ALT Mercer: Rethinking the Development and Design of the Mercer Mega Block

Abstract

There has been a shortage of housing across the United States that has led to the exponential increase of rent. Some of the leading challenges of building more housing is the high cost of construction and labor shortage, and as a result, has led developers to build luxury housing, almost exclusively, because it is the only type of project that financially works. When looking at the challenges, construction costs appears to be the easier challenges to combat. Through this thesis, the intent is to locate a opportunistic property that was located in an area that has scarce affordable housing. Through this process, the Mercer Mega Block became the subject site of this thesis and is being worked through design and financially to work exclusive as a site for affordable housing. Furthermore, through the process of this thesis, the focus of this project has become household of 60 percent AMI, workforce, and families. As a result of the South Lake Union’s corporate centered culture, there is a lack of a sense of community that has created a neighborhood where people come to work and leave at the end of the day. This thesis has developed a design that focuses of families and workforce and takes special attention of the ground level, as a result of building high-rise affordable housing, and attempts to establish a dynamic ground level for all users to come together and be an asset to South Lake Union. Finally, a financial plan has been made for this project and has proved to be a financial viable project, which concludes this project to be a good contender to be an absolute affordable housing project that the City of Seattle can take on, instead of selling the parcels of the Mercer Mega Block.