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Coming of age

 It’s an early spring morning, and the Lincoln Square architects are already busy at their desks at Sclater Partners. The small firm, tucked on an upper floor of a vintage Seattle building on Olive Way, has close ties with Kemper Development, often refining and executing the developer’s plans for Bellevue’s center. Sclater’s architects are experts in designing for retail and parking, and in recent years have branched out to all types of projects, including housing, schools, and hotels. Thanks to their work, Bellevue may have permanently lost its label as a sleepy suburb.

Architect Brad Smith ’88 pushes aside a half-eaten muffin to collect papers for a meeting 20 minutes away in Bellevue. Like his classmate Dan Meyers, he watched Lincoln Square’s early troubles from a close perch. His view was the Bellevue Arts Museum just next door, where he was the local project architect for New York architect Steven Holl, who designed the building. He loved the initial look of Lincoln Square, which he describes as much more modern than what was ultimately built, but was sick to see how slowly the project was progressing. “It was a real drag to go down and see that right across from the art museum. It just felt blah.”

When Kemper bought in, Sclater quickly carved up the project. Kunnanz got the garage. Michael Chaplin ’90 was assigned the ground level and retail areas. And the hotel and condominiums, which didn’t require total overhauls, but needed serious fine tuning, went to Smith. Rick Deno ’71, the senior statesman of the group, won the task of creating features like the atrium waterfall and the elegant and airy sky bridges that would connect the project with the rest of the neighborhood. On this morning, Deno stands at his work table, refining the design for a second, more complicated bridge.

Chaplin, who is nearly swallowed by the stacks of plans that surround his desk, says the task of reconfiguring the retail portion and connecting it to the street outside was a fun challenge. He had to raise the theater ceilings to accommodate larger screens, and redesign the project in a way that welcomed pedestrians in from the street. Since all the steel for the project was already fabricated and sitting in a yard, he was limited to the materials on hand. “It’s like you had all these tinker toy parts and you had to play with them so you’re not throwing them out.”

Chaplin’s experience is a metaphor for the whole project: the team had the plans and ideas; they just needed to rearrange a little—or a lot—to make it work.
Many in the city, including sometime detractors of Kemper Development’s domination downtown, are grateful the project was revived. It broke Bellevue out of its rut. At the time the first tower was erected, it was the second-largest multi-use project under construction in the country.

“I don’t think I talked to anyone who wasn’t excited to see the job start up again,” says Dave Harrison, vice president of Skanska USA, the building contractor on the project. The 1983 WSU construction management graduate oversaw the 25 contractors on the project. Smith and Chaplin were on site practically every day. It was just the two of them, and they were able to keep up with all 25 Skanska people, says Harrison.

The team built Lincoln Square in just 21 months.

The success of this project has spurred investors to put more condominiums and more buildings throughout downtown Bellevue.

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