Metropole Reuse Plan

Seattle’s Metropole, a Pioneer Square landmark built in 1892, has been remade as a nonprofit center after years of earthquake, fire and vacancy damage. (metropoleseattle.org) The Satterberg Foundation bought the building in June 2019 and said it planned to offer below-market office and community space for organizations led by and serving communities of color. The project was slated to open in 2025. (satterberg.org) The rebuilt center at 423 2nd Ave. Ext. S. now includes private offices, meeting and event space, an interpretive center, an early learning center and an art program, according to the project website. Current tenants listed by Historic Seattle include Chief Seattle Club, Families of Color Seattle, Spark Northwest and the Seattle Black Panther Party Legacy Group & Interpretive Center. (metropoleseattle.org) (historicseattle.org) The Metropole sits inside the Pioneer Square historic district, where Seattle’s preservation rules explicitly call for returning unproductive structures to useful purposes. The site combines the old Metropole Building and the Busy Bee Building into one project. (metropoleseattle.org) The reuse plan also tracks a second Seattle pressure point: nonprofit groups being priced out of central city space as older buildings are redeveloped for higher-paying uses. Satterberg said that squeeze shaped the decision to turn the property into a community-centered hub rather than a conventional commercial project. (metropoleseattle.org) (satterberg.org) Architects and preservation groups have highlighted how much of the old building was kept in place. BuildingWork said the team restored Tenino sandstone and brick facades, repaired earthquake-damaged walls and rebuilt two upper floors that were lost after the 1949 earthquake. (metropolismag.com) (buildings.com) Inside, the project left original brick, timber and steel exposed and used fewer new finish materials, a choice the design team linked to lower embodied carbon, the emissions tied to making and hauling building materials. Buildings.com reported that the retrofit also added steel reinforcement and other seismic work to meet current safety standards. (metropolismag.com) (buildings.com) The environmental targets were unusually aggressive for a 19th-century masonry building. Project descriptions say the 34,000-square-foot renovation reached Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, Platinum, with triple-glazed windows, heat pumps, natural ventilation and an Energy Use Intensity of 18. (metropolismag.com) (satterberg.org) Historic Seattle gave the Satterberg Foundation its 2025 Community Investment Award for the project, calling out a six-year design and construction effort after decades of damage from the 1949, 1965 and 2001 earthquakes and a 2007 fire. By 2026, trade and design outlets were holding up the Metropole as a Seattle example of adaptive reuse that keeps a historic shell in service by changing what happens inside it. (historicseattle.org) (buildings.com)