Spire is a 41-story building of striking architecture that enhances the Seattle skyline with bold lines and form. Located in the quintessentially Seattle Belltown neighborhood at the nexus of the city’s cultural options, Spire celebrates the views of Seattle’s skyline and waterfront with 9-to-10 foot ceiling heights and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Robern was tasked to collaboratively design a custom and modular solution consisting of medicine cabinets, vertical lighting, and mirrors for each Spire unit. The goal was to offer consistent luxury bathroom storage within each condominium unit while also providing design flexibility to ensure installation was appropriate for each layout.
Awards: Seattle’s “High Rise Residential Development of the Year” NAIOPWA 2021
Developer: Laconia Development, LLC, Walnut Creek, California
Interior Designer: Robin Chell Design, Seattle, Washington
Sales Agency: Hollabaugh Brothers & Associates, Portland, Oregon
Distributor / Installer: North Coast Electric Company Construction Group
Robern Products Used: PL Series Medicine Cabinets, InLine Lighting, Modular Mirrors
“Spire is a building with amazing amenities and we had a goal of accomplishing high end luxury throughout the building.” Robin Chell, Interior Designer
Spire has 343 luxury condominiums to offer with ten floor plans within the core of the building along with five additional penthouse floor plans. Each unit is designed to connect residents to the outdoors and features nature-inspired materials and finishes paired with simple and clean lines to create a peaceful retreat from everyday living.
Award winning interior design firm RCD, Robin Chell Design, has garnered a reputation for delivering unique and high quality designs that are reflective of the Pacific Northwest. RCD provided full interior design services, including space planning and finishes, FFE design and procurement, and art selection for the Spire project. This included lighting, storage, and mirror selections for the bathroom spaces. Chell describes Spire as “a building with amazing amenities” and every single design selection needed to meet her “goal of accomplishing high end luxury throughout the building.”
Chell had worked with Robern on single-family residences for the past ten years so she knew the attention to detail and level of quality to expect from the brand. Because of this, Robern was specified as part of her firm’s proposal to the architecture firm. Chell was very familiar with Robern’s modularity and knew that this would help them achieve a custom design while being mindful of budget.
“Oftentimes medicine cabinets are chosen for the penthouse levels, but for Spire, the developer considered this an important luxury amenity for the entire building.” Robin Chell, Interior Designer
Outside of modularity, Chell considers lighting to be critical in bathrooms and utilized Robern’s InLine Lighting product to offer vertical lighting at the vanity. Though lighting is often maintained in the spec, many times medicine cabinets get cut from the design because they may require slightly more labor during construction. Chell states that “oftentimes medicine cabinets are chosen for the penthouse levels, but for Spire, the developer considered this an important luxury amenity for the entire building.”
A 40" high PL Series Medicine Cabinet with a polished edge and integrated electric was the chosen medicine cabinet paired with 40" high InLine Lighting in 3000 Kelvin light temperature. Depending on the floorplan, a 20” wide or 24” wide PL Series Medicine Cabinet with electric upgrade was selected for installation.
Because each unit had slight measurement nuances, RCD was able to work with Robern’s Commercial Projects Team to easily create three different custom Modular Mirrors which provided complete installation flexibility. The custom Modular Mirrors are designed to mount seamlessly with Robern medicine cabinets — creating a wall of glass with few visual interruptions. By working directly with Robern’s Commercial Projects team, RCD was able to specify a consistent product throughout each unit’s bathroom design while still offering a customized design and installation depending on each particular space.
“Robern’s team is incredibly easy to work with and I know that they are thinking through every detail down to making it very easy for the installer.” Jaliene Hollabough
Chell’s team provided design drawings to Robern’s Commercial Projects Team and, in return, Robern provided engineering drawings outlining product configuration and bills of materials for each layout totaling six distinct product arrays. Closer to installation, Robern provided custom installation instructions to ensure a seamless process from beginning to end. Jaliene Hollabough of Hollabaugh Brothers & Associates, commercial sales representatives for Robern comments “when working with Robern on large projects like this, I am very confident with their ability to deliver. The majority of Robern is manufactured in the United States and this really helps with on-time delivery, which is critical for a project like this. Not only that, but Robern’s team is incredibly easy to work with and I know that they are thinking through every detail down to making it very easy for the installer. My job is to see a project through each step of the way for my clients and Robern really holds everyone’s hands throughout the entire process.”