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, [email protected].

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 — [email protected]. — 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 Department of Neighborhoods has sent a reminder of tonight’s meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Swedish/Sabey campus (formerly Providence Hospital). (The meeting is April 16 from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. in Room D of the James Tower Swedish Education Center -550 17th Avenue.)
That reminder notes the possibility of significant changes at that campus, particularly on the east border. The Master Plan for the campus adopted in 1994 identified relatively limited development along the east side of 18th Avenue between Cherry and Jefferson — including a day care center with facilities for neighborhood children, a gym/health club facility open to neighborhood residents, and an inn primarily serving families of hospital patients. Now, institution owners are starting the process of involving the public in future plans which will not include those uses and which may involve bigger and taller buildings. Models of the massing of possible new development along 18th Avenue will be available at the meeting. The public is encouraged to attend.

The annual African American Film Festival kicks off on Saturday April 12, the first of seven days with more than thirty movies at one of our neighborhood’s most important cultural institutions, the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. John Sayles’s latest movie “Honeydripper” will be featured in the opening night gala on Saturday. More information on the festival and a link to buy tickets in advance are at: http://langston.bside.com/2008/schedule

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.)