Beneath the waves of development that pass through Capitol Hill, there is also a steady flow of change that continues to reshape key areas of the neighborhood as major educational institutions like Seattle University and Seattle Central continue their plans for expanded campuses and new buildings.

Private middle and high school Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences also has plans for new expansion, releasing details of its planned “Home of the Upper School (HoUS)” that will further reshape 12th and Madison’s southeast corner.

Early permitting with the city shows plans for a five-story academic building above a one-level underground parking lot. The planned development will also have an outdoor plaza that will serve as a connector to the school’s other buildings on the block:

The academic floors will incorporate classrooms for grades 9 – 12, spaces that support upper school students outside the classroom, administrative spaces, community areas including a cafeteria and students commons, innovation spaces with a shop for metal and woodworking, student workspaces and a digital fabrication lab. Student collaboration spaces are integrated to compliment academic spaces throughout the building. The proposed new Upper School facility will be located along 12th Avenue between the existing Seattle Academy Vanderbilt building and the Seattle Academy Arts building. The project will connect to the existing SAAS campus while creating a unique new home and front door for the Upper School program.

The school’s new development will replace a one-story, 20,000-square-foot storage warehouse and the one-story structure currently home to the school’s Mother’s Place daycare, as well as a small surface parking lot.

CHS reported here in 2018 on the school’s early plans for further expansion even as it opened the $48 million Cardinal Union building at the school’s 13th Ave corner.

The 12th Ave project will be the third major project for the academy in the past decade following the 2015 opening of its science and engineering-focused Stream building at 13th Ave and Spring.

In 2013, CHS reported on a wave of big projects from Capitol Hill’s private schools including $26 million in construction and seismic upgrades at North Capitol Hill’s Seattle Prep high school. In 2014, the Northwest School debuted its $19 million gymnasium + theater + cafeteria + sports field “vertical campus” above E Pike and Bellevue and in 2017, the private middle and high school announced $8.6 million in property acquisitions around its Summit campus.

In its rush for more growth, SAAS is keeping good academic company in the neighborhood. Down 12th at Seattle University, the new Jim and Janet Sinegal Center for Science and Innovation is ready for students starting a new academic year. The building marks a new entryway to the campus from 12th Ave and will serve the university’s growing science, technology, engineering and mathematics student population as well as make a new home for campus radio station KXSU. The new building will also house the university’s Center for Community Engagement, which runs the Seattle University Youth Initiative.

The University Services building, a former Canada Dry bottling facility, was demolished to make way for the project.

The new center is part of continued growth for the Jesuit, private university.  By 2028, the school had planned to expand its boundaries by 2.4 acres with 2 million square feet added to the campus in new development.

Meanwhile, it will take longer for Seattle Central College to reshape its home on Broadway where the school plans to build a six-story Information Technology Education Center with nearly 200 underground parking spots next to the Capitol Hill light rail station on Sound Transit property and new apartments on the site of the school’s massive, 510-stall E Pine and Harvard parking garage. The garage would be demolished and rebuilt with about 260 parking spots, which would include charging stations for electric bikes and cars, and the housing above.

Seattle Academy’s new growth will come sooner with the land use permit process beginning this summer and already moving toward public design review and construction.

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