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Downtown Seattle’s largest condominium tower is scheduled for completion in 2009, and the city’s skyline won’t be the same. The 270-unit, 30-story mixed-use Escala building totals 818,000 square feet and includes an eight-story below-grade parking facility, a fitness center with pool and spa, library, theater, billiards room, events center and a wine storage facility – a total of 25,000 square feet of amenity space.

MulvannyG2 Architecture, with a regional office in Portland, Ore., served as the project’s architect. JE Dunn Construction Co., also with a Portland office, is the general contractor. John Ernest Dunn founded JE Dunn in Kansas City, Mo., in 1924.

Today, the firm’s revenues exceed $2.6 billion, and it operates 16 offices across the country.

The Northwest office provides contracting, construction management and design/build services for both public and private clients in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Northern California and Hawaii.

JE Dunn Northwest has been in business since 1921. Originally a locally owned contractor, Dunn Industries acquired the company in 1992 and has been growing ever since, the company says. In 2002, it opened a Seattle office, followed by an office in Phoenix in 2006.

Areas of specialization include office buildings, healthcare facilities, multi-family residential, gaming establishments, hotels, public buildings, educational facilities and distribution/warehouses.

Ground Breaking
Senior Project Manager Mike Moore says the Escala project broke ground in January 2007. “We do quite a bit of condo work across the country, and this job is one of Seattle’s highest-end condos,” he says.

JE Dunn was heavily involved in the project’s preconstruction stage, and Moore says the firm “constantly worked on the drawings to develop value-engineering items to meet design requirements and keep costs down.”

Moore says the design-build MEP subcontractors were brought in early not only to design their scopes of work, but to get their feedback on the architectural and structural designs in relation to their scopes as well. “They really helped us through the process,” he notes.

Unique Approach
One of the most unique aspects of the building, Moore says, is the sub-level parking garage. “This is the second-deepest excavation in the city,” he says.

“An eight-story parking garage below ground isn’t easy – especially in downtown Seattle. It took us five months to do that stage. It was a big challenge, but it was a success.”

Structurally, Escala is also unique, Moore points out.

“We’re in an earthquake cell, so we’ve used high-strength steel to give the project strength and flexibility,” he says. “The strength of the steel allows us to minimize the columns and creates more rentable space for the project owner.

“There are only a few other projects using high-strength steel, and all the other engineers in town are watching this project,” he adds. We’re going through the learning curves now, but in a few years, I predict high-strength steel will be the norm in projects.”

Why High-Strength?
According to the Steel Alliance, a consortium of more than 120 steel producers and affiliated organizations, high-strength steel has been available for years, but was typically only used in industrial products and applications, such as pressure vessels, towers, pipelines, machinery and tools. Only recently has high-strength steel been used as a structural material for building construction and civil engineering.

The alliance says high-strength steel is becoming the material of choice because of the advantages over standard steel:

• Buildings require fewer columns and longer spans for increased rentable area.
• Buildings are more resistant to seismic and wind loads.
• There are increased architectural options with lighter, stronger elements and frames.
• Simplified fabrication and erection.
• It allows new construction methods to be developed.

On Track
Moore says the Escala project is on schedule, and the 30-story tower will be topped out by the end of the year. Occupancy is scheduled for July 2009.

Already, Escala has been setting a record pace for new home sales in Seattle. The project owner, Lexas Cos., reported in June 2007 that it passed the $50 million milestone in sales in just one month.

“We’re obviously very pleased with the overwhelming market response to Escala,” Lexas Principal John Midby told the Seattle Times.

“We were convinced that Seattle was ready for this level of development and based on the scores of new home sales so far, I’d say we’re building just what the market was waiting for.”

Located in Seattle’s Midtown, Escala offers residents immediate access to shopping, restaurants, Pike Place Market, Belltown nightlife and cultural attractions like Benaroya Hall and concerts at nearby Moore Theater.