Thanks to Rick for the tip – 5 months after the demolition permit was granted, it’s finally teardown time at the house at 5933 California — future townhouses, next to the townhouses that are almost done on the ex-Guadalajara Hacienda site. Here’s the “before” photo:
Six townhouse units and one single-family home are slated to be built at the site (city project page here).
Death Star Trench almost complete! Woohoo! ..
I can remember innocently/naively wondering where people were going to park to go to Guadalajara with all of the condos going in. The solution? Demolish the restaurant, oh and the beautiful house next door for good measure. Shame.
It’s really too bad that house couldn’t be moved (and that it was torn down to start with). Sad.
It’s funny, I was just in San Diego and I don’t recall seeing any townhomes down there. And I covered a lot of ground since I ran a marathon and explored a lot of neighborhoods by car. This must be a Seattle phenomenon, one that I wish would stop. Are developers going to realize the economy is in the toilet and stop building this crap since no one can get loans to buy them? Or maybe no one even wants to buy them since they’re such a stupid concept anyway. I wouldn’t be too fired up about walking four flights of stairs to get to my master bedroom like those NOMO townhomes across the street from this place.
This trend is upsetting. Are we losing our character as a neighborhood? If we are not careful West Seattle will start to look like North Greenlake @ 99. That place is a mess, too many cars, not enough road and townhomes crammed one on top of the other.
Compound that with the fact that I have yet to see one attractive condo go up.
Sad.
Sure….”sad”. A “shame”. Easy to complain when YOU don’t have to shell out the $$$ to renovate a decrepit house. Been part of a old home inspection lately? You may want to lovingly gaze at it as you stroll (or likely drive) by, but YOU don’t want to waste your money and nights/weekends fixing it. Do you?
Coffee geek, don’t assume. How do you know? Mine is a 1926 Tudor that needed work and I’d pick that any day. I think from reading here in the past Rhonda has put in some major dollars for renovation too. If someone wants to buy whats manufactured today then more power to ’em. I just don’t have to like it. It’s a free country, and it’s just my opinion of which many feel the same way and it’s about time. It’s actually too late if you ask me.
Surprised Cobb Construction is going forward with the project. Especially considering he is trying to sell off most of his other parcels he bought for development, and selling them for less than he paid for them a few years ago. Notice all the price reductions on his current inventory?
We’ve got this duality going on here. We want the old character to remain but we want the Trader Joe’s and whatnot, too. If California Avenue is, indeed, our Main Street, most Main Streets in the US today, even in the quaint towns of yore which are still left, do NOT have single family housing. It’s long been replaced by a business or group-home of some form. Walk a few blocks from the Capitol in Bolse and the remaining single family homes there are lawyer or association offices, soon to be replaced by fancier “office” type buildings. Alas, California Avenue is slated for that same future.
A future, by the way, which may have been more acceptable if there were to be a monorail running overhead.
Good points Chas and apologies to Coffee Geek if my comment came off too harsh.. You may have not even directed it at me but all the effort I put into my house and how I feel about development just touched a nerve.
The transit situation really does chafe. Just home from a few days in Minnesota, where I didn’t have to rent a car because $1.50 in transit got me almost door-to-door from airport terminal to the college area … lovely light rail included. Sigh.
wsblover: No offense taken. Believe me, I don’t assume. Coming from an old place that was oh-so-cute but nickel and dimed us to death. Drafty structure. Weekends and evenings wasted (IMO) fixing, repairing, updating. I can totally understand a teardown and rebuild….would have done the same if I had the cash, just to stay on our most excellent neighborhood lot. Don’t assume this translates to love for the generic townhome boom, dear readers. I miss the unique and stout townhomes of Chicago.
CMP: That Nomo 12 project was built by a local developer named Greg Walton who actually has good taste and a lot of integrity. Walton is actually building projects that are architecturally interesting and environmentally friendly. He works quite a bit with West Seattle architect David Foster, a further testament to his good taste. I looked those units and the short staircases to the top floor weren’t such a hardship.
Dang it, I missed it. I wanted to see it as it was torn down. They could charge folk’s to man the tractors… That’s the destructive tendencies in me…
I could just see myslef doing that, booger. They give me a quick run through of the controls, and I’m underway.
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Okay, pulling forward, raise the bucket to take the first chunk out of the house, now, what’s this lever do again? WHOA! That’s the one that’s spins it around! CRASH!! CRUNCH!! (falling debris)
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Uh oh, just smashed the hell outta one of the new townhouses. How sad. I just feel terrible. I’m devastated.
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Mike
I took a close look at the new ‘townhomes’ next to this wonderful old house the other day when walking on California Ave, and I must say I give them my award for being BY FAR the ugliest ones in West Seattle to date, if not in the entire city. And that’s saying a lot. They are not only poorly designed, but depressing to look at.
Congratulations to the developer. I see you’re saving money by not hiring an architect. This must be one of the projects Councilwoman Sally Clark is referring to and why we must have Portland come in to show us how to make townhouses look decent.
Another example of more $$ than brains! As far as NOMO goes, hope they are enjoying their new view! I’m sure those property values just nosedived!
I skulked around in them a while back and they felt claustrophobic even then. I would think one would have to be somewhat desparate to buy one of these but yet, they seem to sell. I still fail to see the value here and I guess I’ll never be one of the too much money folks.
Yes, The townhomes are so far not impressive. The garages are so small, you’ll be hard pressed to park anything bigger than a Smart car. And the drive between the town homes to get to the internal garages… folks are going to scrape the buildings.
Actually, yes. My partner and I have spent the last five years refurbishing our 1926 home. Was it hard? Hell yes. Was it worth it? Hell yes. Please think before you type next time coffeegeek.
I’ve been rehabbing my Boeing Worker WW II Classic over the past 5 1/2 years from the pipes up. Won’t find THAT particular style in an architecture book, I’m the first to admit. But, it’s been my moneypit sweet moneypit for 5 1/2 years in a neighborhood of mostly the same. For now, anyway.
Roofs going on next.
David: Help me understand the common indignance of the home-improvement zealot. My point, though not directed squarely at YOU, is this: Until YOU run through the potential teardown structure yourself, you have no idea what renovation will involve. The choice to take my comments as diminishing your own home improvement efforts is telling. Home-improve your days away, friend. I’ll be out hiking in the woods, thanking the powers that be I’m not wandering some hardware store. To each their own…right?
I see you drained your creative juices on the latest 80’s(!), skulls(!), crazy(!), sexy(!) shirt designs. You must be exhausted. Take a break, then come back and attempt some semblance of cogent discourse. ;)
Sorry, comment time is over.
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