This site is home to the Terminal Sales Annex (aka: TSA); a small, but revered historically significant building designed by Carl F. Gould – an Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Harvard trained Architect who founded the UW’s Department of Architecture. The primary design challenge for a tower on this site was to arrive at a sensitive massing that would incorporate the existing finely textured and classically detailed building, while still allowing the TSA to remain in appearance as a free standing structure.
Working in partnership with the Architectural Review Committee of the Landmarks Board, a progression of massing studies evolved into a solution that celebrated the TSA, while creating a street frontage that supports the historic fabric of smaller office and warehouse buildings in Belltown. The tower sets back almost 15 feet from the property line, minimizing its presence and providing breathing room for the existing structure. The gentle curve of the tower’s façade falls away from the street edge so the TSA is allowed to stand proud. Because the TSA is an infill and not a corner site, the Landmarks Board felt it was imperative to create an addition on the corner that would be in scale with the existing structure. Our designers took it a step further, designing the entire streetfront as a series of smaller facades, each relating to specific uses within the new structure as well as historic context and scale, providing additional presence and a sense of place to the TSA structure.