A recent act of adaptive reuse has produced one of the trendiest hotspots in Seattle. Graham Baba Architects and SKL Architects teamed up to creatively blend old and new into Chophouse Row, a multi-year mixed-use project in Capitol Hill with apartments, offices, restaurants, and retail. A blend of vintage and modern, Chophouse Row has bloomed into a beloved pedestrian haven and an urban redevelopment success story.
Completed spring 2015, Chophouse Row densely packs loft office space, a retail marketplace, public space, and penthouses within a quarter-acre footprint. The urban infill project is the last phase of the 12th Avenue Marketplace urban redevelopment plan and comprises a former two-story auto parts buildings built in 1924 and a new steel-and-concrete tower built atop the adjacent surface parking lot.
“Chophouse Row is conceived as a way to merge past, present and future; repurposing existing structures and knitting new and old together in a forward-looking prototype that stimulates and supports its neighborhood,” wrote Graham Baba Architects. “The design solution knits these disparate properties together via new pedestrian corridors and connections between old and new space to create a truly mixed-use project.”
Related: Dwell Development introduces net zero-ready homes to Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood
A 1,200-square-foot courtyard and pedestrian alley—called The Mews—at the heart of the project tie together Chophouse Row with the other properties on the block. Chophouse Row won a 2016 AIA Seattle Honor Award and was a 2016 Urban Land Institute’s Global Awards for Excellence Finalist.
