The first design review for the new project at 20th & Jackson is scheduled for Wednesday night at 6:30pm. Since I’m guessing that many of you will miss it due to your overwhelmingly time consuming addiction to the presidential race, we’ve got a few highlights for you to look over ahead of time.  

(warning: design review spoilers follow.  stop reading if you like architectural surprises.)

Here’s the interesting thing I didn’t know about this project:  it’s being done in conjunction with the Pratt Fine Arts Center that currently uses the old bread-related buildings on the site and that has its main building across the street in Pratt Park.   Our local artists are slated to get a 20,000 square foot space in the ground floor of the new building.

Other than the arts center, the development will contain 275 residential units around a central courtyard, and a (woefully) small amount of retail on the corner of the block at 20th & Jackson.   Oh, and of course they’ll have 300 parking spaces below grade.

This is the first design review, so architects have prepared the usual three alternatives.  Here’s the first one, showing the new arts center at 19th & Jackson:

 

The second alternative shows Pratt placed at the back of the property along Main, across the street from their location in the park:

 

The third alternative (and favorite of the developers), shows Pratt placed along the length of 19th Ave:

 

I think it’s safe to say that Jackson St. is undergoing the biggest changes in the neighborhood.  If you count the circa-2000 development at 23rd & Jackson, we will end up with more than 1,000 units of new housing in the corridor alone.   That’s a 10% increase in the neighborhood’s population in a pretty small area.

You can download the entire 7.1MB design review documentation at  http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/AppDocs/GroupMeetings/DRProposal3

Or, if you’re burned out on politics, you can attend the design review at 6:30 at SVI, just up the street from the project at 22nd & Jackson.