After more than a decade lying vacant and in ruins, the Metropole, as its name implies, is once again a vibrant center of culture, industry, and influence. Located in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, the Metropole building was constructed in 1892 as the first major commercial project of Henry Yesler, the city’s wealthiest resident during his lifetime.

Fronted with a lavish expanse of hand-carved Tenino sandstone, the Metropole quickly became a supplier for miners on their way north as part of the Klondike Gold Rush and the flagship location of the G.O. Guy pharmacy empire, where prospectors picked up medicine kits designed to withstand the harsh conditions in the icy north.

In the decades that followed, the Metropole suffered under several disasters. It was severely damaged in Seattle’s infamous 1949 Olympia earthquake when the 7.1-magnitude shaker collapsed two upper floors, and experienced subsequent structural damage from two additional earthquakes in 1965 and 2001. A 2007 fire finally put the Metropole out of commission.

Gathering spaces, including a rooftop terrace, are a vital part of Metropole’s communal ethos.

Photography by Doug Walker

Community central. Eight types of work zones—from the solo-focused Comfort Cove to the versatile Justice Junction, which seats up to 75—provide maximum flexibility for meetings and one-on-one sessions.

Photography by Doug Walker

A few developers poked at the rubble over the years, but were ultimately discouraged by the formidable seismic and fire codes governing reconstruction. In 2019, the Satterberg Foundation purchased the building to house its organization and advance its twofold mission: promoting a just society and a sustainable environment.

The foundation is historically disinterested in real estate investments, preferring to award operational grants, but was alarmed by the trend of high office rents driving nonprofit organizations run by and for Black, Indigenous, and people of color out of Seattle proper.

“It was also a way of supporting the community, giving back to the community, and not shying away from tough problems,” says Metropole community steward Kendra Walker.

Despite return-to-office mandates, vacancy rates in Seattle’s central business district remain among the highest in the nation, with empty downtown offices hitting 34.6 percent in the second quarter of 2025, up from 30.6 percent a year ago, according to global commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Work on the Metropole was completed in April, and the building was fully leased by early summer at rates of $30 per square foot or less, about 20 to 25 percent below market rate, Walker estimates. Prior to construction, the Satterberg Foundation solicited input from dozens of local organizations, preservationists, community leaders, and nonprofits. “We didn’t want to just put up a building and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’” Walker recalls. Among the tenants are the Seattle Black Panther Party’s Legacy Interpretive Center, the Chief Seattle Club, and Families of Color Seattle.

Metropole’s amenities were designed to encourage collaboration and community building, with shared, commercial, and catering kitchens, venues with seating for up to 100, multiple gathering spaces, rooftop facilities, conference rooms in refurbished Seattle underground space, a half-dozen video-conferencing nooks, and bike storage for those who choose to pedal in. One-third of the building’s floor space is devoted to childcare facilities administered by Seed of Life, which provides multicultural and multilingual services for little ones aged six weeks to six years. The staff includes a chef.

Seattle-based building work , experts in historic preservation and adaptive reuse, was tapped to lead the project, transforming the derelict, wedge-shaped building—long an eyesore on the 2nd Avenue Extension—into a bright, updated, and functional space that celebrates the neighborhood’s industrial past, while embracing future-thinking design, build, and operational processes.

“Satterberg Foundation challenged us to design the most sustainable building renovation possible,” says architect Matt Aalfs, a BuildingWork design principal and partner.

Certified LEED Platinum, the Metropole features triple-pane windows, solar panels, and an ultra-tight envelope, all while preserving the warm sandstone exterior and brick interior. In some places, workers peeled up to 11 coats of corrosive lead-based paint from the exterior, which was then extensively refurbished.

The HVAC system includes a heat exchanger that can draw from outside air or the basement, hydronic baseboards, and chilled beams in the ceiling—a technique new to the U.S. that uses circulated, cooled water to lower air temperatures. The project is designed to achieve an energy use index (EUI) of 18, making the Metropole one of the lowest energy-users locally, in any building category. “A newly constructed commercial building in Seattle, which has some of the strictest energy codes in the nation, has an EUI of 40, or a bit less, making the Metropole twice as efficient,” Aalfs explains, adding that this project is the firm’s most meaningful to date.

“We’re grateful to the Satterberg Foundation for its willingness to take on this project,” he says. “It feels really good that this building is contributing to the city again.”