News from Swift
Yesler Towers Topping Out!
Yesler Towers overlooks the Puget Sound basin from its location at Yesler Way and S Washington St. On August 8th, the team celebrated the topping out of the second tower on level 26! Swift Company designed the site with a sequence of walks and public terraces winding around the building core like an orange peel – from the streetscape, around the south tower, to level 3 of the north tower – framing spectacular regional views of the surrounding neighborhood and mountains and Sound beyond. Check out the Yesler Towers Apartments Instagram for more photos of the event!
Oregon State University – Cascades New Student Success Center Native Landscaping
Student and faculty at OSU-Cascades planted more than 4,000 native plants on the site of the new Student Success Center building. Swift Company collaborated with OSU faculty Matt Shinderman to develop a planting strategy that represents the region’s high desert ecosystem and supports the campus’s larger sustainability and educational vision. This addresses our goal of integrating life experience and knowledge as part of academic life. Read more about the program success here.
WASLA Design Award
The Sound Transit Northgate Station wins a WASLA 2023 Award of Merit for the design of a 2 acre multimodal district where pedestrians, cyclists, and bus commuters converge, circulate, and interact. Finding beauty in the daily commute and the intimate experience of transiting through a community as part of daily life takes on new meaning at the points where we move from one mode of transport to the next. These hinge points make or break the joy of a seamless transition that supports continued use. The Sound Transit North Link Northgate Station is one of those points, where joy and pleasure are a fundamental part of the design criteria in support of building a community committed to and comfortable with mass transit. The jury acknowledged this core criteria: “it is a delight to see a transportation project that promotes joy and pleasure for its users and transforms otherwise foreboding infrastructure into an artistic expression.”
Climate Pledge Arena wins Sports Facility of the Year Award!
Climate Pledge Arena has been awarded Sports Facility of the Year at this year’s Sports Business Awards in NYC! Congratulations to Oak View Group, CAA ICON, and Populous Architects for leading the way, the Seattle Center team, and all of the collaboration we shared with our design teammates. As a Revitalization of an existing arena within the heart of Seattle’s civic center, the Climate Pledge Arena project positioned itself as uniquely responsive to the neighborhood, community, and climate. Read more here.
Sound Transit Northgate Link Extension wins 2021 ACEC-WA Engineering Excellence Award!
The Sound Transit Northgate Link Extension received the 2021 ACEC-WA Engineering Excellence Award! 4.3 miles with 3.5 miles of tunnels. The Extension daily serves 49,000 people with three unique stations and Swift is thrilled to celebrate the acknowledgement of this important investment in the future of our region. We are thrilled to see the rapid adoption of the three urban stations and their contribution to civic life.
The Long Game: Sound Transit Extensions, a Master Plan for OSU Cascades Campus, the new Climate Pledge Arena
Building community and exceptional places for civic life is a long game. It requires vision, commitment, and a team of many. Read our full newsletter and subscribe here!
The Architectural League of New York American Roundtable Grant: “Dynamic Landscapes,” South Beach, Washington
On February 26, 2021 from 9:00 to 10:00 AM PST, the South Beach team South Beach team presents a year of research and exploration of a deeply dynamic place on the Washington coast facing the future of sea level rise, tectonic plate shift and tsunami. Check it out here. Photography: Eirik Johnson
The Architectural League of New York American Roundtable Grant: “Dynamic Landscapes,” South Beach, Washington
The American Roundtable initiative goes live! Director Nicholas Anderson describes the hopes for the project (Read more here). The South Beach team report reflects a year of research and exploration of Washington State’s coastal community facing the future of sea level rise, tectonic plate shift and tsunami joins nine other research efforts (Check out the full project here). Photography: Eirik Johnson