DEVELOPMENT: Next Design Review meetings set for two West Seattle Junction projects

Two West Seattle Junction projects totaling more than 360 residential units will go back before the Southwest Design Review Board next month:

(Encore Architects rendering of 4722 Fauntleroy from draft design packet for next review)

4722 FAUNTLEROY & 4721 38TH SW: This two-building project [map] is the biggest West Seattle proposal going through Design Review right now. 6:30 pm April 19th is set for its second and possibly final review meeting; here’s our coverage of the first one last July. The Fauntleroy-fronting building is proposed for 7 stories, 241 apartments, including 24 microstudios, and 15 live-work units, with 241 offstreet parking spaces; the building across the alley behind it is proposed for 4 stories, 50 apartments, 1 live-work unit, and 23 offstreet parking spaces.

4417 42ND SW: 6:30 pm April 5th is set for the third and possibly final design review for the 4-story Junction Landing project [map], with 58 apartments, 4 live-work units, and 26 offstreet parking spaces. Here’s our coverage of the project’s second review back in January.

Both meetings will be at the SWDRB’s usual place, the Senior Center/Sisson Building at 4217 SW Oregon.

17 Replies to "DEVELOPMENT: Next Design Review meetings set for two West Seattle Junction projects"

  • delridger March 5, 2018 (3:17 pm)

    Why are we seeing so many of these ‘live/work units’ versus traditional ground floor retail? From a pedestrian’s perspective, live/work units add little to the streetscape. They tend to be dead spaces with locked doors and closed blinds.

    It’d be so much better to have space for the restaurants and small shops that make a city interesting.

    • WSB March 5, 2018 (3:57 pm)

      That point has come up before the Design Review Board, though they don’t have the direct power to change the law or rules – and we were just thinking about it ourselves while driving along a stretch of California SW where more live-works and other ground-floor commercial spaces have closed blinds etc. than not. On the other hand, there is one complex where the live-works are occupied almost entirely by small shops and there is an activated streetspace – Rally (California/Charlestown), where the mix includes Welcome Road Winery (WSB sponsor) and Olympia Coffee … perhaps there’s a reason (rent rates? or?) … TR

      • Rob B March 5, 2018 (6:11 pm)

        Rally  has done a really neat job of recruiting small independent shops that are open during the day and really enhance the street/sidewalk.  I wish more of these live work units replicated what they have done. 

        How can we voice this more formally? 

    • JVP March 5, 2018 (7:23 pm)

      Our codes that force ground floor retail are counter productive.  They force retail into spots where the retailer is doomed to failure.  Retail is WAY harder than most people imagine, and these 2 new buildings are not in good retail locations. Being even half a block away from the main retail hotspot can be a dead zone.    

      There is way too much retail square footage in Seattle, and the USA in general, but that’s an even larger topic for another day. If I was Emperor of Seattle I’d allow ground floor residential in all but the busiest locations.  Our codes are well intentioned, and I generally support them, but they get this part wrong.

      • Ice March 7, 2018 (4:31 pm)

        As someone who works in a pseudo-retail business in the Whittaker, I think that any business in one of those buildings on Fauntleroy will do just fine.  The business I worked at is doing very well, and based on the polls we take from people, our biggest exposure is from people walking and diving by. The new retail/live/work spaces have tons exposure to the cars going to and from work every day, plus a large and rapidly expanding population of people within walking distance. We’ll see how it actually turns out though

  • Craig March 5, 2018 (3:28 pm)

    W Seattle does not have the infrastructure or leadership to handle the influx.     The buses are already overcrowded, no bike lanes, broken sidewalks and not enough crosswalks

    • Swede. March 5, 2018 (5:13 pm)

      Which is a good thing really, since it will force rent down. Which I heard rumors that it already have started to do, go down that is. Partly also why (allegedly) the ‘Whitaker’ building still is barely 40% occupied…

  • Chuck March 5, 2018 (11:53 pm)

    My eyes, my eyes!!

  • Mark47n March 6, 2018 (5:01 am)

    So…how will the infrastructure be improved to account for all of the new bodies that will be moving to WS? Since the city likes to assume that newcomers don’t own cars (Hahahaha! Oh it hurts, it hurts!) Are there going to be actual bike lanes? Ways for folks to get around without the hill? Or is the plan to leave things as they are, to not increase buses, to not create bike lanes, to not deal up some fantastical way to enlarge the bridge and all of the other landlocked roads? Can the existing water and sewer systems handles the increase? 

    I’ve seen other cities plan and build years ahead of influxes such of this to avoid these kind of problem but not Seattle. As a result this city will never catch up.

  • Natalie W. March 6, 2018 (7:33 am)

    Again, no family housing, no green space.  Where’s a single mom who wants to walk to work in the Junction supposed to live?  There’s nowhere affordable, and so, back to the transportation issue.

    • Ice March 7, 2018 (11:26 am)

      You should apply for the MFTE housing in the new apartments as they open (or even in the ones that are already open, though I highly suspect that there aren’t any available.) You can get some pretty good deals on apartments if you qualify. The bar for qualification is higher than most people realize.

  • Also John March 6, 2018 (7:36 am)

    @Chuck…..  I agree.  Those are first year architecture designs.  Vertical from the sidewalk with no character.

  • Mark Schletty March 6, 2018 (11:21 am)

    Ugly!!

    • Ice March 7, 2018 (4:11 pm)

      Are these buildings really any uglier than the shacks with parking lots that were there before?  the glorified shanties that were there before were pretty hidious and nothing is uglier than a parking lot, in my opinion. (But RIP WS produce :[ ) i think the ugliest building in the junction is the BofA right near this new construction.  That one’s like a dumpy two-story McDonald’s surrounded by a pavement plain.

  • Gene March 6, 2018 (12:03 pm)

    I doubt family housing( homes/ duplexes/ townhomes) will ever be built on lots the size of these.Will none of the apartments in these places be big enough for families- 2/3 bedrooms? As far as green space-Fairmont Park is  just 2 blocks south of the Fauntleroy building. As for affordability- ha- not here.

  • pjmanley March 6, 2018 (2:32 pm)

    All these years later, after I thought we won the Cold War, it’s clear the Eastern Bloc countries kicked our butts in terms of architectural influence.   

  • kj March 6, 2018 (5:02 pm)

    I miss WS Produce :(

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