The small (7,350 SF), irregular-shaped site at the SW corner of 2nd Avenue and Stewart Street lends itself to a distinctive design solution for 265 new condominium homes. The shape of the expanded floors take on the shape of the 17-degree shift in the street grid between Downtown and Belltown to strengthen the relationship between the site and architectural form.
121 Stewart St Seattle, WA
Mixed-Use, Residential High-Rise
Mirador CWZ, LLC
Completed 2020
Architecture, Landscape Architecture
While most of Seattle’s streets run north/south, The Emerald is located at the pinnacle of two street grids that operate a bit differently. In the 1800s, Seattle’s founders – Doc Maynard, Arthur Denny and Carson Boren – could not agree on a uniform system, so in true Seattle fashion everyone got a piece of the pie. One grid runs 32 degrees west of north, while its counterpart is 49 degrees west of north. The Emerald’s massing is a result of these colliding grid patterns.
“Promises of forever-unobstructed views of downtown Seattle’s waterfront are among selling points of this 40-story tower to open this year above the Emerald City’s Pike Place Market. The tower’s materials echo the natural landscape surrounding Puget Sound.” – Jeffery Steele, Forbes
Exterior materials reinforce the unique nature of the faceted tower. A two-story-high, cast glass channel form on the second and third floors contains restaurant and residential amenity uses. This cast glass channel bar creates a third-floor terrace offering a unique vantage point to Pike Place Market’s Elliott Bay views. The shaft of the tower blends transparent, semi-reflective and opaque glass as a means to achieve a clean, uncluttered form. Roof-level amenity spaces and terraces command unobstructed views westward to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountain range.
As the 40-story structure increases in height, the Emerald’s floor plates expand to over 9,100 SF by cantilevering over its southern neighbor, the Broadacres Building.
Forbes: Coveted COVID-Era Waterfront Homes, At One With Nature
Dwell Magazine: The Emerald Debuts Exclusive Penthouse Collection
Forbes: Hot Properties Heating Up Big Cities This Winter
Aspire Design and Home: Inside The Tallest Building On The West Coast Designed By An All-Female Team: The Emerald
Seattle Met: A Seattle Skyscraper’s Rise Helps Shatter a Glass Ceiling
PSBJ: Patti Payne’s Cool Pads: Go Inside the New Emerald Condos in Seattle
Forbes: A Conversation with Julia Nagele
– Forbes
