505 Union Station

Brief Overview

Skanska played a pivotal role in the progression of this architecturally distinctive, 11-story office tower built atop an existing parking garage in Seattle's International District.

Working with partially finished architectural drawings in order to speed up the fast-track project, Skanska worked closely with the mechanical and electrical design teams to design significant elements of the job during the shop drawing phase. The scenario enabled Skanska to start construction before all designs were complete, keeping with the owner's tight schedule.

The signature element of this 290,000 sf office building is a "waterfall" glass curtainwall on its north side. Its complex "inverted Z-corner" connection to the building's west wall, which cantilevers 15 degrees, was the focus of extensive three-dimensional modeling and a $100,000 mock-up to verify its operational performance.

A 40,000 sf outdoor public courtyard above the underground garage and bus tunnel features extensive stone sculptures, ground and polished basalt pillars and various water features.

Working with an established baseline budget from day one, Skanska was able to battle scope creep throughout the project and keep the project on track to completion.

505 Union Station represents one phase of a four-phased project that included two multi-level parking structures and the renovation of the historic Union Station train depot.