The tower at 4th and Columbia will be the tallest in Seattle, a 1,029-foot, $290 million monument to the city’s recent, tech-flavored success. Residential units, a hotel, office space, retail, eight floors of underground parking. Standard, shiny city stuff. And, if the current plans are approved, the tower will include a quirky twist: four levels of above-grade parking, designed to someday take on new life as apartments and offices.

LMN Architects, which designed the project, wants the tower to survive 50 to 100 years. “If that’s the case, we do need to make sure—I feel we do have have the responsibility—that if the parking uses do change, we design to be able to adapt to that change,” says John Chau, a partner at the firm. (The project is still moving through the city approval process, and will not be completed for another two to four years.)....Continue Reading

Top image: The proposed 4th and Columbia project will include four floors of aboveground parking that can be converted to homes. Image LMN Architects

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