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Overview

Seattle architect Louis L. Mendel (1867-1940) designed the O'Shea Building in 1914, with its completion occurring in 1915. Its original ground-floor tenant was the White Public Market. (Thank you to Rob Ketcherside for providing information on the O'Shea Building in an email to the author, 01/19/2016.)

Building History

Mendel designed a four-story reinforced concrete block for his client, the O'Shea Brothers of Portland, OR. A photo in the Seattle Sunday Times of 03/28/1915 announced the building's completion: "The remarkable rapidity with which the district in the vicinity of Times Square is being developed is illustrated in an unusual manner by the O'Shea Building on the southeast double corner of Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, recently completed by O'Shea Brothers of Portland, Ore. Exactly one year ago the double corner was occupied by the old Olympic Stables which had stood there for twenty years. The property was sold by Henry Broderick, Inc., to the Portland investors for a consideration of $200,000 cash. Work on the building began at once and represents an investment of $150,000. The property has a frontage of 120 feet on Pine Street and 113 feet on Fifth Avenue. It is under the rental management of Henry Broderick, Inc., and will be devoted to retail purposes." (See "Substantial Structure Illustrates Unusual Growth of District Adjacent to Times Square: O'Shea Building," Seattle Sunday Times, 03/28/1915, p. 21.)

In 2016, the O'Shea Building Company of Seattle owned the building.

Building Notes

In 2016, the O'Shea Building occupied a 13,560-square-foot (.31-acre) lot, and contained 79,957 gross square feet, 65,417 net. In the gross square footage calculation, second floor office space contained 31,153 square feet, first-floor retail had 35,694 square feet, and the basement retail space measured another 13,110 square feet. (In terms of net square footage, the three floors had 26,082, 26,225 and 13,110 respectively.)

Gensler had its offices in the O'Shea Building c. 2016. The Gap clothing store occupied the first-floor retail space at this time.

Alteration

Major alterations occurred in 1995 and in 2000.