SAINT BREAD

Location: Seattle, Washington
Type: Commercial
Sustainability: Adaptive Reuse

Occupying what was once a small, street-facing machine shop within the former Jensen Motor Boat Company complex on Portage Bay, Saint Bread has quickly established itself as a destination bakery and community space. The bakery is the first phase of a multi-phased, multi-use redevelopment of the historic shipyard. Drawing inspiration from the site’s industrial history, Saint Bread is a confident and multifaceted brand expression translated into the design of its flagship café.

Saint Bread is founded on the belief that the craft and care you give to one’s pursuits is a sacred act, and so it was important to nod back to the building’s legacy as the site of one of the region’s premier wooden shipyards for almost 100 years. The bakery translates the shipwrights’ tradition of craftsmanship into their new medium, while paying homage to that history through design elements and in the very preservation of the humble machine shop it inhabits.

The embrace of built history and the spirit of craft drove the design team to adapt and work with what was there. The bakery’s space needs were scaled to fit the small shop and many of the artifacts found on site were incorporated and celebrated in the design. Most of the space within the building is taken up by the bakery itself, which is open and highly visible to customers. Bakery equipment is pulled away from the west façade, creating a circulation aisle where light pours into the space through new windows in the building’s original openings. Entry to the shop is through large barn doors on the north face of the building which opens to the walk-up counter and small customer area. The shop features a custom stained-glass window and built-in shelves housing a mixture of merchandise and treasures significant to the site and the owner’s blended heritage.

Materials used in the space also reflect the merging of its influences. The owner’s Japanese heritage is celebrated with a tiled genkan (entry) that gives way to salvaged sheet metal flooring in the rest of the walk-up area. The bathroom walls feature tile in a traditional yagasuri or feathered arrow pattern, which has an additional resemblance to abtou (heads of grain), a motif reinforced by chevron patterns in the wooden casework. The site and region’s Scandinavian history, also an influence on the Saint Bread menu, is highlighted in the woodworking adorning the original structure, from shiplap siding on the interior, to the patio enclosure, an homage to traditional gardesgard fencing. Almost all the seating for Saint Bread is outside, both a necessity of its scale and an opportunity to carry its mission of reaching out into the community. On the west, an uncovered seating area looks out on the rest of the marina, while the east patio, with a transparent canopy providing protection from the elements without blocking the sky, can be additionally supported by an additional service.

Photography: Ross Eckert