Hubbard’s Corner Renovation

Hubbard’s Corner Renovation

Seattle, WA

Hubbard’s Corner is the adaptive reuse of a 1912, 2-story URM building located just east of Green Lake in Seattle. With a total of 6100 square feet, the 2nd level is offices for the owner and other tenants, and the street level was remodeled to accommodate Atlantic Crossing – a pub that relocated from the Roosevelt neighborhood. The building owners were passionate about to doing everything possible to keep this renovation green and carbon-neutral while being proactive and incorporating seismic improvements to get the building reclassified to ‘retrofitted’ status on the City of Seattle’s URM List. Structural improvements included connecting the URM walls with the interior timber structure and adding a lateral bracing system that included concrete grade beams and shear walls in the basement, a steel brace-frame in the pub, and a mass-timber shear wall on the 2nd floor.

Some unique green building components included (1) All new concrete at the basement level featured the first use of C-Crete Portland cement-free concrete. (2) Significant salvage and reuse of existing materials on site, including reuse of removed wood ceiling joists, which were used as vertical strongbacks to strengthen the upper-level masonry walls.  (3) It was the first use of the VersaWorks VLT Veneer Laminated Timber by Boise Cascade for the upper-level shear walls. (4) Structural steel was selected from the steel supplier’s “boneyard”, which is leftover and salvaged steel from previous jobs. (5) Rebar was resourced locally from the Seattle Nuccor plant, which includes the lowest global warming potential rebar produced in the US.

Additional details and green elements are described in this DJC article.

It should be noted that owners Don Davies and Joan Crooks received the Historic Seattle Council Award for their visionary restoration of Hubbard’s Corner, turning a beloved neighborhood building into a model of low‑carbon, adaptive reuse. By prioritizing salvaged materials, reducing embodied carbon, and sharing their data to inspire broader climate‑minded design, they turned a personal project into a demonstration of sustainable preservation. 2025 Honorees – Historic Seattle

Buildings are coming off Seattle’s URM list

ENR Article: Don Davies: Hubbard’s Corner Living Laboratory to Test Bleeding-edge Green Materials Is a Daring Launch Pad for a Global Movement to Cut Concrete’s Carbon Footprint

More information about C-Crete may be found here: C-Crete’s Free-Cement Concrete at Hubbard’s Corner Building – C-Crete Technologies