Lean And Lovely
An uber-urban condo spares nothing to keep it simple
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
"The piano is situated in such as way that it's the only place in the entire condo you can look west and actually see water," Mrugala says. "The relationship of the really sharp corner and the piano is really nice. It wanted to be there."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "Behind the blackened-steel wall is a small guest bedroom," says project architect Jacek Mrugala. "Above the wall is 18 inches of glass to let light into the bedroom and to make the living space you see here appear even larger. By keeping that wall down, it makes the guest room appear as an object floating in space -- another box."
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The library/office contains a blackened-steel desk, which extends from the shelves. "We tried to keep it all free-floating within the space. The shelves are Brazilian cherry like the floors. It's a cozy nook. It's an extension of the floor," Mrugala says.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The shower is a shared space between two bathrooms. The cabinets are Brazilian cherry. The floor is basalita.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES "We tried to arrange the kitchen as objects in the space, three different volumes, floating pieces that would allow the space to remain open," Mrugala says. "The cabinets are maple, and the light color amplifies the floating in space. The darker floors are Brazilian cherry and serve as the base plane for the elements in space." |
Frank Stagen wanted to keep it simple for his new downtown Seattle life.
"I loved the house," he says of the former family home in Broadmoor, "but it just had too many memories of Nancy." So, after his wife died, , Stagen sought out a warm and uncluttered home — something in the city, something not too much trouble to keep up. A sky-high contemporary condo. And with north, east and south walls of glass stretching 120 feet, Stagen, vice chairman and CEO of the development company Nitze-Stagen, has a glamorous front-row seat for a very urban kind of show. The stars outside are steel and concrete and glass and light, just like the stars inside.
"The most important thing was preserving the views of the urban environment," says project architect Jacek Mrugala of Eric Cobb Architects. "You catch a corner of the new library; you look down from the deck and you see this canyon all the way up to the Space Needle.
"This kind of urban canyon you normally associate with New York."
Eric Cobb, principal of the firm, credits Stagen with being a fearless client.
"Frank wasn't afraid of a curtain wall, in fact he loved it," Cobb says. "So it meant pulling out everything inboard from the windows. We faced some amazing technical challenges to make it all work. The trick was accommodating rooms while retaining the sense of it being a single large space.
"You allow for the understanding of the full wrap of the perimeter of the condominium."
An elegant wrap it is, too, enveloping two bedrooms and 3 ½ bathrooms, library and office space. The sense of light and space are key, enhanced with light finishes on the maple cabinetry hovering over Brazilian cherry floors and subtle, elegant furnishings throughout.
Stagen says it feels like you're floating up there. "And I didn't want to take away from the views with a lot of stuff."
A long wall of cabinetry with plain flush doors between the dining room and kitchen hides a good portion of Stagen's stuff. On the living-room side, the cabinetry houses the bar. On the dining-room side, it serves as the china cabinet. In the kitchen, it wraps the refrigerator, oven and microwave. Behind the kitchen, in a sort of utility hallway, it is the pantry.
Eric Cobb Architects is all about contemporary and function. Cobb is not a designer given to frills and nonsense.
"There is an inherent leanness in modern work," he says. "It doesn't have extra trim and layers of extra stuff on it. One of the important aspects of Modernism is it isn't gratuitous. And the economy has driven solutions back to some very fundamental bones — about light and space, not about ornament and materials.
"Our projects look to deliver what's necessary and nothing more in terms of quantity. Where the excess will come is in quality and in the character of spaces.
"Work seems to be caught up in all of this embellishment and stuff. But when you cut back in that you gain in light and space."
Stagen is a member of the board of trustees at the Frye Art Museum, so he also has allowed wall space for art. "I buy art that I like and that suits me, but I would not call myself a collector," he says.
His new, sleek lifestyle suits Stagen perfectly.
"I love this place, and I love wandering around here," he says.
"I really like walking to places . . . I feel like I'm much more a part of the city than I ever was before."
Rebecca Teagarden is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.
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