Levin Menzies, the developer behind Icon Tower, is planning another project on First Hill at 8th and Seneca. The $112 million two-tower project will feature 294 condominium homes aimed towards Gen-Xers, empty nesters and Asian immigrants accustomed to high-rise living and will incorporate a Feng Shui design. First time I’ve seen that demographic mentioned in condominium marketing, though, Levin Menzies has marketed to the Asian market with their San Francisco area developments.
The project will include a mixture of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and smaller studios ranging from 360 to 450 square feet in order to offer homes at a more attractive price range, no doubt taking a cue from Moda’s success with smaller units. Prices are expected to begin in the upper $200,000s and range up to $1 million. It’s still too early to know their exact pricing strategy, but say they start at $275,000 for a 360 square foot studio…that’s $763/sq ft. Hefty. Moda’s price per square foot was about $500, in Belltown even (granted the Moda is a low-rise frame building).
The design includes a 24-story tower and an 11-story tower. Interestingly, elevators will only be available in the 24-story tower with skybridges joining the two buildings. From the rendering the skybridges will be on every other floor. Residents in the 11-story tower will need to retrieve their mail from the 24-story tower, apparently because the distance to the 11-story tower is more than mail carriers are allowed to travel from the street.
Amenities will include two roof-top gardens, a theatre, fitness center, artwork, courtyard and a bridge connecting the complex to Freeway Park.
Completion is anticipated for 2010, along with Icon Tower.
Update Jan 2008: Came across these renderings of the smaller tower and it looks like these might be loft units, which would explain why the walkways are on every other floor. Just a guess.
Image courtesy of MulvannyG2
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Why would anyone want to live in the 11 story tower?? That seems like such a hassle with the lack of elevators. Prices better be significantly less in that tower compared to the main one.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I totally agree – ridiculous idea not to have elevators in an 11 story building – the design sucks. The new face of ‘affordable’ housing?
I *really* don’t like the “… and Asian immigrants accustomed to living in high-rise buildings” part of their spiel. What does that mean? Talk about ethnic stereotyping. Lots of immigrants (and natives!) from all ethnic groups are accustomed to living in high-rises, believe me.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:51 pm
If I understand correctly, the postal issue is the reason the developer has given for not including an elevator in the 11-story tower. I’m not sure what mail boxes needing to be in the 24-story tower have anything to do with not putting in elevators in the other building.
rijker – Stereotyping indeed. The remainder of the “race” part of the article (source of this info) reads:
“Levin Menzies also hopes to attract first generation Asian immigrants used to living in downtown high-rises and second generation Asian-Americans already in Seattle, a group Menzies said is ‘a big part of the high tech world.’ “
Without stating the obvious, I’m not exactly enthusiastic about that statement.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I assume there will be stairwells in the 11 story tower, although I can’t help but think if there were a non-fire emergency where everyone has to evacuate that is going to be chaos. I hope there are stairs. Maybe this is part of the Feng Shui. Who knows. Interesting though!
January 28th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I’m “used to” flushing my own toilet and parking my own car. But if I moved to a new city that featured auto-toilets and valet parking in all of the other buildings in town, you can bet I’d pass on the old-school choice every time.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Updated with additional renderings.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I think you may all want to read more carefully what was said about the elevators. There are skybridges that connect the two towers that serve every floor and the elevators are only in the taller tower. That is NOT to say there isn’t elevator access to the floors in the shorter tower, only that they are located in the other building. As for issue about the mail – why the post office even continues to exist makes no sense to me. Finally, the idea that this building is targeted to Asian immigrants is one of the dumbest things I have ever read.