadway Commercial District, serving a very vibrant and dense urban center. The design of the station reinforces Broadway’s pedestrian-oriented character. It connects the neighborhood to UW, downtown Seattle, and the airport. Since its opening in 2016, light rail ridership has doubled.

Location

140 Broadway E. Seattle, WA

TYPOLOGY

Light Rail Station

Client

Sound Transit

Status

Completed in 2016

centered around community

When walking through Broadway Avenue on Capitol Hill what stands out the most is a sense of community pride. From arts organizations to community parks and educational institutions – people of all walks of life, backgrounds, and income levels journey to and from Capitol Hill using the Capitol Hill Station.

The underground Capitol Hill Station connects one of Seattle’s largest urban centers to Downtown. Careful planning was made to reach the Capitol Hill community’s design goals to sustain the vitality of the Broadway District while also creating iconic station entries.

Timeless Quality

Design elements were carefully considered to exert a timeless quality allowing longevity to the architecture. The north entry opens at the corner on Broadway to ease pedestrian circulation patterns. A vegetated “green wall” is supported by a terracotta-painted steel trellis. A rain garden along Denny connects this entry and Cal Anderson park to the east.

The west entry was built to have the same scale as the neighboring retail buildings with the entrance being set back from the adjacent street to provide additional pedestrian circulation area. An illuminated tunnel under Broadway Avenue provides a grade separated direct pedestrian bike station access featuring a modulated ceiling plane, floor tile accents and invites pedestrians while mitigating noise through sloped interior walls. The station siting and layout optimized transit oriented development (TOD), and ease of access between TOD and the station.

Public art

The three unique Capitol Hill station entries include plazas to support nearby retail and commercial spaces. Three pieces of public art engage the public into and through the station, including two murals “Walking Fingers” and “Crossed Pinkies”, by Ellen Forney and Mike Ross‘s sculpture “Jet Kiss”.

neighborhood impact

With an average of 7,698 weekly boardings, the Capitol Hill Station is the third most heavily boarded station according to a 2018 Sound Transit study. The station connects Capitol Hill to the University of Washington, downtown Seattle, and the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Students are able to quickly access the Seattle Central College to the South and Seattle University is a short walk away. The central location of the station allows commuters to quickly walk to arts and cultural institutions including the Northwest Film Forum, the Hugo House, 12th Avenue Arts, and Century Ballroom.

Awards

AIA Civic Award, Honorable Mention 2019

“This extension is really much more than the 3 miles from downtown to UW. It’s going to open up opportunities that we can’t even imagine today.”

– Bruce Gray, Sound Transit