Building on a nearly 80 year history, Seaboard Station is reinventing urban living for the modern day in downtown Raleigh, NC. Totaling more than 900,000 SF when complete, Seaboard Station will feature 600 residences, 130,000 SF of retail space, a hotel, and both underground and street-level parking spaces. Built in phases, the community started with a 7-story mixed-use project featuring 298 residential units, 30,000 SF of retail space, and a 500+ space parking deck. The structure consists of a two-story, post-tensioned concrete podium supporting 5 levels of light framed wood construction apartment units. The podium includes green roof amenity spaces and a community pool. An industrial warehouse aesthetic seamlessly unites modern amenities with the preservation and repurposing of historic structures.

Situated on the north side of downtown Raleigh, Seaboard Station sits on a tight site, centered in an occupied and active town center. The challenge of a tight site led to a unique building shape situated around a precast parking deck. Early in design, we worked closely with the designers to achieve an acceptable column grid, which did not favor any one structural system.

Ultimately, our design morphed to accommodate the unique layout, transitioning between one-way and two-way, mild reinforced and post-tensioned concrete slab systems to maintain material efficiency. Additionally, to deliver a quick speed-to-market housing solution for downtown, the project required concurrent erection of the parking deck and construction of the concrete podium structure that surrounds the deck on three sides. Knowing this was a critical item to get the project out of the ground, we worked closely with the contractor before construction began to ensure the podium could be constructed in a way that could also accommodate the aggressive early construction schedule.

photo credit: Cline Design