Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts

Located at the intersection of the Pioneer Square Historic District and the International District, the redeveloped Tashiro and Kaplan buildings provide a unique live-work space for local artists.

Client

Artspace Projects, Inc.

Location

Seattle, WA

Program

A complete rehabilitation included envelope, seismic, life/safety, and systems upgrades as well as a three-story addition to the Kaplan building. At 144,590 s.f., the Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts is comprised of 50 large artist live-work lofts ranging in size from 800 s.f. one-bedroom, to 1,750 s.f. three-bedrooms. In addition to providing living space for artists, it houses a 110-person community room, an exterior deck in the residential portion of the building and 40,000 s.f. of commercial space consisting of galleries, studios, a café, a pizza restaurant, and commercial arts-related entities. The Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts has become a lively, creative community that is a hub for visual art and other cultural activities. The challenge was to create a modern addition sympathetic to the existing historic Kaplan building and the surrounding historic neighborhood. This was accomplished by expanding the columnar rhythm of the existing Kaplan building and maintaining the overall juxtaposition of glass to wall on the exterior and creating a scale and mass compatible to the historic district.

Highlights

2005 Puget Sound Regional Council VISION 2020 Award; 2005 ABC Excellence in Construction Award, Historic Preservation; 2005 NCBC/NHAB Awards of Excellence, Grand Prize for Mixed-use Commercial/Residential; 2004 ENR/Northwest Construction’s Best of Architectural Design Awards; 2004 NWCB Outstanding Project of the Year Award