Western Marine Office Building

Located on Harbor Avenue near the edge of West Seattle, MRJ broke ground on a new design-build 15,000 square feet office building in October 2008. The building serves as the home for Western Marine Construction and other tenants. The building is a five-story concrete, steel and wood framed structure consisting of exposed concrete and architectural metal siding, complete with full height curtain walls that overlook Harbor Island and Elliot Bay, allowing the tenants to collect a full view of the downtown Seattle skyline.

Challenging aspects of the project included major excavation on an undeveloped parcel of land restricted by a neighboring building, a heavily wooded steep hillside with a history of landslides and a major arterial roadway, all while maintaining the public’s safety. Early on in the project, MRJ installed a shoring system consisting of forty feet tall soldier piles with a lagging system and tiebacks along the backside of the building’s steep hillside to protect the site from potential landslide activity and allowing the new building to be set into the hillside. Other notable aspects of the building included drilling forty auger-cast piles, installing exterior shot-crete walls and self-performing the concrete structural slab. With the design changing as the construction took place due to the design-build nature, MRJ has been able to utilize its flexibility to coordinate the necessary modifications in sequencing and construction methodology to maintain the productivity and budget while answering the Owner’s requests.