12th Ave Seattle

Update:  from scott - we just heard this was cancelled due to the weather

You might do a double take late tomorrow morning, if things go according to plan at Seattle University and the weather briefly cooperates. As part of a "celebration of athletics," a parachutist is set to fire up a crowd by touching down on Championship Field at 11:50 am. That's just before the men's soccer team will play a match at the complex off Cherry between 13th and 14th Avenues.

But the jump could easily get scrubbed. The forecast for tomorrow is downright dreary with clouds, rain and wind. Not the best conditions if you're the skydiver leaping out of a plane.

The UnRegistered: A 2008 Election Cabaret
Description: The UnRegistered: A 2008 Election Cabaret
Written by Andrea Allen and David Schmader

Directed by Allison Narver and Jack Bentz

DXM explores the motivations behind voter apathy through this community-inspired cabaret.

Deus X Machina (DXM) makes plays with and about local communities in Washington State. Artistic Director Jack Bentz brings together artists who share a desire to connect people with people, using plays as ways to share human experience and encourage community. Recent projects have included "La Pastorela St. Joseph," a Christmas play blending input from Yakima residents with Mexican ritual theatre, and "The Tempest at NewHolly," a community exploration of the relationships between parents and children via Shakespeare.

This past spring, DXM joined forces with SU students, setting out in search of answers to some serious questions. Why are Americans not voting? Why are young Americans not even registered? What are the stories behind the decision to stay home on Election Day? In the spring of 2008, they began the intensive listening process in the communities on both sides of 12th Ave. Participants knocked on doors up and down the 12th Ave. corridor to find out what makes a citizen and why people choose to vote...or not.

Playwrights Andrea Allen and David Schmader have gathered up all the results and transformed them into several short plays reflecting the motivations (or lack thereof) of one diverse Seattle community. Throw in a live band, election information, and voter registration and you have one heck of an evening designed to appeal to your inner founding father.

October 2, 3, and 4 at 8 p.m.

Lee Center for the Arts

Pay what you can, at the door

296-2244

If you've been in the vicinity of 12th Ave. and Yesler recently you've no doubt noticed some pretty serious excavation.
The Seattle Housing Authority is doing "brownfields cleanup" on four parcels it owns on the west side of 12th just north of the building on the south end of the block. Specifically, the site is 109 to 117 12th Avenue.
SHA plans to develop a mixed use building on the site (including the parcel of the building at the south end of the block, which parcel is inot inlcuded in the brownfields cleanup. Plans for the future building have not been prepared, according to the Housing Authority.
On the parcels in the past were a dry cleaning establishment and underground oil storage tanks. In 2004 SHA discovered petroleum and solvent-contaminated soil on at least two of the parcels.
The cleanup plan for the site includes the removal of existing underground storage tanks and the "excavation and removal of accessible soil exceeding regulatory limits for identified contaminents." (in the words of the "Brownfields Fact Sheet" for the site distributed by SHA.)
Following soil removal, and disposal at facilities permitted to receive contaminated soil, the excavation will be filled with uncontaminated soil. SHA will then conduct groundwater compliance monitoring to confirm a successful cleanup.
SHA has received two Brownfields Grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the amount of $296,000 to help pay for the cleanup.
The SHA program manager for this effort is Paul Fitzgerald, 206 615-1515, pfitzgerald@seattlehousing.org.

The City's Landmark Review Board has voted unanimously to designate the site and the exterior of the former Coca Cola bottling plant (1313 E. Columbia) a landmark, finding that it meets these two criteria of the landmarks preservation ordinance:

D. It embodies the distinctive visible characteristics of an architectural style, or period, or of a method of construction, and
F. Because of its prominence of spatial location, contrasts of siting, age, or scale it is an easily identifiable visual feature of its neighborhood or the City and contributes to the distinctive quality or identity of such neighborhood or the City.

Seattle University, the current owner of the building intends, in the near term, to remodel the interior of the building to provide temporary library functions while the Lemieux Library is extensively renovated/remodeled. To remodel the Coca Cola building while meeting the energy code S.U. presented to the Architectural Review Committee of the Landmarks Preservation Board a proposal to replace the building's windows with close replicas rather than exact replicas. S.U. states that it would cost over $850,000 to restore and replace the windows to their original condition. Furthermore, the University states, such windows would not be operable and would interfere with the ability to comply with ventilation and cooling requirements of the energy code. S.U. believes it can provide new, operable windows that look very much like the originals at a cost that is several hundred thousand dollars less. The Architectural Review Committee did not reach a decision on recommending for or against the window replacement proposal and no vote was taken. The issue will be considered at a future meeting of the Landmarks Review Board.
S.U. will also ask for approval for a new paint job. The current blue and white scheme was done by the most recent owner QWest. (Apparently QWest also had, at one time, plans to alter the building, but didn't follow through.) It seems that no one knows for sure what color the building was originally --- or at least the color of the accents is not known for sure. The main part of the building was and is some shade of white. The accents may have been cream colored, although one S.U. staff person stated that red was possible. They are analyzing paint samples from the building and may know more in the future.
At the Landmarks Preservation Board meeting one of the board members opined that the scalloped design above the 14th Avenue door reminded him of the edges of a bottle cap. This gave rise to the suggestion that renovation include a giant "church key" poised above the door. Looking forward to that.
The blog owned by former Squire Park resident Jess Cliffe, www.vintageseattle.org has an article about the building and some good pictures.
As a footnote, in the slide show that Susan Boyle presented to the Landmarks Board to show the context for the Coca Cola bottling plant was included a number of other bottling plants of the time, including a Canada Dry plant of the same era from some other city--- L.A. maybe. It looked strikingly like the former Canada Dry bottling plant on the S.U. campus at 12th and Marion --- the building that now houses the bookstore and several offices. That building apparently is not on the list of possible landmarks and S.U.'s long range plans are to demolish it to allow for expansion of the law school.

The design review board will take a look at the latest proposal for the site at 12th and E. Fir (151 12th Avenue, DPD project no. 3004554) on Wednesday, August 20 at 6:30 P.M. at the Yesler Community Center. As always, attendance by the public and comments on design issues are encouraged.

To see the design proposal on file with DPD see http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/Design_Review_Program/Pr and find project number 3004554.

PB Elemental's Web site describes a building with 18 "true loft" units and 4500 s.f. of commercial space at ground level:
http://www.elementalarchitecture.com/projects/mixed/FIR%20AN

Seattle University is developing a new master plan (Major Institution Master Plan --- MIMP). You may have seen one of the “Land Use Action” signs posted around the neighborhood. The process involves public meetings over the course of many months. All meetings are open to the public.(Steve Sheppard at the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods is staffing these meetings. Contact him --- steve.sheppard@seattle.gov. --- to ask for notices of future meetings of the Seattle U MIMP Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC).) The next meeting is Wednesday, July 23 at 5:30 P.M. in room 114 (Stimson Room) of the Lemieux Library on the Seattle U. campus.

Some of the important issues posed by the proposed MIMP include the possible expansion of the S.U. campus boundaries, and a proposed increase of allowed heights for future buildings in some areas east of 12th Avenue.

On the east side of the campus two distinct areas are at issue:
1. Between 13th and 14th Aves. from E. Jefferson to E. Marion (with some partial block exceptions immediately south of E. Marion) S.U. is asking for an increase in the height limit to allow it to build to 65 feet, an increase from the currently allowed height of 37 or 50 feet. An increase to 65 feet could most seriously affect properties on James Ct. and Barclay Ct. The properties on the east side of 14th Avenue between E. Cherry and E. Marion could be impacted by the possibility of greater height on the west side of 14th Avenue, including the site of the Coca Cola bottling plant. That site, most recently owned by Qwest, is now owned by S.U. and is considered as the possible location for a sports arena to accommodate S.U.’s, now Division I, basketball team, although apparently that’s not in the near term plans.(The Landmarks Preservation Board will consider the nomination of the Coca Cola Building for historic landmark status at a public meeting on August 6, at 3:30 P.M. in the conference room on the 40th floor of the Seattle Municipal Tower. See a related article in Central District News.)

2. The University is proposing to expand its boundaries to the east side of 12th Avenue in the block from E. Marion to E. Spring. This area is now zoned Neighborhood Commercial with a 40 foot height limit. The S.U. proposal would allow University-related development and increase the possible height of buildings to 65 feet. This could displace the potential for neighborhood-serving residential and retail space, and could present a taller view of the back-side of buildings to resdinces to the east.

To learn more about these issues and to express your opinions, a very good place is the next meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee. If personal attendance is not possible you can send written comments to the Seattle U. Citizens Advisory Committee c/o Steve Sheppard.

Also, the S.U. Web site has some information about its present and future plans and links (not quite up to date) to minutes of past CAC meetings: http://www.seattleu.edu/facilities/projects.aspx?x=3

On June 18,the City of Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board accepted the nomination of the former Coca Cola bottling plant at 14th and Columbia as an historic landmark. A detailed description of the building, including many pages of graphics is posted on the Landmarks Preservation Board Web site http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/landmarks. Follow the link to "nominations". (The pictures at that Web site include good ones of the building when it was a Coca Cola plant and several other historic photos of the surrounding neighborhood. They're worth checking out.)

The building is a good example of streamline moderne architecture and one of the few buildings in the Central District eligible for historic preservation.

Whether or not the building will receive protection as a designated landmark will depend on a decision that will come after a public meeting. It's not clear what the position of S.U. will be. At last week's meeting the S.U. representative said that S.U. might want to change the paint and some of the windows. That need not be inconsistent with landmark preservation. The current blue and white scheme is not original and the windows were altered by QWest. On the other hand, the new draft S.U. Major Institution Master Plan indicates that S.U. might, at least some time in the future, demolish the building. The Landmarks Preservation board welcomes public comment in writing (in advance) and in person at the meeting.

DATE OF PUBLIC MEETING TO CONSIDER LANDMARK DESIGNATION:
Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 3:30 pm
Seattle Municipal Tower
Room 4060
700 5th Ave., 40th Floor
Seattle, Washington

The 12th Avenue Neighborhood meeting tonight will take a look at several developments: 1. Seattle U. and its partner, Barrientos LLC, is proposing a mixed-use building at 12th and Cherry. The Feb. 11 meeting will consider how that building and the adjacent street can contribute to a City park planned for the south side of James Ct. Some are advocating for a woonerf or a design approaching that.
2. Washington Performance Hall at 14th and Fir is on the market. Historic Seattle has at least temporary control of the property and is exploring ways that this historically important building can be saved and used in new and vital ways. Mark Blatter of Historic Seattle will attend the meeting and give a status report. (Meeting is at 5:45 P.M. on the S.U. Campus see the calendar section of Central District News for more details.)

Via the Seattle PI, this spring the city of Seattle will be studying 6 potential routes for new streetcars, each of which would start downtown and reach out to other neighborhoods.

One of those would serve the west edge of the Central District, traveling up Jackson, north on 12th Ave, and then over to Broadway and Capitol Hill. The exact route will be evaluated in the study, which is due to be completed by May 1st.

Sound Transit had previously evaluated trolley routes going into the CD, including one that went up Jackson to 23rd Ave. But that one in particular had poor ridership estimates that kept it from getting any further in the process.

IMHO, the real focus should be on the corridor that the #3 and #4 busses serve. Those are almost always standing room only before they even get to downtown. Too bad we no longer have the James Street Cable Car.

I was just out in the 800 block of 12th Ave, across from Seattle U, where police took a woman into custody. We had some information this morning that police were looking for a second vehicle that had some connection to yesterday's shootings. However, police would not confirm that or release any information related to it. At around 3:45pm we heard on the scanner that a police unit had seen that vehicle driving on 12th, turned around, and then found it to be parked and unoccupied.

When I arrived I saw three officers gathering outside of a hair salon, and saw them go in with guns drawn. They later exited with a black female, mid-20s, in handcuffs. She was taken away by officers in a patrol car.

I just spoke to Mark Jamieson from Seattle Police, who could only confirm that she is not a suspect in the case, but that she was "detained" and is "part of the investigation." He's trying to get some additional info and we'll update this if we learn more.

The owner of the salon where she was arrested said that she had just come in as a customer, and that they hadn't met her before or didn't have any other information on her. But they were very surprised to see police come into their place of business with guns drawn, and afterwards announced to their customers that "anyone else who's wanted should leave now."

UPDATE: 4:34pm - Mark Jamieson from SPD just confirmed that police had been on the lookout for a Silver Dodge 300 and a specific subject that might on board the vehicle with a possible connection to yesterday's shootings. The woman is "not considered a suspect at this time", but she is being interviewed by detectives working on the case. In addition, the vehicle was impounded based on information that it may have been associated with the shootings. Mark could not give any other details in the case such as the woman's connection to the main suspect in the case, Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, nor how the car could possibly be of use in the investigation.

UPDATE: 10:24am Friday - The Seattle PI is reporting that this woman was released by police after questioning.