See Áegis Living’s 4700 SW Admiral Way early-stage design plan

That’s the “early design guidance” document for Áegis Living‘s planned retirement center at 4700 SW Admiral Way, providing the most details yet on what the Redmond-based company plans for the former Life Care Center site. We first reported in November 2013 that Áegis had bought the site, and subsequently reported more details about the project over ensuing months, including this February 2014 report. According to the project page on the city Department of Planning and Development website, no public meeting is planned for the project because it’s going through “administrative design review,” which means the review is done by city staff without involvement of the Design Review Board, though written public comment is solicited and accepted. The document now available online summarizes the project:

The proposed project will demolish the existing structure and construct a new Aegis community composed of approximately 48 Assisted Living apartments and 32 Memory Care apartments.

Both the Assisted Living and Memory Care units will be grouped into smaller neighborhoods that focus on community activities and dining as well as events with the other neighborhoods. These spaces will include dining, living rooms, activity rooms, and a cafe – all of which are distributed throughout the building which will activate various portions of the façade. Outdoor gardens and terraces will be provided, allowing residents to have access to the outdoors.

The proposed project will be a three-story wood structure over a one-story concrete parking level. The terracing of the building and the utilization of the natural site grade will present a facade more in line with a two- to three-story structure at the adjacent street levels on SW Waite and SW Admiral.

A covered drop-off area will be incorporated along the driveway on SW Admiral Way for resident use. The front entry will be in close proximity to both bus stops along SW Admiral. Visitor vehicle access and staff parking will be accessed off of SW Waite Street.

If you can’t see it in the full design document by architects GGLO, embedded above (which also can be accessed on the city website here), this is the massing (size/shape) option described as “preferred”:

Perhaps of more note than before, due to the Admiral Way Safety Project discussion, 36 offstreet parking spaces are proposed for the building – mostly in a garage, with its entry off SW Waite. Also of note from the design document: “The proposed project aims to use a stucco facade in keeping with the client’s vision of a Mediterranean oasis.” And: “For an urban neighborhood the site has an extensive tree canopy. On site there is a steep slope with a dense ravine of trees on the south corner. This large stand of trees will be preserved and there will be limited disturbance of the steep slope areas.”

HOW TO COMMENT: According to the city website, the official notice of this will go out on Thursday (May 28th), and that will start a two-week comment period, through June 10th. You can get a jump on that by e-mailing comments to the assigned planner, Holly Godard, at holly.godard@seattle.gov, referring to project 3017747, 4700 SW Admiral Way.

22 Replies to "See Áegis Living's 4700 SW Admiral Way early-stage design plan"

  • justadumbguy May 24, 2015 (10:26 pm)

    Wow, that will certainly change the character of that corner / area.

  • valvashon May 24, 2015 (11:03 pm)

    Anything will be better than that current, fenced off tagged up eyesore. A building like that has little cultural or historic significance and if I remember correctly, the original operator of the facility managed to run themselves out of business. The new owner of the site would clearly need or want to put up their own building, so why can’t we make demolition permits easier to get in some cases? Why not take down the building before it turns into an eyesore and a magnet for taggers and squatters? You shouldn’t always need a plan for what’s going to be there to be able to remove the building that is there and is not going to fulfill your needs.

  • Bill May 25, 2015 (9:34 am)

    Back in the 1950-60 era Malvina Reynolds had a song about “Little Houses Made of Ticky-Tacky” about Daly City south of San Fran – sung by her and Pete Seeger – google it!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_2lGkEU4Xs

    By Pete Seeger – great graphics

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwUp-D_VV0

    West Seattle is outdoing Daly City by miles — we have big and bigger boxes (‘house’) all up and down our hillsides!

  • Neighbor May 25, 2015 (9:58 am)

    This thing is enormous, and out of character.
    That drive way in the back is completely unfair to the houses right behind it. How are trucks and deliveries going to maneuver this little tiny space without severely impacting those homes? It will be just a matter of time before damage is done to their properties or thier loved ones.
    What an insult.

  • MSW May 25, 2015 (10:23 am)

    Wow, that is huge! This will bring more traffic to Admiral for sure. And to think Admiral Safety Project plans to eliminate some parking on Admiral. I hope it’s not in this area.

  • Not that Neighbor May 25, 2015 (11:17 am)

    Cue complaints list now – not enough character, too big, not in my backyard, I was here first and got mine so don’t let anyone else move here, traffic, noise, ambulances, more people living here who won’t pay property taxes to support our infrastructure development, not enough trees, too many trees, not the right color, stucco, it should look like a small Craftsman…

  • Diane May 25, 2015 (1:08 pm)

    re; “no public meeting is planned for the project because it’s going through “administrative design review,” which means the review is done by city staff without involvement of the Design Review Board”
    ~
    I am appalled that DPD found a way to prevent our neighborhood from being involved in reviewing this project via DRB meetings; how in the hell did that happen?
    ~
    by what screwball reasoning can a project of this size, and significant impact to our neighborhood, be exempt from DRB?
    ~
    Aegis came to our Admiral Neighborhood Association several months ago and presented their design, with renderings on poster boards; it looked fabulous; they also seemed intent on presenting their design at many community groups to get feedback prior to DRB, and they seemed to be expecting to go through the design review process; I want to know what loophole happened this time at DPD, so that they are no longer going through DRB; THIS does NOT build goodwill with our neighbors; I have the biz card of the RE rep who came to our group to present the proposed project, and will contact if you aren’t able to learn more
    ~
    while I personally really appreciate you getting this story up as soon as you got the info, I’m concerned with majority off on holiday, that most will not see this; can we please find a way to keep this story alive; thanks

    • WSB May 25, 2015 (2:58 pm)

      Oh, this won’t be the last we write about this; for one, we’ll mention it again Thursday when the official notice should hit the Land Use Information Bulletin. And actually it wasn’t a matter of slapping it up as soon as I found it … this information’s been out there for days. I just finally got a chance to write about it – haven’t had a chance to research the Design Review rules yet to figure out why this doesn’t have to go before the board, though.

  • G May 25, 2015 (2:30 pm)

    The facility will provide specialized care for those who need it, and you people are nitpicking how it looks?? And people scoff at how shallow LA is. Oh, the irony.

  • Diane May 25, 2015 (3:01 pm)

    it’s not just “nitpicking how it looks”; I want to be part of the continuing process in learning how they design a specialized care facility like this
    ~
    we have another specialized care facility (all memory care) going in soon near the junction; that went through full design review, and was fascinating to learn about during the process; why is this Aegis project getting special rules, exemption?

    • WSB May 28, 2015 (11:36 pm)

      For the record in case anyone else happens onto this thread before I can clarify with DPD tomorrow:
      .
      Now the page describing this project as due for Administrative Design Review:
      .
      http://www.seattle.gov/dPd/aboutus/news/events/DesignReview/Detail/default.aspx?id=5434
      .
      has been joined today by a page setting a meeting date for a *board* review.
      .
      So I’m asking DPD which is right and which is wrong. Meantime, anyone interested in the project might want to reserve July 2nd. – TR

  • Diane May 25, 2015 (3:02 pm)

    thanks TR

  • Dave May 25, 2015 (4:08 pm)

    Right now the “design concept” just shows some non-descript boxes. Maybe we should wait and see what the actual design of the building(s) will be before we pass judgement on it.

    The NIMBYism in some of these posts is interesting. There aren’t enough of these kinds of facilities now and more are going to be needed as the boomer generation ages. I think incorporating them into the neighborhood instead of banishing them all to the suburbs is a good thing. Some folks who have posted here may have to move in there some day or they may have a loved one who has to move there. Wouldn’t it be nice to have it close by rather than out in the suburbs somewhere?

  • StillAlice May 25, 2015 (7:49 pm)

    If this facility was going to provide affordable assisted living/memory care I wouldn’t care what it looked like. Guessing it’s going to be at the going rate of $4500 – $8000 per month like all the rest, meaning way out of reach for most.

  • bluemonkey May 25, 2015 (8:09 pm)

    This is really weird looking and out of character with the other Aegis properties I have toured. The others fit well within the neighborhoods, are low-key and the one downtown is quite classy. This looks like a bunch of concrete cereal boxes…or a prison…

    Aegis: is this for real? What are you thinking?

    We do need memory care facilities in the community, however… dedicated memory care like what Aegis does, not just assisted living.

    • WSB May 25, 2015 (8:29 pm)

      Again, this is the *early design* stage which *only* addresses size and shape. Design touches – what it will actually look like – is in the second round. Sometimes early design packets also veer into “concepts” but this one appears to be just the basics of what the city wants to see at this point. I do see, a few levels into the Aegis website, a page about the project that includes a pencil sketch of something a little more detailed: http://www.aegisliving.com/about-us/upcoming-communities/aegis-of-west-seattle/ – TR

  • mrj May 26, 2015 (12:34 pm)

    i live right there and whatever they put in could hardly be worse than what’s there now. we live in a city and cities change over time. i agree that stucco seems like a silly choice for this climate but whatever.

  • Matt May 26, 2015 (12:42 pm)

    Can’t wait to live here (in about 40 years)!!!

  • Diane May 26, 2015 (1:29 pm)

    Matt; better save your money, at $8,000 per month, private pay

  • ktrapp May 26, 2015 (4:04 pm)

    I also live right on Waite St, and am looking forward to the replacement. This preliminary design plan looks like they’re committed to integrating in with the neighborhood and limiting the impact. So good for them. It’s certainly better than the rapidly deteriorating building and grounds there now. Although I will echo the idea that the stucco idea seems hilariously bad, considering the climate.

  • pat davis May 27, 2015 (12:13 pm)

    Keep saying goodbye to the West Seattle that we dearly love.

  • Brian May 27, 2015 (11:24 pm)

    Damn, I was hoping that Seattle Parks would purchase the lot and turn it into indoor tennis facility.

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