Tale of two teardowns: 1 today, 1 impending

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:

torndown.jpg

Meantime, another demolition is apparently impending:

fortyfivethirtytwo.jpg

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.

6 Replies to "Tale of two teardowns: 1 today, 1 impending"

  • GenHillOne October 28, 2008 (6:24 pm)

    They’re tearing down the former hospital on Thursday??? Anyone else see a missed Halloween opportunity there? C’mon, leave it until Saturday and I bet SOMEONE would be willing to spend the night in there ;)

  • WSB October 28, 2008 (6:31 pm)

    I suspect some people probably already have … the property sadly has looked trashed since some time preceding the first time we wrote about it in 2006. Anyway, I drove by after publishing this, and the closest “no parking” temporary signs were for October 28-29 – hard to tell whether they were for the ex-hospital or for the ongoing Capco Plaza work immediately south … TR

  • mellaw6565 October 29, 2008 (12:07 am)

    F***in’ developers.

  • What October 29, 2008 (10:10 am)

    oh boy, more condos and townhomes! Why do they keep building these, they don’t sell, there’s hundreds of unoccupied units already. Ballard is hurting bad because of this crap. It brings down the value of everyones residence and costs us money in the end for handling the extra load on our sewage and utilities to support these places.

    If Rossi is governor, expect a complete destruction of our economy in WA state and the housing crisis to be worse than NY and Cali.

  • marianne October 29, 2008 (10:43 am)

    Property with character turned into another souless development. Inevitable and tragic.

  • GenHillOne October 29, 2008 (11:48 am)

    The first property is not pemitted as townhomes, but rather, single-family/duplex. Contractor is Better Builders @ 4130 44th. They are listed as a Built Green member of Master Builders Assoc. It doesn’t look like they have a web site; anyone know more about them?

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