There aren’t many of the elements left that won so much attention for the project when CHS first reported on it in the summer of 2016. The rooftop restaurant? Poof. The garden-like terraces rising above I-5? Gone with the wind. But after a long and circuitous route through the Seattle process, the appropriately named Pivot project set to rise at the base of Capitol Hill at Pine and Melrose has changed enough to make it to Wednesday night’s possible last design review.

The review board will see a much more streamlined design focused for an eight-story, 70-unit apartment and office mixed-use building that is also planned for street-level retail. Neighborhood guidelines prefer those 5,200 square feet of restaurant or shop space to be on the ground floor — not the rooftop. Some 14,000 square feet will be dedicated to office space while 16 spaces are planned in the underground parking garage.

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Careful: They’re threatening color options!

The project is designed by Tiscareno Associates for Seattle developer James Wong of Vibrant Cities. Back in 2016, the project was being developed by Wong’s SolTerra before the firm split up last year.

Pivot will replace the surface parking lot on the northern side of Pine above I-5 — and, yes, the big billboard will also be demolished.

The design review board has asked the project’s architects to create a stronger corner presence for the project and “articulate the building to better reflect the auto-row character of simple massing, large windows, and articulated ground floor commercial,” the developer says. Pivot’s new design also has tried to “create a more cohesive design between the base and upper stories,” while presenting the structure at the base of Capitol Hill as a “gateway” feature for the neighborhood.

310 11th Ave E

This one is Mandatory Housing Affordability upzone-friendly!

Part of Wednesday’s design review double header, this infill project is planned to demolish two single family-style homes on 11th Ave near Harrison and replace them with a seven-story, 48-unit apartment building designed in the vision of the changes in zoning coming to many corners of the city and Capitol Hill.

Real estate investors Christian Brodin and Richard Aaronson acquired the 11th Ave E properties for $2.3 million in October. Their project, intended to “create an economical and lasting development that derives inspiration from the character of Capitol Hill while also looking forward to the future growth of Seattle,” is designed by Hybrid. And, don’t worry neighbors, they’re planning to include space to park 20 vehicles underground.

“This development will increase the density of the neighborhood and look ahead to the proposed HALA zoning changes that will respond to the housing need in the area,” the developers write:

To fit into the neighborhood — and its future heights — the architects are putting forward a design they call “stack n’ shift” that they say will create fewer, larger units and require one less floor than other possible designs for the space.