A new high-rise residential building along Madison Street will make use of both the city’s Living Building initiative and a new modular construction technique as it climbs above First Hill.

The land on the corner of 9th Ave and Madison is currently home to the Quarter Lounge, George’s Delicatessen, and the now-empty former home of Lotus Asian Kitchen.

The building will be demolished to make way for a 21-story residential structure, with ground floor retail, being built by Sustainable Living Innovations.

Plans call for a 176-unit building, of which 47 will be affordable units, using two housing programs — MFTE and Mandatory Housing Affordability. The building will have a mix of sizes including efficiency, and 1- and 2-bedroom units. The affordable housing component will similarly have a mix of efficiency and 1- and 2-bedroom units. Five of the 47 affordable units will be 2-bedroom units.

The developers of the 901 Madison project say they are working with the existing retail tenants, and talking with the First Hill Improvement Association to find the best fit for retail in the area for the corner across the street from neighborhood icons Vito’s and The Sorrento Hotel.

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The building will have two underground parking levels with about 40 spaces, which will enter and exit off 9th.

The developers plan to make use of the city’s Living Building incentive program. Under the program, they will be permitted two additional floors of height (without the living building, only 19 floors would have been allowed) in exchange for meeting ecologically friendly building standards.

Madison is no stranger to green building. The ultra-green Bullitt Center is a few blocks up the road at Madison and 15th. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Bertschi School on 10th also has a certified “Living Building” as a part of its campus.

The developers plan to have the building generate 105% of the power it uses through a mixture of wastewater heat recovery (using the heat from hot water that goes down the drain), efficient heat pumps and solar panels. They are also exploring the idea of using wastewater heat from other nearby buildings.

The developer’s 303 Battery project in Belltown will soon open as a 15-story, 112-unit Net Zero Energy building Downtown at 1800 Terry, Sustainable Living Innovations is planning this 40-story, 428 unit luxury apartment tower that will also employ the modular construction technique

In addition to the heat, the building will use graywater treatment, where water that might otherwise go into the sewer is instead used for things like flushing toilets or irrigation.

Under program guidelines, builders are permitted to claim credit for off-site solar panels, and that is something the developer will likely do as well. They have yet to determine the layout of the on-site solar panels, so they’re not yet certain how much off-site solar will be required or where the offsite solar will be.

While not formally part of the Living Building program, developers say that their modular construction methods will be another feather in their environmentally conscious cap.

In this method, the building will be constructed in parts in a factory in Tacoma, then shipped to the site and slotted into place. This style of building helps reduce waste, and can ensure insulation is properly fitted, the developers say. The building will be the second high-rise of its kind in Seattle, after the developer’s 303 Battery, which is slated to begin construction in December 2019.

The method can also help reduce the construction time. In this case, they expect a total of 16 months, which includes demolition, site prep and construction. Developers hope to start construction in the end of 2020 or early 2021 and have the building open by the second quarter of 2022. By then, the RapidRide G “bus rapid transit” line should be fully in motion serving the corridor.

Going forward, the developers say 901 Madison’s construction technique can make erecting taller buildings on small lots economically viable across the city (in the case of 901 Madison, the site is about 8,000 square feet), meaning we could see more modular buildings sprout from redevelopment sites. First Hill, by the way, will also see an innovative construction technique that is expected to become more widespread when a “mass timber” highrise ascends at 1422 Seneca. That new project will replace a one-story 1949-built dental office with a 12-story apartment building with room for 108 small efficiency dwelling units that also might end up being Seattle’s tallest mass timber, cross-laminated wood struture.

At 901 Madison, there’s nothing on the schedule yet in terms of community meetings but the developer plans to make presentations about major design updates to the First Hill Improvement Association. And the project will also need pass through the East Design Review Board though that process has not yet been scheduled.

In the meantime, 901 Madison’s modular construction and solar arrays hopefully won’t be delayed by the same “environmental” concerns that delayed the Bullitt Center when a neighboring building used the State’s Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) to fight against the structure’s vital solar infrastructure and, even more audaciously, tried to force the net zero waste building to provide more parking. In October, the Seattle City Council approved legislation to reform the use of SEPA aimed at minimizing environmental appeals.

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