THURSDAY: First SW Design Review Board meeting of the year – second look at 9021 17th SW

(Added 7:54 pm: Blue Architecture‘s ‘packet’ for upcoming SWDRB meeting)
This Thursday (January 7th), the Southwest Design Review Board is scheduled to take its second look at the 9021 17th SW apartment project during its first meeting of the new year. As we first reported four weeks ago, this is the only project on the board’s agenda for January 7th. The image above is from the “packet” for the meeting (see it on the city website here, or embedded above), which includes this updated description of the project:

The project is a four-story apartment building over a partially below grade parking level with approximately 32 one- and two-bedroom dwelling units. 32 parking stalls are provided, either below grade, or a combination of below grade and surface parking. All parking is accessed from the alley. The project anticipates BuiltGreen certification for an FAR increase and allowable height increase.

The height would be up to 44 feet plus “4 feet for roof features,” per the packet; the unit count is one more than the previous version of the proposal, which was critiqued for a “mini-fortress”-like appearance during its first SWDRB review in October (WSB coverage here; official city report here) and is as a result returning for a second try at the Early Design Guidance phase of the process.

As always, the meeting will include time for public comment on the proposed design; you can also send written comments to its designated city planner, Tami Garrett, who also is your contact for comments on non-design aspects of the project, including traffic, parking, and noise – tami.garrett@seattle.gov. Thursday’s meeting is at 6:30 pm, upstairs at the Sisson Building/Senior Center, SW Oregon & California SW in The Junction.

4 Replies to "THURSDAY: First SW Design Review Board meeting of the year - second look at 9021 17th SW"

  • chemist January 3, 2016 (7:07 pm)

    Your pic looks to be of option 1, which looks to be the same design as the last review that was a “fortress” with some color swaps. They’ve labelled option 3 as their preferred option now, which is seems to have a larger rear courtyard area and may have a larger tree or two on the sides.

    • WSB January 3, 2016 (7:27 pm)

      Whichever “option” it is, it’s the cover image from the packet and will be also showing if and when we get the packet uploaded to Scribd, which is what we generally do for previews but had a bit of trouble with when posting this last hour.

  • chemist January 3, 2016 (8:20 pm)

    Sorry, that wasn’t meant as a critique of your post T (I read the packet from your link). I was trying to figure out how they’d de-fortress-ified and, yes, it seems silly to leave the cover image as the not-preferred option, but maybe the designers bill for every page they modify from the 1st review.

  • Kimbee January 7, 2016 (12:12 pm)

    The crux of the first meeting by the Review Board, was essentially a set of thoughtful questions being asked in different ways, all boiling down to a simple concept: How can we create a new development in a densely populated, diverse, and economically challenged neighborhood that encourages community, inclusivity and desire for the residents to invest in living there for the long term? If you care about the development trends in West Seattle as a whole, then this meeting is for you.

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