By SUSAN PARK

Years ago when I was in my first year of school at North Carolina State University's School of Design in Architecture, I was given the assignment of drawing the interior of Two Union Square based on floor plans. The building was designed by Seattle-based NBBJ, the nation's second largest architecture firm, with offices in eight major cities all over the world.

Little did I know I would someday live in downtown Seattle across from the very building I had been assigned to imagine in my head. But that's what happened to me four years ago.

Today, I live in the Haller Lake neighborhood, where I live in an old chicken coop, just north of Northgate Mall. Surrounding me are old farm houses, newer ranch-style houses, and brand new I-don't-know-what's.

About three blocks south of me, the earth is stirring. Developers are landing in swarms along the banks of NE Northgate Way, 5th Avenue NE, 15th Avenue NE, and Roosevelt Way NE. What we see today will be completely different from what we see in five years.

At one particular location now occupied by the Trolley Tavern, Ed Wyse Beauty Supply, Prestige Printing, the Northgate Professional Center, and several clustered housing units, a gigantic building is about to emerge. The retail building will maximize it's potential building area, filling out to all corners of the street in a giant 600 foot by 300 foot by about 60 foot tall block.

Although it will be sad to see some of the old favorites be demolished, the new building is promising to be exceptional in both design and innovation.

Developer Douglas O. Howe of Touchstone, Corp. could have hired any architect to create his project. But Howe chose instead to hire the award-winning firm of NBBJ.

NBBJ doesn't just do office buildings. They are the firm responsible for the new Safeco Mariner's Stadium and, up here in North Seattle, the Green Lake PCC store.

The Touchstone site at 300 NE Northgate Way represents an architectural design challenge in that it falls within the parameters of the Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan.

Building codes in this neck of the woods are much more strict than anywhere else in the city. And the Touchstone building will be located smack dab at the corner of two major pedestrian streets - a challenge for any architect.

The building will be split in two, with retail primarily on the western half of the block and eight floors of parking on the eastern half. Retail space will total 340,000 square.

Of the four floors of retail space, the top two floors will be dedicated to Target, which Howe says has agreed to a 25-year lease. Two innovative "express ramps" will form Target-red colored ribbons up the back of the building leading shoppers to the top floors of parking.

Along the street edge and wrapped around the second floor of the parking deck will be the required pedestrian-friendly amenities such as easy building access, tall windows to see into retail spaces, and a variety of smaller shops and restaurants.

NBBJ's original design didn't include these amenities. At the project's first design review meeting, the outside of the building presented bare concrete walls at the street level with banners and plantings and a parking deck affectionately referred to by members of the Design Review board as a "stack of pancakes."

Unafraid to start from scratch, NBBJ went back to the drawing board and completely opened up the ground floor level along NE Northgate Way and 5th Avenue NE to allow pedestrians a window into the building's activities. Glass stair towers and pedestrian corridors were added to accommodate the Northgate area's growing mass-transit dependent population. Fiberglass paneled towers will "be a beacon at night," said the project's retail architect Craig Hardman.

Hardman has worked on such projects as the Coliseum Theater building which now houses a Banana Republic store, the GameWorks store, and Polo store at Pacific Place.

Ironically, Hardman also attended my alma mater, North Carolina State University's School of Architectural Design, before transferring to the University of Washington's graduate program in architecture. His first studio professor at the UW was none other than Elaine Day LaTourelle, who is well known among Northeast Seattle community activists for her assistance in North District Planning.

Innovative signage designed by Kathy Wesselman of Wesselman Pellecchia Associates will be collaged on top of a space frame structure and layers of semi-transparent wire mesh. Wesselman said the effect will be "a pretty dynamic and active signage." Smaller blade signage will be at street level for pedestrians.

Concern over the additional traffic, the necessity to open up the median along Northgate Way to allow left turns in and out of 3rd Avenue NE, and the location of the parking deck are just some of the neighborhood resident concerns that will have to be addressed.

One neighboring property owner who isn't concerned is John Mullally. He's a partner in Mullally Development Co., which owns the parcel west of the Touchstone site and which plans to rebuild a large multi-story housing complex. He says he's happy of the view his residents will get when they look outside the window to the new Touchstone Project.

Howe, a Tacoma native, says he's been a principal of Touchstone for about 20 years in which time he's completed approximately 45 projects, many of which have won awards. One of his more recent projects, which has been nominated to receive a Society of Industry Office Realtor's (SIOR) award, is an office development at 12131 113th Ave. NE in Kirkland's Totem Lake area.

Howe said he was willing to change the design for his Northgate area project to accommodate pedestrians because, as a downtown Seattle condominium resident, "I embrace the urban concept ... I walk everywhere."

Let's hope his good habits for pedestrian friendly design catch on!

Susan Park is co-publisher of the Jet City Maven.