Awards for Excellence: 2001 Winner

Harbor Steps
Seattle, Washington

Harbor Steps is a mixed-use urban redevelopment project centered around the 16,300-square-foot Harbor Steps Park overlooking Seattle's harborline. The site contains four mixed-use buildings built in three phases, including: 734 apartment units with workout facilities, 31,000 square feet of office space, a 25-room boutique hotel, 51,600 square feet of retail space including a daycare center, a 7,500 square foot state-of-the-art conference/meeting center, restaurants, and 282,000 square feet of subsurface parking for 640 cars.

The collaboration between the city of Seattle and Harbor Properties was critical to realize the vision of Harbor Steps and provide the downtown connection to the waterfront. Harbor Steps Park was privately funded by a philanthropist, and designed as a gift for Seattle pedestrians. Harbor Properties worked closely with the city to obtain two major modifications to the neighboring areas of Harbor Steps: The city created the infrastructure necessary for the project, managing the clearance of existing dilapidated properties from the land to permit parking facilities and the relocation of major utilities; and by allowing an existing roadway, Post Alley, to be raised and transformed into a pedestrian corridor. Harbor Properties provided for continued public use by constructing bridges and maintaining major pedestrian thoroughfares. This resulted in reduced traffic, increased parking, and uninterrupted pedestrian ways, and a place where citizens could live, work and play.

Official Statement of the 2001 Large-Scale Residential Award

Built on a steeply sloping infill site, Harbor Steps’s gardenlike public park and four high-rise towers surrounding it generate a sense of openness, provide superb views across Puget Sound, animate the dense residential project, and make a significant contribution to urban vitality. The developer incorporated many suggestions made by a ULI advisory services panel and went on to add a boutique hotel, a conference center, restaurants, retail space, recreational facilities, and a daycare center.

Development Team

Owner/Developer
Harbor Properties, Inc.
Seattle, Washington

Architects
Hewitt Architects
Seattle, Washington

Callison Architecture
Seattle, Washington

Arthur Erickson
Vancouver, Canada (park)

Project Data

Size
2.5 acres; 1.3 million square feet of mixed uses

Project Cost
$140 million

Project Completion
November 2000