The working building
Hardware and plumbing suppliers occupied the original warehouse
Built in 1903, the two-story masonry building stood near tidelands that were still being filled. Seattle's historic inventory identifies hardware supplier Duncan, Carrigan and Hayden and plumbing supplier George Tay as tenants on a 1904 insurance map. By 1916, Seattle Plumbing Company occupied the whole property; the Johnson Plumbing name became another familiar identity. The surviving brick and stone belong to this commercial history. The original architect is not identified in the City's record, so the modern design credits should be understood as authorship of the condominium redevelopment rather than the 1903 warehouse.
The stadium chapter
The building once supported the Kingdome
King County purchased the property from the Johnson family in 1980 for the Kingdome development. County records describe its use for stadium and Mariners storage, and later record damage from the 2001 Nisqually earthquake that limited the old building's utility. The County sold it in 2006. Its eventual residential future took a different team: Daniels Real Estate developed Gridiron with HEWITT as architect and landscape architect, Chinn Construction as contractor and Coughlin Porter Lundeen as structural and civil engineer. HEWITT dates the completed condominium to 2018, keeping that milestone separate from both the warehouse's construction and earlier opening projections.
Preserving the public face
The brick walls needed support while the interior changed
Coughlin Porter Lundeen describes removing the existing internal wood structure while retaining the masonry exterior. Temporary bracing held the historic walls as the new structure rose behind them. Openings in the concrete floor slabs accommodated that support frame and were closed after it was removed. The engineering joined the surviving exterior to the new building and improved the old masonry's seismic stability. For someone walking past, the process is largely invisible. What looks like a continuous historic street wall depended on an intricate construction sequence, with preservation and new building work proceeding together.
The ground below the building
Reclaimed tidelands shaped the foundation strategy
The project's structural engineers also had to contend with soft soils beneath the former waterfront industrial site. Their account describes a combination of pin piles and augercast piles, coordinated with both temporary support and the permanent foundation. Some construction support was designed to serve the finished building as well. This is an important part of Gridiron's architectural story because the new homes required their own structural solution. The relationship between the old masonry and the new condominium reaches down into the ground, beyond the visible meeting of brick and glass above the sidewalk.
The residential design
Jennie Gruss gave the new homes a contemporary interior
The original residential campaign credits Pioneer Square designer Jennie Gruss with interiors for a mixture of flats and lofts. Its specifications describe expansive window walls, engineered wood floors, quartz counters and gas cooking. Those materials place the living spaces firmly in the new construction chapter, while the retained exterior keeps a connection to the surrounding district. Plan shape and position still create meaningful differences between homes. A buyer can encounter a more conventional flat or a loft arrangement, and the room's relationship to the building's angled perimeter changes how furniture, circulation and the outlook work together.
A shared destination upstairs
The penthouse club extends the home beyond its front door
Gridiron's developer and completed-project accounts describe a clubroom with a kitchen, fitness facilities, wine storage and an outdoor rooftop terrace. The residential program also includes spaces for bicycles and pets. Placing substantial shared facilities upstairs gives the rooftop a role in everyday life as well as entertaining. The setting makes that especially distinctive: the stadium, port and downtown skyline are close components of the surrounding landscape. For a prospective owner, the location is best understood across both event days and ordinary weekdays, when the pace outside the same front door can feel quite different.
