Seattle’s Pioneer Square Historic District has long been a neighborhood of artists. In the 1990s, market forces began driving artists out of the area at an alarming rate. Hoping to preserve Pioneer Square’s status as an arts district, the Pioneer Square Community Development Organization invited Artspace to transform two turn-of- the-century buildings, the Tashiro and the Kaplan, into facilities for artists.
The mostly residential Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts created 50 affordable live/work apartments, each with 800 to 1,800 square feet, plentiful light and flexible floor plans to accommodate artists of many disciplines.
The Tashiro Arts Building houses 28 commercial arts-related entities, including 4Culture, a public development authority of Seattle; individual artist working studios; artist exhibit co-ops and some of the most prestigious commercial galleries in Seattle. A thriving coffee shop is located on the ground floor.
Together they have created close to 130,000 square feet of permanently affordable space for the arts, and by preserving these two historic buildings for artists and arts-friendly organizations they have helped maintain Pioneer Square’s distinctive character. Tashiro Kaplan is now at the heart of Seattle’s legendary First Thursday Art Walk, drawing thousands of visitors to Pioneer Square each month.
Artspace | 250 Third Avenue North, Suite 400 | Minneapolis, MN 55401 | 612.333.9012 ©2016 Artspace Projects, Inc.
