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Published in The Seattle Times online on Feb. 27, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on March 2, 2025
Unassuming for generations, a Seattle site zigzags to the heavens
By Clay Eals
Each day is a steppingstone to something next. Take, for example, a corner just north of Denny Way at Dexter Avenue and Thomas Street. Circled by Seattle Center, today’s Amazonia and downtown, the parcel was rather unassuming for generations.
Two floors high with a brick façade, the structure was built in 1933. Over the decades, it housed a trade market, auto-repair and tire-retread shop, bus headquarters, plate-glass company, wallpaper store, rentable warehouse and storefronts ranging from computer to legal services.
A notable notch in its lineage arrived in the 1990s. Sleepy-looking on the outside, the building exploded on the inside with the chords of grunge and other contemporary sounds. Among Seattle’s 80-odd music studios, it became one of the city’s four largest as it morphed into a haven called Stepping Stone Recording.
“The whole idea,” says founder Mike Foss, “was helping artists move their game up and get into the scene a little bit better by giving them better recordings, better productions.”
Key to that was advanced equipment and a supportive, hands-off approach. “It was about ‘Come and enjoy the studio, and if you want to talk to me, talk to me,’ but anytime you get involved and insert yourself in their creative process, it can usually be a negative. You want to let them walk in and own the place. I think that’s why we did so well, because I understood that.”
Proof lies in the studio’s track record of luring prominent bands, including the Posies, Rockinghams, Presidents of the United States of America and Quiet Riot, and individuals Paul Rodgers (Bad Company), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) and Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart).
Working 12- to 18-hour days, Foss paid $3,000 monthly rent for 7,000 square feet, spending 10 years in the building, sometimes climbing to its roof. “I could see for a long ways,” he says. “We’d look at the Space Needle, watch the fireworks, see the water out there. It was amazing.”
In the building’s place today is Skyglass, a 31-floor complex finished in 2023. Its first six stories resemble the old brick façade, but the upper 25 shoot a reflective zigzag to the heavens. Its 388 luxury apartments rent for an astounding $3,700-$6,800 per month. Goldman Sachs recently bought it for $175 million from its Chinese developer.
Foss eye-rolls at the transformation. “It’s a bizarre feeling,” he says. “This used to be a quiet street. It felt like a little place. It had a really cool vibe to it.”
Change seems inexorable. What, we may wonder, will be the next steppingstone?
WEB EXTRAS
Big thanks to Mike Foss and especially Tom Heuser for their invaluable help with this installment!
To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.
Below, you also will find a video interview of Foss, 10 additional photos and 16 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com and Washington Digital Newspapers, all of which were helpful in the preparation of this column.
Here are 10 additional photos kindly provided by Mike Foss:
Here, in reverse chronology, are 16 news clips about previous businesses in the building:
