A Seattle-based real estate developer plans to convert a historic downtown building, which for more than a century has served as a church sanctuary, into a restaurant with ballroom space.
Daniels Real Estate has owned this 107-year-old building since 2008, one year after Daniels was founded. The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Daniels has submitted information to the City Landmarks Preservation Board, with drawings that show the main and balcony levels of the church being turned into a restaurant, and the basement of the church becoming a ballroom area.
People would be able to enter the restaurant from Fifth + Columbia, a $400 million, 43-story tower that Daniels started building in June 2014 and is scheduled to complete in 2017. The lower floors of the high rise will become SLS Seattle, a luxury hotel whose interiors were designed by French designer Philippe Starck, who is also redesigning the church. The upper floors will be offices.
ZGF Architects designed the tower, which is being built by JTM. Seattle-based Ron Wright & Associates/Architects is also involved in the project.
When Daniels Real Estate paid $32 million to the First Methodist Church to acquire the sanctuary and an adjacent property, it had agreed to preserve the sanctuary and move its congregants to a new church near the Seattle Center. The Business Journal reports that Daniels had turned the sanctuary into a recital hall, and leased the building to a branch of Mars Hill Church, which disbanded on January 1.
Kevin Daniels, the developer’s owner, says there’s at least a year’s worth of work to move the sanctuary project from “the big idea stage” to fruition.
A Seattle developer has submitted plans to convert a history church sanctuary into a two-floor restaurant with ballrooms. Rendering courtesy Ron Wright & Associates, ZGF Architects
The converted restaurant will be accessible from a 43-story tower the same developer is building next door, which should be completed by 2017.
Related Stories
Architects | Feb 11, 2015
Shortlist for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award announced
Copenhagen, Berlin, and Rotterdam are the cities where most of the shortlisted works have been built.
| Jan 19, 2015
Gaudi’s first work outside Spain will be a chapel in Chile
Nearly 100 years after Antoni Gaudí’s death, Chile will begin constructing a chapel using his designs.
| Jan 9, 2015
Santiago Calatrava talks with BBC about St. Nicholas Church on Ground Zero
Calatrava reveals that he wanted to retain the “tiny home” feel of the original church building that was destroyed with the twin towers on 9/11.
| Jan 2, 2015
Construction put in place enjoyed healthy gains in 2014
Construction consultant FMI foresees—with some caveats—continuing growth in the office, lodging, and manufacturing sectors. But funding uncertainties raise red flags in education and healthcare.
| Dec 28, 2014
AIA course: Enhancing interior comfort while improving overall building efficacy
Providing more comfortable conditions to building occupants has become a top priority in today’s interior designs. This course is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Dec 2, 2014
Nonresidential construction spending rebounds in October
This month's increase in nonresidential construction spending is far more consistent with the anecdotal information floating around the industry, says ABC's Chief Economist Anirban Basu.
| Oct 23, 2014
Santiago Calatrava-designed church breaks ground in Lower Manhattan
Saturday marked the public "ground blessing" ceremony for the Saint Nicholas National Shrine, the Greek Orthodox Church destroyed on 9/11 by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 14, 2014
Proven 6-step approach to treating historic windows
This course provides step-by-step prescriptive advice to architects, engineers, and contractors on when it makes sense to repair or rehabilitate existing windows, and when they should advise their building owner clients to consider replacement.
