Just add water: Paul Allen's instant neighborhood
While everyone talks about endless Seattle process, the transformation of South Lake Union proceeds at a blistering pace. Now Amazon is probably moving there. So what sort of place is this?
Next time anyone tells you about endless Seattle Process, take them to the South Lake Union neighborhood, where, after a full-throated debate, the city embraced a massive redevelopment led by Paul Allen.
Out went the ashes of the Seattle Commons proposal, and City Hall tweaked zoning, contributed money for a new park and other improvements, and laid track for a streetcar that begins service in December.
If voters approve November's roads-and-transit measure, a portion of $323 million for Seattle projects will go toward completing a key element of the neighborhood transformation, the Mercer Corridor Project.
But already the transformation of South Lake Union may be the most remarkable development in Seattle's modern history.
Northgate made history as one of the nation's first malls and is now undergoing major renovation. Downtown's renaissance during the Mayor Norm Rice era was remarkable. After a slow start, the Denny Regrade got traction as a downtown residential district. Columbia City found a way to grow and maintain its charm. And at last, apartment developers decided to Visualize Ballard.
But all of those changes followed a kind of predictable logic. South Lake Union stands alone in the scale and speed of development, and momentum was largely sustained by two individuals: billionaire Microsoft co-founder Allen, through his Vulcan holding company, and Mayor Greg Nickels, who saw investments there as a major opportunity to enhance Seattle's national role in biotechnology.
Some questioned the need for those investments, but the City Council approved nearly everything Nickels proposed. Today, development goes at a furious pace, with no sign of a slowdown. Crosscut Publisher David Brewster reports that Amazon will soon announce a move to South Lake Union. It's hard to walk in any direction without bumping into construction workers. Concrete mixers rumble down side streets that, a few years ago, were quiet and nearly empty.
I walked around there recently to get a sense of the emerging neighborhood. It's too soon to make a complete assessment. Many announced projects are unfinished. The parts seem unjoined and underpopulated, far from the experience you'd find in Portland's Pearl District. And yet the neighborhood does show a certain character that sets it apart.
Unlike other neighborhoods that evolved over decades, South Lake Union went through some sort of worm hole, jumping from sleepy past to frenetic present. Gleaming steel and glass structures rise across the street from parking lots or blistering wood buildings. The new buildings are impressive, but few are interesting. Maybe this is a symbol of the new Seattle observed by Jonathan Raban – an anywhere big city.
But still, I found myself liking it. This is a place where I could live, work, or both. And that's mainly because it's close enough to many of Seattle's best places, such as the retail core, the waterfront, and the Pike Place Market.
Check out Westlake Avenue North, which I think will become one of our most popular walking streets, a route from Lake Union to Westlake Mall and beyond. Careful when you make your way near the Westin Hotel and encounter that goofy jumble of streets, itself a reminder of Seattle process, long ago.
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Comments:
Posted Tue, Oct 2, 6:16 a.m. inappropriate
Nickels, Allen, and Reality: Paul Allen and Greg Nickels do deserve credit for the emerging South Lake Union neighborhood - perhaps especially for the transportation financing plan which includes a 50% match from adjoining property owners, including Allen.
But it is not just a story about the super powerful waving their magic 'wands' and having the future emerge - this is a story about a City working together. Sure, it does take a few folks to lead the way, but it also takes respect for everybody and everything else, including historic buildings and the people that live and work in them.
Perhaps the most important lesson here is the importance of incrementalism. Sure, grand big projects, such as this are a PART of the 'process' - but taking things step by step is too. Personally, this may well prove to be too quick of a step - but that is Allen's and Nickel's (on our behalf) call, and at least Allen will pay for any missteps - which are not very likely to be major.
Credit should also go to former Councilmember Jim Street as well as the remainder of the City Council who, in their day, created a 'high tech' zone for the area, basically pavng the way for the sort of transitional commercial area we are now seeing.
As I recall Councilmember Benson was also a player in this quality government work. Benson will be remembered for the creation of the Waterfront Street Trolley (he told a great story about his wife being the only girl that would go out with him on an 'interurban' date). Let's hope his history is continued to be respected by eventually connecting this line to a rebuild of the Waterfront Streetcar, when the time is right for such.
One thing for sure though, Ms. Benson was not a S.L.U.T....
-Douglas Tooley
Lincoln District, Tacoma
P.S. Please stop blaming the citizens of Seattle for their 'process' and try blaming the folks that make a living off of same. As it stands now Seattle's, if not Washington's, best source of legal and subordinate professional help might well be India....or Portland!
Posted Tue, Oct 2, 10:06 a.m. inappropriate
_: I plan to read the article when I get a moment, but two things strike me from the pictures:
1. The new building for "young professionals" is low-income housing by LIHI. Nice project. You should correct that!
2. You've included photos of nearly every old house in all of SLU. There are several old apartment buildings, mostly in Cascade (east of Fairview) plus on on 8th.
Posted Tue, Oct 2, 11:33 a.m. inappropriate
RE: _That new housing: It is a LIHI building. I changed the caption. Thanks--casey
Posted Tue, Oct 2, 1 p.m. inappropriate
_: Thanks for changing the caption.
As a Downtown resident I like what's happening in SLU, and like the vision. Two missing pieces:
1. While the core of SLU might be adequately served by three good parks (the future SLU Park, Cascade, and Denny Park / Playfield), we could use a park or two south of Denny.
2. Pedestrian connections are lacking. I'd kill for more Aurora crossings -- Thomas and Roy would be ideal. A skybridge or two to Capitol Hill is also an obvious need, plus another on the north side of the Denny overpass. I'd also like a skybridge over the Mercer ramps at Yale.
(bias: I'm a former Commons staffer & volunteer, and now work for a general contractor that builds projects in SLU.)
Posted Wed, Oct 3, 9:21 a.m. inappropriate
Thanks: I'll be darned. I was expecting another Stranger-class yowl. I live in SoLU and I think it is going to be a great neighborhood. It isn't there yet, but you are absolutely right, it is moving very, very fast. I can't wait to ride the S.L.U.T!
I worked in the area from 1981 until 1999. As V.P., I helped my company (Outdoor Empire Publishing) sell its building and move to the burbs in 2000. We knew from 1995 what was coming. If the Commons was going to be built, this development we're seeing now would have been all around the perimeter. In the absence of the Commons we knew the development was going to be in the center. Needing to expand anyhow, we decided to sell on the rumor and not the fact.
I have walked every street and alley in that neighborhood many times. It was never a very people-friendly place. It was quiet. But it was a typical urban area held in trust waiting development with warehouses, distribution centers and vacant lots, nothing really benefitting from aggressive maintenance. I know that because I personally looked at every available building in the SoLU area between 8,000 and 15,000 sq. ft. and no one was offering long term leases because everyone knew what was coming.
Yes, there were and still are, some small apartment buildings and a handful of single family residences, but very few have been taken down for the current development. Most went with the development of Fred Hutch. And if I were you, before shedding a tear, I'd take a closer look at the state of repair of some of those non-masonry buildings.
What this neighborhood is going to be is an area densely populated with relatively highly educated people (voters/customers) who want to walk to where they earn and spend their money. I think you are all going to be very surprised at the age of the typical condo buyer in South Lake Union. Besides housing for biotech workers, this will also be a place where a lot of mature workers (like me) and affluent retirees come when they sell their houses in the neighborhoods because they like the sophistaced environment and they no longer want to maintain their houses. (I do NOT own a lawn mower! Yea!)
The only question left is how this neighborhood is going to co-exist with the typical urban problems that always coalesce in the center of cities.
Thanks again for a thoughful look at it.