2025 Outstanding Adaptive Reuse Award Winner: West Canal Yards

The Queen Anne Historical Society’s 2025 Preservation award for Outstanding Adaptive Reuse was enthusiastically presented to Unico Properties and Graham Baba Architects for their West Canal Yards development on Queen Anne’s northern edge, in the Ship Canal Maritime District. This waterfront portion of our neighborhood is perhaps not widely familiar because for decades it was a working, industrial waterfront with no retail presence and residential accommodations limited to live-aboard marinas and a few small houseboat communities.

West Canal Yards aerial rendering. Source: Graham Baba Architects

Much has changed in the Ship Canal Maritime District in recent years, with the Gascoigne Lumber yard fire, the closing of the Foss shipyard and relocation of many maritime businesses to more affordable locations. The West Canal Yards project aims to give the waterfront to the community, and bring new life to this part of Queen Anne.

The project is located on 1,000 feet of canal frontage at 1100-1120 West Ewing Street. The West Canal Yards development is a complete renovation and adaptive reuse of two concrete seafood warehouses constructed on the Lake Washington Ship Canal in the 1950s and 1970s. The project included a complete seismic retrofit, cutting out sections of the tilt-up concrete exterior walls of the 1100 building from floor to ceiling for fenestration, and inserting a second floor into the 22-foot-high space.  In total, the project created 181,000 square feet of flexible space created with makers, marine-related use and public-facing businesses in mind.  Since opening in February of this year, the project has already attracted tenants including a brewery and tap room and art galleries. It also boasts a large, landscaped outdoor area at the water’s edge and ample parking.

West Canal Yards Interior - Graham Baba Architects

In a statement borrowed from architects, Graham Baba, “the West Canal Yards project balances immediate reuse with long-term redevelopment flexibility. More than adaptive reuse of buildings, it is an adaptive reuse of place. The work reflects not only an architectural transformation but also the reimagining of a neighborhood”.

If the West Canal Yards project is an indicator, the future of the Ship Canal Maritime District is a creative and vibrant one that will bring a unique sense of place to our neighborhood while celebrating its working waterfront past. We encourage you to visit this exciting new development.