Category: Luxury Living

Read Full Forbes.com Article Here.

 

Making history by becoming the West Coast’s tallest residential building and the ninth tallest building in the world, designed by a female-led team, Julia Nagele, Principal, Director of Design – Architecture of Seattle-based Hewitt Architects, with interiors by local interior designer Susan Marinello of Susan Marinello Interiors, The Emerald offers an elevated level of high-rise condominium living while bringing Seattle’s natural shape and environment through its modern design.

 

In celebration of National Women’s Month and International Women’s Day, Hewitt Architecture’s Julia Nagele recently spoke exclusively with Forbes on what makes The Emerald so special, females in architecture, being a part of the LGBTQ community and more. Read the feature in Forbes: A Conversation With Julia Nagele, The Architect Behind Seattle’s Newest Luxury Residential Tower The Emerald.

 

Females in architecture aren’t that common, unfortunately.

 

The New York Times reported in 2018 that, while half of architecture school graduates are women, women only make up 20 percent of licensed architects and 17 percent of partners or principals in architecture firms. Female architects, including Zaha Hadid, Jeanne Gang and Denise Scott Brown, to name a few, are responsible for some of the world’s most innovative and beautiful buildings. Turning heads lately is Julia Nagele, principal director of architecture at Hewitt Seattle, a firm that builds residential communities, landscape and transportation architecture and more. She is joining the ranks as one of the most influential architects in the United States. She’s worked on several impressive projects, but her most recent architectural undertaking was Seattle’s newest luxury residential tower: The Emerald.

 

The Emerald’s top floor features a cantilevered structure. CORY HOLLAND, NW

 

Hewitt enlisted Susin Marinello of Susan Marinello Interiors to design the building’s interiors, making it an all-female powerhouse team. Standing 440-feet tall with 40 stories, The Emerald has 262 studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom residences and penthouses. Prices range from $539,000 to $10.9 million, the latter being the most expensive listing on Seattle’s waterfront. The faceted-glass waterfront tower is hard to miss, especially with a cantilevered structure on top. The modern building has a range of incredible amenities, including a resident guest suite, outdoor fire pits, indoor-outdoor lounges, electric car charging stations, outdoor pet run and spa, carshare services, a 24/7 concierge, a yoga studio and fitness center, media room and wonderful events.

 

Not only was the project run by a diverse group of talented people, but it also is setting new standards for luxury living in Seattle. In celebration of International Women’s Month and to discuss this exciting tower, Nagele spoke exclusively with Forbes on what makes The Emerald so special, being a part of the LGBTQ community and more.

 

What makes this building so special in this neighborhood and in Seattle?

 

The Emerald is literally Hewitt’s next-door neighbor, located just outside my office window, across the alley. The location is amazing. We love this part of the city for its proximity to Pike Place Market, the waterfront, Belltown and downtown.

 

One of the main design cues for the building is the site. Its footprint is small when compared to other towers nearby, only 7,340 square feet at the street. It’s also an irregular-shaped site, since it borders the street grid of downtown and a rotated second grid to the north for the Belltown neighborhood where street patterns follow the shoreline profile. The tower’s form gets its jewel-like quality from the size and shape of the site.

 

The Olympic Room CORY HOLLAND NW

 

At Hewitt, we love when our work is informed by and expresses a broader context. One notable feature of Seattle is the powerful natural landscape that surrounds the city. Since the Emerald borders Pike Place Market, it’s close to the waterfront with unobstructed views of Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and stellar sunsets over a maritime landscape. A special feature of the Emerald is its rooftop amenity spaces. There are two main rooms, one to accommodate all different sorts of activities and then the main room, the Olympic Room.

 

We specifically designed this room to do nothing more than celebrate the view and connect with the scale of the landscape. We thought about the bigness of the landscape and thought of ways to make the room scaled and shaped to accommodate the vastness. One detail was to have as much glass all the way down to the floor line with the least amount of obstruction between you and 400-feet below you to the Market and out to the water. I had wonderful design sessions with my friend, The Emerald’s interior designer Susan Marinello, to consider the bigness of the view and how the space could relate to it.

 

There are few female-led teams in the architecture world — what does this mean to you?

 

That is a big question! Since I only see the world through my own eyes it is also a difficult one. Part of me sees myself as someone who really loves doing what she does and works hard, but so do a lot of people. It’s clear to me that women are equally as capable, talented and skilled as men to lead design teams.

 

Julia Nagele
HEWITT ARCHITECTS

 

At Hewitt, we have two women in leadership positions. This makes me think about how more women can be in leadership roles. There are many ways this can happen. One is to hire more women and support them, showing them where opportunities might be. If they are competent and capable — promote them. As a leader, I find it satisfying when I can directly do things like that. Another way is to promote an idea near and dear to me — to allow room for different career paths, while acknowledging that a different path is not a “less than” path.

 

My career was stagnant for a long time with only little instances of working to my abilities. It was not until several pieces of the puzzle fell into place where I became really interested in learning what my abilities were. Some of this was due to decisions my wife and I made about our careers and having a family. Some of our experiences were difficult. My wife is a two-time cancer survivor and starting a family was challenging. From these situations I think we gained a perspective that we would not have had otherwise.

 

The Emerald is special in this regard because the timing of my curiosity about my abilities and the design of the project were aligned. It ended up that I was the right person for the right project. When women like myself must take a different path than what’s expected, we might think we’re doing it wrong or missed our chance. We compare ourselves to the paths of others. We should not do that. There are different paths out there for different people and that should be acknowledged and honored.

 

What makes The Emerald unique in the city?

 

The urban values of The Emerald’s owners aligned with Hewitt’s. We are big believers in cities as places where people with good ideas connect with other people with good ideas. The Emerald is an urban site that allows its residents to be free of an automobile if they choose. It’s steps away from great places to work, shop and get around as it’s only one block away from the main north and south transportation corridor and light rail station. It fronts Second Avenue, which has a dedicated bike lane.

 

The Emerald’s exterior CORY HOLLAND NW

 

For these reasons, the ownership was able to make the decision to create more active street fronts. Zoning allows parking above the street level, but The Emerald makes more active street fronts with places for people to live. The retail is two stories high and like the tower form, the shift of the street grid generated the form of the first 40 feet of the tower. We were able to create an outdoor terrace on the 3rd floor connecting with the vibrant street life and views toward Pike Place Market and the water. At Hewitt, we were excited to connect the tower to the street scene of our neighborhood.

 

What are you most proud of in your career?

 

Pride is an awkward thing for me. Often my mind has the words “responsibility” or “gratitude” when I think about working on projects like The Emerald. That said, I suppose there is a sense of pride anytime I can find ways for our work to be innovative. The Emerald was an early realization of ways to be innovative in the framework of real estate development economics. This is important to the architecture studio at Hewitt. Most of our work in recent years has been in the realm of mixed-use residential and commercial projects. For us, it’s exciting because most of the urban condition is driven and shaped by the forces of real estate development. It is the fabric of the city between signature moments occurring in civic spaces and structures.

 

Each residence has stunning views over Seattle. CORY HOLLAND NW

 

The Emerald’s site is such a wonderful place in the city to be, but it was challenging to thread the vertical services, solve the structural dynamics of cantilevering over its neighbor and provide the right ratio and area for living and service spaces for it to be economically feasible. It was like a test laboratory for solving ALL the problems. The more we find ways to solve problems, the more confident our team becomes. With The Emerald experience as a foundation, we were inspired to work on the projects that followed such as our Mama Tower downtown, and our Cloud Tower in South Lake Union. Working on the Emerald prepared us to next figure out how to creatively knot the Mama Tower into the block it occupies, and helped give us the vision of making the Cloud Tower form “move” depending on your vantage point.

 

Which other female architects inspire you and why?

 

Anyone getting it done inspires me! I didn’t have any direct female mentors in an established program early in my career, but I’ve grown up with strong, capable women. My grandmother became an MD in 1939 and taught at Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. When I was 17, I lived with her after I graduated high school. Before I went to college, my uncle offered me a job working at his architecture firm in Philadelphia. My grandmother and I spent the evenings and trips to and from the train station having great conversations.

 

A spacious kitchen in a unit at The Emerald. CORY HOLLAND NW

 

The women that inspire me day-to-day are important to me. I have wonderful support and draw inspiration from women who are colleagues and friends of mine: Susan, Patreese, Christine and Kate. My wife, Ann, is an amazing support, counsel, and someone I bounce ideas off all of the time. As an attorney, she is gifted in strategy. She also has a great design sense which are two qualities required when persuasion is called for in a design idea.

 

Others who inspire me would be more fantasy role models, people I have never met and learn about from a distance. There are women such as Lilly Reich, who was Mies van der Rohe’s partner before Mies came to the United States. One of my favorite architectural experiences was seeing a door being opened at the Barcelona Pavilion. It was moving to see a door open in a way where it was a seamless part of the design in the closed or open position. I was sitting on a Barcelona chair at the time. Lilly Reich had a role in both the pavilion and chair. Some might say the romantic or poetic qualities laced in Mies’ “less is more” design approach could be attributed to Lilly Reich. I like that as an idea.

 

A beautiful sunset seen from within a model unit. CORY HOLLAND NW

 

A contemporary that inspires me is Jeanne Gang, founder of Gang Studio. Some of their work is a similar type that we at Hewitt focus on in that it is driven by the real estate business framework, including towers. I love considering the ways towers like The Emerald can make connections with the people who occupy them and connections to the larger context they create.

 

Continue reading the full Forbes article here.

The Emerald has partnered with award-winning Columbia Hospitality a Seattle-based hospitality management and consulting company with a growing portfolio of award-winning hotels, residential properties, conference centers, venues, private and public golf facilities, restaurants and bars. Together, The Emerald and Columbia have created an exclusive experience for residents providing highly-personalized concierge services and premier hospitality. Founder and CEO, John Oppenheimer, launched Seattle-based Columbia Hospitality in 1995 after being selected by the Port of Seattle to manage the new Bell Harbor International Conference Center on Seattle’s waterfront. Since its inception, the company has steadily grown its portfolio, creating one of the largest hospitality management companies based in the Northwest.

 

 

We’d like to personally introduce you to Erin McKiernan, General Manager for The Emerald Condominiums, managed by Columbia Hospitality.

 

Seattle area born and raised; Erin has been with Columbia Hospitality for the last five years started with The Emerald in August 2020. During her time with Columbia, Erin has held several different roles in service leadership collaborating with others. Erin always held customer-centric jobs and found joy in helping others tackle tough challenges, so hospitality was a perfect fit. Guiding a community of residents as General Manager to provide the best service possible and bring warmth to their home, was a natural decision for her career.

 

“I am proud my team can bring the Columbia Hospitality values to The Emerald. The sense of community we are hoping to create, and the warmth of welcoming residents into their homes while creating a service-oriented team is very exciting!” – Erin McKiernan, the Emerald General Manager

 

Erin describes The Emerald in 3 words. . . Luxury. Views. Service.

 

Furthering your first-class waterfront living experience, Columbia Hospitality is providing The Emerald residents with exclusive discounts and complimentary upgrades at all participating Columbia Hospitality Hotels & Resorts, including exciting destinations like Palm Springs, Sun Valley, Bozeman and Maui. We asked Erin to share her personal favorites:

 

The State Hotel. It’s perfect for out of town guests that also offers an amazing dinner at Ben Paris.

 

 

Sage Lodge. An out of state getaway to the country blue skies of Montana. It’s the best way to recharge my batteries with campfires, s’mores and fresh air.

 

Friday Harbor House. Just a Washington State ferry ride away, this island escape is well worth the reprise for a fresh summer perspective outside of the city.

 

More services and specialty perks that The Emerald residents can look forward to include package delivery to units, refuse pickup, in-unit maintenance services and planned community social events (post covid). The Emerald owners are enrolled in the Columbia Hospitality Perks program, giving them discounted rates at several golf courses in addition to hotels. 3 of the most popular participating Columbia Hospitality Golf Courses among residents incude:

 

The Club at Snoqualmie Ridge, home to the only Jack Nicklaus Signature Course in the Pacific Northwest, is a private golf club offering remarkable golf, luxurious amenities and extraordinary service earning recognition among the finest golf and lifestyle clubs in the region.

 

The Gold Mountain Golf Club features the Olympic and the Cascade Courses. Dramatically sculpted into Pacific Northwest splendor, The Olympic course has garnered impressive awards and has taken its place as one of America’s finest municipally owned golf courses. Wooded enclaves, rolling terrain and wide fairways are touted by the Cascade Course, with a long history of providing Championship golf in the Northwest.

 

The Echo Falls Golf Club offers guests an outstanding combination of country scenery and championship Seattle area golf. The layout features the essence of golf in the Pacific Northwest including two of the most memorable finishing holes the region has to offer. Designed by Jack Frei, Echo Falls provides players of all skill levels a championship experience. It features a beautiful island green on the 18th hole, framed by a cascading waterfall and majestic Tudor-style clubhouse and not to be missed.

 

How would Erin spend an ideal day at The Emerald?

 

Open up the curtains to a breathtaking view at The Emerald. Start the day with a little latte art from Moore Coffee Shop across the street. Dine on a delicious benedict brunch at Bacco Café. Stroll the flower stands at Pike Place Market and pick up a fresh bouquet, indulge in a mid-afternoon cinnamon bun or pastry from Cinnamon Works and pick a bottle of wine from DeLaurenti. A quick afternoon workout in The Emerald state-of-the-art fitness center and bathing my dog, Bruce, in the pet wash would be on the list. Enjoy a walk down to Smith Tower to catch the sunset and grab a cocktail + dinner at Ben Paris at the State Hotel. Finishing out the evening by having friends over to enjoy the outdoor fireplace on the top floor and enjoy a nightcap overlooking the incredible views.

 

Columbia Hospitality has created the Columbia Cares Foundation to support team members impacted by COVID-19, routinely gives back to our communities and is a part of the fastest growing privately held family-owned businesses in Washington State.

 

“Columbia Hospitality truly lives their values – Accountability, Respect, Enthusiasm, Creativity, Honesty, Inclusion. The leadership leads with these six and is very transparent in how they make decisions for the company.” – Erin McKiernan, The Emerald General Manager

 

Schedule your in-person or virtual tour by contacting The Emerald sales team for more information today.

The Emerald was recently the subject of an Urban Land Institute discussion about the intricacies of The Emerald – from amenities to floor plans – and about delivering a downtown for-sale building in the height of the COVID pandemic. During the ULI Northwest panel, moderated by Josh Nasvik, Managing Director at Polaris Pacific, the developer and designers answered a variety of questions with regards to the entire development process of the downtown Seattle residential tower including design issues and how obstacles were overcome to create one of Seattle’s most iconic residential towers.

 

 

Dehlan Gwo, Director of Sales and Marketing at Create World gave a brief introduction from the developer side regarding the local Seattle real estate market as well as the process of bringing The Emerald to market as residential condominiums.

 

“The feeling of a residential experience done well….even with 262 residential condos spread over 40 stories, each individual condo feels like home… each hallway, each corridor each amenity area truly feels like an extension of your home….what we have created at The Emerald I feel that it is a much more personalized boutique living experience but still within a vertical community.”  ~ Dehlan Gwo, Create World

 

Noting that design was key and highlighting the inspiration for the architectural design of The Emerald Julia Nagele, Principal and Director of Design at HEWITT said,  “The overall design strategy that we pursued with the Emerald was that there are really two great things about this site from an urban design standpoint, the shape and size of the site……. we actually saw those two complexities, an irregular shaped site and the size of the site, to be virtues and be drivers of the overall design….. we really wanted the form of the building to stand out, the slenderness of the tower to stand out.”

 

Susan Marinello, Principal and Design Director at Susan Marinello Interiors was tasked with the interior design elements of The Emerald. “Our responsibility is to make the experience feel enriching, special, distinguished from neighboring properties in Downtown Seattle…..with a responsibility, if you will, to ensure that things we are working on are thoughtful for Seattle, thoughtful for the market and feel unique to one another.  That is what was so special about this project; there was an alignment all the way around from Developer to Julia’s office to our team committing to really honoring the features of the site. The challenges created the opportunity….the interiors became a reflection of the architectural shapes and forms.”

 

A Virtual Tour showcasing the beauty and elegance of the Emerald’s Olympic Room in an immersive, visual format can be found here.

 

Rising 40 stories above Seattle’s most coveted location, The Emerald sits just one block from the iconic Pike Place Market, moments from the waterfront and all of the magnificent restaurants, bars and nightlife. Offering a hotel-inspired living experience via a partnership with award-winning management company, Columbia Hospitality, The Emerald offers 262 luxury condos and penthouses with unrivaled views and the best-in-class design and finishes. Luxury amenities include full-floor rooftop amenity space with indoor/outdoor lounge offering panoramic views of Elliott Bay and downtown, a resident media room with catering kitchen, state-of-the-art fitness center with open terrace, yoga room, outdoor pet run and spa, and more. Through a unique partnership, The Emerald also offers owners exclusive offerings at adjacent Thompson Seattle hotel, as well as on-demand luxury electric vehicle carshare through Envoy.

Sales Manager at The Emerald, Henry Lee has called Hong Kong, San Francisco and Seattle home. Formerly a marathon runner (which he hopes to pick back up again soon), Henry has called Seattle home for nearly 3-years describing it as lush, boundless and nuanced. With 14 years in real estate and an extensive background in new construction and development sales spanning 10 years, Henry adds The Emerald as a crown jewel on his list of properties. He’s thrilled to be a part of the team at The Emerald adding to the downtown Seattle skyline just steps from its dynamic waterfront. Go behind-the-scenes with Henry as he shares what sets this property apart, thoughtful architectural details, his favorite views at The Emerald, and even his favorite bite on-the-go in the neighborhood.

 

 

What’s been the biggest draw to The Emerald?

 

Our location. Being at the doorstep of the iconic Pike Place Market, The Emerald is the “Seattle address” you want to be at in the Pacific Northwest. The best part about the location of The Emerald is that it’s within a 5-10-minute walk to everything, including the waterfront, Pike Place Market, downtown light rail station, shopping hub, financial district, Amazon campus, museums and theaters, bars and restaurants, grocery stores and more. We’re located a 5 to 15-minute walk from the tech hub in South Lake Union, the Seattle Financial District, and the Art and Design District, so we have a diverse group of buyers working in tech, finance, legal, medical, arts.

 

What amenity are you most looking forward to being realized to enjoy?

 

The City View Room is one of my favorite spaces at The Emerald. With the open kitchen layout, I can easily imagine hosting dinners with my friends in the future. Everyone will enjoy a backdrop of the panoramic view from iconic Pike Place Market and waterfront to the Financial District including the Smith Tower! The Olympic Room on the top floor definitely features my favorite views from the building, especially during sunset, with a 270-degree view of the sound, financial district, Mount Rainier and the Olympic mountains.

 

If you were to describe The Emerald in 5 words, what words would you choose?

 

…jewel, sparkling, elevated, sophisticated and timeless

 

What people are most surprised to learn about the architecture at The Emerald?

 

Because of the shape of our building, we offer plenty of creative floorplans with maximized views, which cater to different needs of future homeowners.  Also, we only have a maximum of eight residences per floor to enhance the privacy of neighbors.

 

What’s one of your favorite neighborhood lunch spots to order out?

 

My favorite nearby spot to grab a bite on the go is H-Mart next door for some Korean bulgogi.

 

What kinds of trends are you seeing in buyer’s home search currently?

 

Buyers are actively seeking out separate work spaces and dens at home, 9-feet-plus ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize natural light. Also, smart tech features and fixtures used in design are on the list – our three-function Latch door lock system with built-in cameras continues to be a popular feature among homebuyers.

 

The Emerald is open, offering on-site and virtual tours of eight new model homes and our recently unveiled 40th-floor Veranda and rooftop amenity space. Schedule your personal tour to be among the first to step onto The Emerald Veranda and experience an outdoor lounge with chef-grade barbecues, lounge seating, dining tables, outdoor firepit, fireplace, outdoor TVs and heaters, and incredible views day and night.

The Emerald is complete and prospective homeowners have been enjoying virtual and in-person tours of eight new model homes and amenity spaces with jaw dropping Seattle views. We’d like to personally invite you inside the southwest facing one-bedroom, one-bath Model Residence 2405, but first we’re introducing you to the design duo behind its style, Christopher and Kimberly at Derive Design. We caught up with the pair to bring you their unique design perspective and tips for new homeowners as residents move-in and personalize their space.

 

 

 

A local, Seattle based, boutique interior design studio, Derive Design’s work ranges from restaurant and hospitality environments to multi-family housing and amenity spaces, model units, residential new construction and tenant improvement.

 

At Derive Design, our philosophy is to be bold and curious. We love starting with function then crafting an artistic vision to create a unique sense of place.

 

We asked Kimberly and Christopher to describe their inspiration behind the model design at The Emerald:

Living in the heart of the Emerald City is a distinct experience. You can see everything from these condos – the layers of mountains, the rippling Sound and its ever-changing weather and sunsets. You also experience the urban hustle of downtown and all it has to offer. This unique vantage point inspired us to create an interior that is tranquil and soothing as a counterpoint to the energy all around at street level, yet has enough of an edge to feel rooted in the urban environment.

 

 

Describe your favorite design features in The Emerald’s Panoramic-Level Model Residence 2405:  The large windows, amazing views, and the abundant natural light!

 

Are there certain signature items that all of your designs include?  Layers of texture, something of scale and a mix of contemporary and vintage finds. 

 

What’s your personal favorite Seattle-based retailer to find items for the home? RD Interiors Showroom is our go-to for one of a kind found objects, unique art and vintage industrial pieces.  

 

Are you seeing any décor trends as we move into uncharted territory? As people are increasing their time at home, more than ever it is important to make your home work for you, whatever that may look like regardless of trends. 

 

Do you have any suggestions for new homeowners looking to add their own personal touch? Always start with the art, it gives the design a direction and informs the color palette. Don’t hesitate on a piece when it’s right for the space and you love it. 

 

What current color palette in terms of soft furnishings or accents do you feel would highlight The Emerald interiors in a way to maximize merging indoors and out? Outside those windows exists every color – yellow/orange/red from docks, blue/greens from the water and mountains and neutrals from the buildings. We recommend finding what parts of that palette resonate with you, then pulling any few of those colors inside. 

 

You can find and follow Kimberly and Christopher’s personal design journey on Instagram!

 

The residences at The Emerald are a reflection of the sky, elements and natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, interpreted for contemporary living. Join us to view Seattle’s new collection of modern high-rise condominium homes rising above an iconic downtown address at Second and Stewart.