(Image: Atelier Jones)
Heartwood and the eight-story affordable housing development’s first-of-its-kind cross-laminated timber plans has been given the green light by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.
The project will be the first in the city — and possibly the country — to be developed with plans allowing full exposure of mass timber in the structure.
“The project will make use of an innovative, eco-friendly building material: cross-laminated timber (CLT), which lowers the overall carbon footprint of the structure,” the description of the project from Community Roots Housing reads.
The Capitol Hill-based affordable developer says when it opens by early 2023, Heartwood will be one of Washington’s tallest cross-laminated timber buildings.
Seattle has been seen as an ideal market for the building type that is incredibly strong, and requires less energy to produce.
Capitol Hill will see another mass timber project eventually just off E Olive Way as this development comes together for a new City Market building.
With the issuance of a construction permit, Heartwood won’t just be leading the way in timber-based construction. As a Type IV-C permitted project, it will be allowed to climb to eight stories and have full exposure of its timber beams so residents and visitors can see, touch, and feel the wood. Other types can build higher — like this project on First Hill — but require that the wood be kept more “encapsulated” the taller the building.
The Heartwood project might have reached the Type IV-C milestone sooner but faced an appeal to the city’s Hearing Examiner brought by a resident of the neighboring Helen V apartments building also owned by Community Roots Housing over access to handicapped parking provided in the lot. The examiner decided in favor of the project in March.
Set to rise on what is today a surface parking lot, the Heartwood will include ground floor commercial space, no parking, and 126 apartments.
Rents in the new building will be designed to be affordable to people with an income level between 60% and 100% of the area median. Community Roots Housing has notified the city it plans to implement an “Affirmative Marketing Plan” under Seattle City Hall’s programs to help address affordability and displacement in the city by targeting affordable housing to existing area residents and at risk communities. On Broadway, Community Roots Housing has broken ground on Pride Place, an eight-story affordable housing development and services center dedicated to serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer seniors.
The Heartwood, meanwhile, brings together a team hoping to help lead the innovation of mass timber development in the region. Developed by Community Roots Housing and Skipstone, the project was designed by Atelier Jones. As for the wood, Portland’s Timberlab, launched out of commercial construction firm Swinerton, is providing the fabricated timber and know how.
It will, of course, take more than wood to build the Heartwood. Community Roots Housing tells CHS the project will close on its financing this week.
When it digs in, construction should take about 12 to 15 months, putting the project on schedule to open in late 2022 or early 2023.
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Uggggggly. Feel like I am living in a midwest strip mall on steroids with these ugly buildings.
Really sad that such a unique innovative building from a structural and construction perspective is so oppressive :(
I love replacing parking lots with affordable & sustainable housing. Win!
THIS
Yes! Win all around
Except no one can actually afford it
So obviously we should cancel the building and keep the parking lot? C’mon, read the story. The 126 homes will be rented at 60-100% of area median incomes and run by Community Roots Housing. There are plenty projects worth bashing. This ain’t one of them.
100% of area median income isn’t affordable given that it’s above 100K now.
30-50% would be truer to real affordable housing and meet more needs.
Sure, 30-50% would be better, yes. But 60-100% is better than fully market rate. This is a win.
What’s the address of this construction?
it’s the SW corner of 14th/E Union
If it turns out that glue board fails faster then the alternative materials, which can last hundreds of years, the project can be renamed “Community Rots Housing” by just crossing out a single “o”?
Sounds like a really cool project and construction method. Too bad the exterior is soul-crushing like most of the new buildings here. Who are these idiots thinking gray is a good color in this climate? Look outside today. They’ve taken the opposite approach of the ornate colorful and uplifting Victorian buildings favored by Seattle’s founding generations.
actually..the Indians in the Northwest Culture lived in wooden lodges. These buildings were rectangular buildings that each held several families. These buildings were built using a wooden frame. The frame was then covered with pieces of bark sewn together or wooden planks, or boards. ;).
Please say Native Americans or Indigenous Peoples. “Indians” is offensive.
I am aware. It was a direct quote from wikipedia and I left it as it was.
An oppressive grey cube isn’t enough, must also slightly offset each window to drive everyone looking at it slowly insane. Cool they are using mass timber though!
The picture with this article shows a sort of burnt-brick red, tying in nicely with the old brick building next to it. Maybe grey was an earlier rendering. And most old apartment buildings were a “cube” as well. Perhaps you miss the glued-on terra-cotta ornaments on those old buildings.
This is a prime example of why everyone is tired of the far left. Nothing is good enough. No progress is enough, everything sucks. It’s fucking exhausting.