It’s been more than a year since the last Design Review meeting for 4502 42nd SW (map), a mixed-use project (7 stories, 81 residential units over almost 8,000 sf retail/office, 122 underground parking spaces) proposed on the site of the three little old houses you see above (and just up the block from the recent 4532 42nd SW demolition). The next one has just been posted on the city website today: It’ll return to the Southwest Design Review Board on December 18th. (The Morgan Community Association bulletin says The Kenney may be on the agenda that night too, but as of this writing, the city only lists 4502 42nd SW for that night.) No time/place listed for the meeting yet – we’ll post an update when that’s available. At the time of the first 4502 42nd SW design review last year, board members wanted the applicant to return for a second “early design guidance” meeting – but that didn’t happen — the city’s official meeting report says planners determined board members had given the applicant enough guidance for the project to proceed to the next stage.
Two updates tonight in the proposal for a $150 million redevelopment of The Kenney, the retirement-care complex in Fauntleroy: First, the time and place are finalized for the community meeting (first reported here) that’s being organized by Morgan Community Association and Fauntleroy Community Association: 7 pm Thursday, December 4th, fellowship hall at Fauntleroy Church (WSB sponsor). The groups want to bring together everyone who is interested in the project, to get a briefing on next steps in the process from a city planner, and to discuss points such as “what are your concerns?” “what do we wish would happen?” and “what would it take to make this work in our community?” (per the MoCA bulletin) Also, The Kenney has finalized a Frequently Asked Questions document regarding the project and sent it to us (and others) to share with the community — you can see it here. If you have questions that aren’t answered by the FAQ – please post comments here and bring them to the December 4th meeting.
When we showed you images this morning from the presentation to be made at tonight’s second “early design guidance” meeting for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment proposal, we wondered aloud if there was much difference between the applicants’ “preferred alternative” from round 1, and the “preferred alternative” this time around (rendering above). Short answer: No, except for an “alley vacation” transformed into an “alley relocation.” And the lack of change did not go over well with most of the board members – though before the meeting was over, it became an interesting case of what happens when design philosophy clashes with economic reality – read on:Read More
(added 4:56 pm – the streetscape level envisioned at California/Alaska, looking across from Easy Street)
Technically, the Seattle Design Commission is reviewing the proposal for an underground “alley vacation” – required for the two Conner Homes buildings at California/42nd/Alaska to have one underground garage – but the hearing that just wrapped up also yielded new information on where the project’s design is going overall, and new imagery that’s been provided to us by the architect (as shown at this meeting). The action from the meeting: Conner and its architects did not get final signoff – they will have to return to the Design Commission to answer a variety of concerns – the commission has to sign off on the proposal before SDOT can finish reviewing it, and the SDOT rep who handles such matters told the commission that her agency has its own concerns. Meantime, the project itself has one more Design Review meeting ahead – the architects tell us that will likely be in January, but no date is set yet. Stand by for more, including the new imagery – we’ll be in transit for a bit (heading back to HQ after three major events downtown today – this one’s at City Hall, which also was the scene of this morning’s jail briefing, with the Seattle Center Viaduct briefing between them) before we can add it here. ADDED 6:08 PM: Here’s another image, the massing (NOT the final design proposal with finishes etc., just basically the shapes) of the two buildings, looking south at them from Cupcake Royale vicinity):
More to come. The entire presentation document is way too big to link here but we’ll see if we can break it into chunks.
Those images are from the revised “early design guidance” Admiral Safeway presentation that will be taken to the Southwest Design Review Board tonight, two months after board members asked Safeway and its architects (Fuller Sears) to go back and come up with more distinct options for the proposed redevelopment of the Admiral site. (9/25 WSB report here) In advance of tonight’s meeting — at which public attendance and comment are encouraged — the new presentation is available online (you can get it here). The four “alternatives” above (views from the northwest, as if you were in a helicopter over Circa looking toward Mt. Rainier) have been added — #4, #5, #6, and #7. The last one is flagged as the company’s “preferred” alternative, and is more detailed because it’s from the original presentation (hard to say what’s been changed there, but that’s up to the applicants to explain at the meeting). 6:30 tonight, West Seattle (Admiral) Library branch (map).
Once upon a time — actually just about three years ago — 4200 Admiral and 4210 Admiral (regular map here; Google Street View image above) were to comprise the site of a new mixed-use building; the application is still technically “open” on the DPD website, including the original vision of a 14,000-square-foot grocery store, once speculated to potentially be the long-yearned-for Trader Joe’s. With this development long on the drawing board (and a demolition permit even applied for), some businesses in the buildings closed or moved (like Auto Buff a year and a half ago). Most of the first rush of activity played out before WSB launched three years ago, so we don’t have much archived coverage, but we knew of the applications and kept an eye on the project pages. Now, something new — spaces up for lease; this CL ad covers the TNT tavern space at 4210 Admiral, this CL ad covers “office space plus warehouse” right on the corner at 4200.
Two nights of major meetings — you’re invited, indeed encouraged, to attend any and all:
7 PM TONIGHT: Southwest Precinctmeeting room — Delridge District Council with a busy agenda including a jail-site update from Highland Park Action Committee and the latest on the Southwest Healthy Youth Partnership (whose online survey will be available shortly).
(from a Harbor Properties aerial map of the Triangle area, first published here in April)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
“We’re here tonight to start a conversation.”
That was the opening line from city DPD urban designer Lyle Bicknell last night, kicking off a gathering of more than 20 people — local leaders, developers, architects, city reps — to initiate a big-picture look at the future of the area known as the Triangle, before the onrushing wave of development drowns the chance.Read More
Also just out of the inbox, the Seattle Design Commissionmeeting agenda for this Thursday — and it includes a design review of the “alley vacation” proposal for the Conner Homes two-building development at 42nd/Alaska/California. (Previous WSB coverage here, including links to our original report and Charlie Conner’s response.) The commission meets all day at City Hall; this item is scheduled to come up at 2 pm. The “alley vacation” is being requested so that Conner can use the underground portion of the alley and create one big parking area for both buildings, but there’s been concern, including a petition drive, that the closure time required by the project would harm alley-using businesses to the south. (Final approval on the request would have to come from the City Council.)
The decision is in for the appeal of the city’s approval of a proposal to expand a group of cell-phone antennas atop the Soundcrest Apartments (photo above) at 6609 SW Admiral. (WSB was the only news organization with a reporter at the daylong hearing last month at which neighbors argued their appeal of the decision – here’s our report from that day.) It’s a partial victory for the neighbors – deputy Hearing Examiner Anne Watanabe reversed the “conditional use” approval, saying the applicants didn’t present information to show if this was truly the “least intrusive” location possible for the antennas, consistent with city code. However, she affirmed the “determination of nonsignificance” under SEPA (a state environmental law). We’ll be reading through for further details; we’ll also be seeking opinion from the applicants as to what they plan to do next. Meantime, here’s the full text of the Hearing Examiner’s decision.ADDED 4 PM: Jim Borrow, the neighbor who led the appeal presentation in the Hearing Examiner’s hearing room at the Municipal Tower last month, tells WSB he’s still reviewing the decision.
That’s a video compilation with many more angles on the 4532 42nd SW demolition (see our first report here, including links to info on what’s coming to the site), shot and edited by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli. If you’re interested in checking it out in person, he says the teardown crew’s back at work after lunch break. (This is barely a block north of Alaska on 42nd, one house separated from the Capco Plaza [QFC/Office Depot] megaproject.) ADDED 5:05 PM: Went back just after sunset – nothing left but debris:
(added noontime, photo by Christopher Boffoli) ORIGINAL 9:14 AM POST: Just started a few minutes ago. More to come… ADDED 9:45 AM: iPhone photo:
10:33 AM UPDATE: Uploading video now. Big house, so the job’ll take a few hours. WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli took over at the scene so we could head back to HQ. For past coverage of this site, click here (archive of all mentions, newest to oldest – going back to 2006). A few people who stopped by to watch the demolition this morning in the early going had memories to share – one woman said she needed to go call someone who was born there 75 years ago, when it was a hospital. ADDED 10:48 AM: Video from the “first bite” (to be followed shortly by a clip from further along):
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
ADDED 10:56 AM: This clip is from about 20 minutes into the demolition work, as part of the upper story was torn away. As soon as this part was done, a massive cloud of paint etc. flakes wafted across the street to where we were watching, and beyond. Going to have to bring a mask to the next demolition.
(video no longer available due to blip.tv shutdown)
Here’s the rendering of the future project, from the last Design Review Board meeting June 13:
You can see the entire presentation from that meeting here. Meantime, though the passages marked by these types of demolitions certainly can evoke nostalgia, that’s not the case for everyone, particularly when structures like this are left to deteriorate and be vandalized: One neighbor who came by in the early going — who said he’d lived in the area a long, long time and pointed toward the homes further north in the block that will come down for the 42nd/Oregon project — grinned, looking at the demolition work, “It’s about time.”
Brian Presser at TouchTech Systems in The Junction sends word that the crane at Mural, Harbor Properties‘ mixed-use building across from Jefferson Square, “is coming down” – and included that photo — clearly no acrophobes in that group! We showed you the crane’s arrival nine months ago; Mural is scheduled to open in April. (added 10:33 am) Here’s a crane piece, ready to be trucked away:
Meantime, WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli has an update on 4532 42nd SW, the doomed house a few blocks north of Mural:
That’s one of Christopher’s archive photos of the house, whose storied past includes service as a hospital. It’s been tabbed for demolition for a while – we were told of a late October target, and have seen a backhoe in position behind the house for a while; Christopher says the “heavy equipment” has shown up today – updates to come. (To see what’s going in at 4532 42nd, see the second half of this WSB report.)
From tonight’s Junction Neighborhood Organization meeting: Updates from Harbor Properties, which has three Junction/Triangle mixed-use projects in various stages of development — Mural (rendering above) across 42nd from Jefferson Square,Link along 38th from Alaska northward (Huling garage/West Seattle Montessori site), and the as-yet-unnamed future project for the ex-Travelodge/current Seattle West Suitesmotel property two blocks east of Link. For starters, Harbor’s Emi Baldowin says the remaining two retail spaces in Mural are now leased – read on for details on that, and what else was discussed at tonight’s JuNO meeting at Ginomai:Read More
(October 2008 photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
Driving by the Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods) project daily, we started pondering a goofy little question once major excavation began: When you dig a big hole like that, what happens to the dirt? Since we (and other small news organizations around Puget Sound) work with the student journalists at the University of Washington News Lab, we offered them the assignment. Read on, to see how the answer turned out to be not as simple as you might think:Read More
It’s been three months since our first report about the “reinvention” plan that would demolish that historic building and most of the other structures at The Kenney, in a $150 million plan that leadership of the retirement complex says is essential to its future success — at the project’s first Design Review Board meeting last month (WSB coverage here), CEO Kevin McFeely said, “… without this, we are not going to be able to survive financially.” At the end of that meeting, we reported that reps from Morgan Community Association and Fauntleroy Community Association were talking about co-sponsoring a community meeting before The Kenney’s next Design Review session. Now the date for that meeting is set: December 4th. Time and place are still being finalized, but MoCA’s Cindi Barker says the city planner assigned to the project, Michael Dorcy, “will be there the first 30-45 minutes to give a recap of all the process steps the Kenney must move through” and provide other information the community needs to know regarding . The date’s being driven in part by the possibility that The Kenney might return for that next DR meeting on December 18th. We expect to get more information at tomorrow night’s FCA meeting (7 pm, Fauntleroy Schoolhouse).
Tonight’s Fairmount Community Association meeting was the first neighborhood-council gathering at which BlueStar Management has publicly discussed its plan to acquire yet another piece of Junction/Triangle real estate: the Huling Chrysler site just east of the 76 station at Fauntleroy/Alaska. It’s immediately across Fauntleroy from one of the projects BlueStar already has on the drawing board, Gateway Center (the old Huling Buick site), which in turn is across 39th from BlueStar’s Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods). Shown in the photo above, from tonight’s meeting in the Providence Mount St. Vincent chapel, is BlueStar’s Easton Craft; read on to see what he had to say about the new proposal and the seemingly endless questions about whether the Whole Foods project is really going forward, plus other notes from the meeting (including Harbor Properties‘ presentation):Read More
From the city’s latest semiweekly Land Use Information Bulletin: Formal applications have been deemed “complete” for for the two buildings that Conner Homes proposes in The Junction, California/Alaska and Alaska/42nd. That means the formal comment period is open — for the next 13 days. You can send those comments through Nov. 19th via the city’s online form, by clicking “comment on application” on this page for the California/Alaska building and on this page for the Alaska/42nd building. The city pages now describe both as 7-story buildings, with 72 residential units in the California building and 126 in the 42nd building, plus the 307-space underground garage (requiring a subterranean “alley vacation” that needs City Council approval). P.S. Today’s LUIB also included a reminder of the next Design Review meeting for the Admiral Safeway project; as we first told you a week ago, that meeting will be at 6:30 pm 11/20, West Seattle (Admiral) Library branch.
From the WSB Events calendar, a busy night: The first official Parks Department-organized meeting on the proposal for a “play area” at the California Place mini-park in North Admiral is at Hiawatha Community Center, 6 pm; Fairmount Community Association gets an update on the nearest Triangle developments and more, 6:30 pm at the chapel at The Mount; several fun events too including the Get Yr Fash On runway show at Mission (doors open 6 pm).
A week and a half ago, we reported from the courthouse as King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Barnett announced the latest decision in the fight over what, if anything, will be built on the lawn of the landmark Satterlee House (aka the “Painted Lady” of Beach Drive). She ruled against Satterlee House owner William Conner in his appeal of a decision made last April by the city Hearing Examiner (WSB coverage here). That decision in turn had affirmed a vote last year by the city Landmarks Board, denying Conner permission to build three 3,000-square-foot-average homes — not denying permission to build ANYTHING on the lawn, just rejecting this specific proposal as potentially marring the characteristics that led to the property being designated in the early ’80s as a city landmark. After Judge Barnett’s ruling on October 24th, Conner’s lawyer Richard Hill told WSB they would “digest” the ruling before deciding whether to continue the challenge; we checked back with Hill this morning to see if a decision had been made, and he replied, “Yes, Mr. Conner intends to appeal.” Next stop, the state Court of Appeals; we will continue to cover this, every step of the way.
There’s a lot going on in The Junction — not just, oh, say, visits from the governor, but also, a thriving business district gearing up for the holidays. In fact, the West Seattle Junction Association just rejoined WSB as a sponsor to launch its “Live Local” campaign (more about that here, and in a WSB shopping-season preview tomorrow). Then, there’s the movement to “Eat Local,” and that’s where today’s story comes in. The photo above shows the ground floor of Harbor Properties‘ Mural, on 42nd SW across from Jefferson Square. That particular space, the northeast quadrant of its first floor, will become the home next year of Fresh Bistro, a new restaurant from the folks behind West Seattle-based caterers Herban Feast. A few months after news of the new restaurant emerged, we met with proprietor BJ Duft at the site recently to get the newest details about what’s in the works — from the food (with a chef from legendary Canlis!) to the hours (good news for night owls) to the innovative plan for takeout:Read More
Thanks to Luckie for that video of the roof getting torn off 3038 44th SW (map) today. It was a century-plus-old house, to be replaced with a new house (city project page here); Luckie also uploaded another clip, showing the front of the house coming down. And she sent this photo of the end result:
Meantime, another demolition is apparently impending:
That’s 4532 42nd in The Junction (just north of Alaska), discussed here several times before, with comments describing its storied history – once upon a time, it was even a small hospital. After previous development plans went on hold for a while, the site plan reactivated earlier this year with a Design Review Board session (WSB coverage here); the demolition permit was granted a week and a half ago, with one tipster telling us the backhoe is reportedly expected this Thursday. As discussed at that DRB session in June, the project is set to be about 65′ high, with 35 residential units and 3,000 square feet of retail.
Also just out of the inbox, the 
Just posted on the city webpage that provides 
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