The Net, formerly known as The Marion, is a planned high-rise office building in

Downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west b ...

, Washington, United States. In its current iteration, it is planned to be 36 stories tall and include of office and retail space. The project is being developed by Urban Visions, which previously proposed a 77-story tower on the site that would have become the

tallest building This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest buildings and structur ...

in the city. It was later downsized to 60 stories after a design competition and 36 stories after further refinement.

Earlier proposals

Urban Visions filed preliminary plans in 2013 to build a 77-story

supertall skyscraper A supertall building is an occupied "supertall" structure higher than and beneath . A form of skyscraper, it falls midway between a common minimum definition of "skyscraper" (a building taller ) and a " megatall" building (taller than ). Diff ...

on property it owned between Marion and Columbia streets in Downtown Seattle. The tower, named the 888 Tower, would have eclipsed the

Columbia Center The Columbia Center, formerly named the Bank of America Tower and Columbia Seafirst Center, is a skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The 76-story structure is the tallest building in Seattle and the state of Washington, r ...

as the tallest building in Seattle. A competition was held in 2014 to select a design for the supertall tower, resulting in Urban Visions favoring

NBBJ NBBJ is an American global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Boston, Columbus, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Pune, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C.. NBBJ provides services in arch ...

's 60-story proposal over a 77-story proposal from

Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm founded in San Francisco, California, in 1965. In 2021, Gensler generated $1.235 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of 2021, Gensler operated offices in 49 citi ...

. The NBBJ proposal featured a

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmon ...

in the middle of the tower that would function like a

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History Ope ...

; the 60-story tower also incorporated floor layouts that would have allowed for 10 to 15 more people per floor despite the loss of a central core, allowing for the height to be reduced. It would have been

mixed-use Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to so ...

, consisting of retail space on the ground floor, and offices and condominiums on higher floors. The tower would have occupied the full

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets, not counting any type of thoroughfare within ...

between 2nd and 3rd Avenues and Columbia and Marion streets. When completed, it would have become the second-tallest building in Seattle and the fifth-tallest on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous ...

New proposal

In October 2017, Urban Visions announced that it would scale back its plans and build a 28-story tower on the eastern half of the block with of office space. The project was renamed The Net and given a new design by NBBJ, featuring a steel

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton ( endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

that wrapped around the building. Another design revision in early 2018 increased the height of the building to 36 stories and added a marketspace at street level with of public space. A prominent glass staircase would connect all floors of the building. The top three stories of the building would have an outdoor

terrace Terrace may refer to: Landforms and construction * Fluvial terrace, a natural, flat surface that borders and lies above the floodplain of a stream or river * Terrace, a street suffix * Terrace, the portion of a lot between the public sidewalk an ...

that sloped downwards from the 36th floor. Urban Visions announced a joint venture with Japanese developer Mitsui Fudosan America in September 2020 to finance the project at a cost of $127.7 million. Demolition of two buildings on the block's east side began in March 2021, while the project is planned to begin construction after an anchor tenant is signed. The building is planned to open no sooner than early 2024. On July 17, 2021, one of the partially-demolished buildings on the site collapsed onto 3rd Avenue, forcing a shutdown of the street for two days.

References

{{Seattle skyscrapers Proposed skyscrapers in the United States Skyscraper office buildings in Seattle

Earlier proposals

New proposal

See also

References