West Seattle Blog…

West Seattle development: Avalon project demolition begins

August 9, 2012 at 1:46 pm | In Development, West Seattle housing, West Seattle news | 19 Comments

Three and a half weeks ago, the construction fence at 3261 Avalon went up – and today, the vacant houses on the site are coming down. (Thanks to E for the tip.) This is an all-residential project, half a block northeast of 35th – planned for six stories and 120 apartments. The land-use permit was granted in January.

19 Comments

1. glad to see it started.

   Comment by Dale — 1:51 pm August 9, 2012 #

2. sad the house wasn’t salvaged……..

   Comment by montanapup — 1:59 pm August 9, 2012 #

3. More people……More public transit please.

   Comment by East Coast Cynic — 2:02 pm August 9, 2012 #

4. Amen East Coast Cynic!

   Comment by Ms. Sparkles — 2:29 pm August 9, 2012 #

5. I’d love to know how many new apartment units are actually going up in all of WS? It sure seems like a lot.

   Comment by Cole — 4:43 pm August 9, 2012 #

6. I don’t see any precautions being taken for lead paint exposure.

   Comment by fat kitty — 4:47 pm August 9, 2012 #

7. I’m betting this project manages to get finished before the one on the corner does.

   Comment by Tucker — 5:08 pm August 9, 2012 #

8. Just don’t eat the paint, but does asbestos require abatement before demo?

   Comment by Rick — 7:25 pm August 9, 2012 #

9. Amen on more public transit and hopefully the developers are not under financed.

   Comment by Harry Reems — 7:40 pm August 9, 2012 #

10. Yeah, what about asbestos? I live next door to this demo. Should I be concerned?

    Comment by Dan — 5:23 am August 10, 2012 #

11. Unless somebody out there has some specific knowledge of these homes being any different from the many others that have been demolished around here to make way for developments – what we saw at this site is exactly the same thing we’ve seen at others: Old wood homes from the first half of the 20th century, knocked down with backhoes, resulting debris scooped up and trucked away. Anything unusual about the homes would have been for the contractor to identify and deal with ahead of time. If you have a specific concern about something, the contractor’s name and number (Chinn Construction) is posted prominently on the fence, as per SOP at sites like this. – TR

    Comment by WSB — 7:25 am August 10, 2012 #

12. This is what is wrong with America. Tearing down beautiful craftsman houses probably built in the 19 teens and twenties to build another no name, cookie cutter apartment structure. Before I know it, my 1917 craftsman will be gone too! We have no appreciation for tradition and history!

    Comment by June — 7:51 am August 10, 2012 #

13. This puts things into more perspective:
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=456140044419447&set=a.244903342209786.71434.212514318782022&type=1&relevant_count=1

    Comment by June — 7:55 am August 10, 2012 #

14. It’s ALL about the $$$.

    Comment by Rick — 2:59 pm August 10, 2012 #

15. RIP more single family homes to make way for douchebag condo ville. Just got back from Portland where EVERY NEIGHBOROOD is thriving and making great use of their older architecture. Seattle will one day regret their realestate development ways after its far too late. New and shiney isn’t always ‘all that’.

    Comment by sophista-tiki — 4:45 pm August 10, 2012 #

16. the homes were salvaged. pretty sure it was earthwise, but a few weeks back crews went through and took windows, doors, hardware, etc. keep in mind salvage crews need to take what sells, and the whole house, and a majority of the lumber simply wouldn’t recoup the costs to salvage them.
    folks on here seemed to bemoan an and all development. this chunk of Avalon isn’t really an enclave of old houses…if anything the few remaining houses were the structures out of context for this high traffic, relatively dense corridor.
    the more development that can happen along the dense corridors, the more “protected” the character of many of the residential districts will be.

    Comment by nicholas — 7:46 am August 13, 2012 #

17. Amen, nicholas! I live down the street from this project and agree that these houses were out of place among the condo buildings, not the other way around. And to be honest, they weren’t all that nice anyway. Plus, the buses run right along this street, whisking future residents downtown and beyond in less than 15 minutes. If development must happen (which it does), this is definitely an appropriate location!

    Comment by higgins — 1:12 pm August 13, 2012 #

18. I agree with you soph. No more cookie cutter condo douchbagery. When are we going to stand up and say we want to protect a neighborhood’s character? When are we going to stand up to developers? WS IS Seattle, it was where it was founded. That says a lot.

    Comment by June — 8:05 am August 14, 2012 #

19. Gee, you guys really seem to hate people who choose to live in condos. Did one of them kill your dog or something?

    Comment by datamuse — 4:27 pm August 16, 2012 #

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