Pagliacci Silsul

Located across from Seattle’s popular Ballard Locks—where Lake Union meets the Puget Sound—Pagliacci Pizza’s newest location honors the legacy of a historic structure while demonstrating an appropriate path forward for future use. The original design is a heavy timber replica of a six-beam Haida house—a traditional style of building by the Haida Tribe—which opened in 1939 as a Native American curio shop before serving as a restaurant space starting in 1945. Today, the building has been thoughtfully reimagined for Seattle’s beloved pizza chain by the talented team at Floisand.

Working with Headwater People to better understand the building and its history, the architects carefully preserved the structure’s original logs, and carvings made by Northwest Coast artist Jimmy John. New landscaping incorporates native edible plants which are identified by custom signage showing the phonetic spelling in both the native Whulshootseed and English languages.

The building’s new timber addition adds 1,300 square feet of much-needed space to the program. Using a wrap-around approach to engage the existing building, the addition complements the old structure by following the lines of the original Haida house form. The architects removed rotting elements, using the new building to wrap over half of the old. In the overlapping area, the roof is peeled back to create a double-height space and highlight the original beams. The architects clad the exterior with cedar siding and shingles as a nod to the sawmills and boatbuilding industries that developed along the neighborhood’s shores and earned Ballard the nickname, Shingle Town USA.

Inside, the architects designed custom built-in furniture and selected finishes that showcase artisan craftsmanship. The team thoughtfully sourced woven window lights to honor the rich tradition of weaving found in local Native American culture.

Design: Floisand Studio Architects
Contractor: Wilcox Construction
Photography: Rafael Soldi